Behold, Your New Korean TRAP OVERLORDS.
In South Korea, much like everywhere else, hip-hop started small. In the early '90s, it was an underground phenomenon that existed outside of Korea's main music scene; people would almost speak of it as if it were a cult. Members were rumoured to wear ill-fitting, baggy clothing, and participate in things called "rap battles." To witness it was to witness something entirely alien, to the general populace. What was it about? Nobody knew. Skip forward two decades and Hi-Lite Records' Keith Ape has stormed the internet with a refix of OG Maco's "U Guessed It", and received worldwide recognition as a prize.
Keith Ape might be getting most of the credit for "It G Ma", but JayAllDay is the mastermind behind the international collaboration. Jay wandered around a lot as a kid: He was born in Seoul, but he lived in Boston and Philadelphia for six years and Tokyo for four. He got into the rap scene in Tokyo, and he started popping up on Japanese mixtapes before he eventually returned to Korea. So when Keith Ape sent him the beat last month, Jay decided he'd call up some old friends and see if they wanted to jump on it as well.
So, if you're listening to the song and have no idea what's being said, don't feel too bad. Lots of Koreans don't really know what's going on either. When Loota and Kohh (the two Japanese rappers) show up, all bets are off. Overall, the track is about 50 percent Korean, 40 percent Japanese, and 10 percent English, so there's only a very small percentage of people that fully understand what's happening at all times.