1VERSE is the primary Ok-pop group on the planet to characteristic North Korean defectors. The group is the newest in Ok-pop to market multiculturalism in a cutthroat business.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
1Verse is the primary Ok-pop group on the planet to characteristic North Korean defectors. Its different members have roots in Laos, Thailand, China, Japan and the U.S. They’re the newest Ok-pop idols to market multiculturalism on this cutthroat business. Haeryun Kang tells us extra about this uncommon group from Seoul.
HAERYUN KANG: (Non-English language spoken).
1VERSE: (Non-English language spoken).
KANG: After I meet 1Verse at their company in Gangnam, a ritzy district in Seoul, the very first thing I ask is how they overcome language limitations.
SEOK KIM: (Non-English language spoken).
(LAUGHTER)
KANG: Physique language. That is vocalist Seok Kim, one of many North Korean members.
HYUK YU: Howdy. My identify is Hyuk. I am from North Korea. I am the rapper of 1Verse.
KANG: There’s additionally the principle dancer, Aito Murata from Japan, Nathan Kousol, a Lao Thai pc science main from Arkansas and final however not least…
KENNY HAO: Hello, my identify is Kenny Hao. I am from California, and I am the character rent (laughter).
KANG: This sort of variety is not uncommon in Ok-pop. Now, all of them dwell collectively in a dorm in Seoul, chasing the Ok-pop dream.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ORDINARY PERSON”)
1VERSE: (Rapping) Look, I mentioned I ponder who I might be, ‘trigger heaven ain’t for me.
KANG: The 5 members, who go professionally by their first names, all listened to completely different music as youngsters. Kenny grew up with The Beatles. Aito cherished Justin Bieber. Nathan listened to Lao and Thai music. And the North Koreans?
KIM: (Talking Korean).
KANG: Seok, who defected in 2019, listened to Ok-pop, illegally downloaded on USBs. He is from Ryanggang province, bordering China, the place international items are smuggled in additional simply. However Hyuk lived a lot additional inland in Kyongsong, a poorer area.
YU: (Talking Korean).
KANG: Beginning when he was simply 9 years outdated, Hyuk reduce down bushes and even stole to outlive, he says. Music was a luxurious. The little he heard was state-sanctioned, like this revolution music.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing in non-English language).
KANG: Hyuk was the primary trainee to affix 1Verse. It took government producer Michelle Cho six years to search out all of the members. She tells me about conceiving of the group together with her co-founder, Joe Lim.
MICHELLE CHO: Joe was desirous about, hey, do you suppose it will be cool to, like, do a Ok-pop group with some North Koreans? Why not? If there’s gifted sufficient folks, there isn’t a purpose why we won’t do it.
KANG: Again then, Hyuk was working in eating places and factories. When Michelle Cho met Hyuk, she mentioned she heard expertise in his voice. From there, her company, Singing Beetle, held a number of auditions for the others. For every spherical, they acquired lots of of functions from everywhere in the world, regardless of being a small company simply beginning out.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
1VERSE: (Talking Korean).
KANG: 1Verse already has over half 1,000,000 followers on TikTok, and their first single is not even out but. On-line, they’re very lively, making foolish reels, singing cowl songs collectively, like “Fools” by Troye Sivan.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “FOOLS”)
1VERSE: (Singing) Solely fools fall for you.
YU: (Talking Korean).
KANG: Earlier than defecting, Hyuk had by no means heard of South Korea, not to mention Troye Sivan. He was simply 13 in 2013 when he left his hometown, simply 200 miles from Seoul, throughout one of the vital fortified borders on the planet. As we speak, he’s one among some 30,000 North Korean defectors in South Korea.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ORDINARY PERSON”)
1VERSE: (Rapping) be one, similar to an bizarre individual. However are you able to present me…
KANG: This music, “Unusual Individual,” was cowritten by Hyuk. He wraps in English, true to Ok-pop’s technique to succeed in a world viewers. That is the one music the group has gone public with, as a teaser. Like different Ok-pop teams, 1Verse could be very secretive about its official debut music. They will not inform me something – the title, the lyrics, the dates, even the genres. Nathan simply cheekily says…
NATHAN KOUSOL: We will not wait to share our music (laughter).
KANG: We could know their multicultural backstories, however for now, an important a part of 1Verse – their sounds – is as much as our creativeness.
For NPR Information, I am Haeryun Kang from Seoul.
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