Kang Gary's first solo mini album, Mr. Gae (gae is dog in Korean), is banned in all major Korean TV and radio stations. His promotions were limited to YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Gary had to rely on nothing but word or mouth to get the news of his album going out. Not that it is something new to him. Except for Hexagonal andUnplugged, LeeSsang promoted their albums almost as unceremoniously as Mr. Gae.



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The lack of promo opportunity affected the sales. The album has 6 tracks, two of which are instrumental versions of the two of the 4 songs. The instrumentals were sold in iTunes and other music stores which effectively make it singles, at least in album sales. Those two instrumental songs failed to make it to some of the charts. The four other songs did. However, if you want to be strict about it, he didn't achieve an all-kill. He doesn't seem to mind.


After TV stations released their decision to ban the songs, Gary, through his management company & label, said that if he was interested in promoting on TV, he would not have made the songs and videos the way he did them.

It made perfect sense and it was, in fact, stupidly obvious. He released the cover of his album that showed him smoking a cigarette, a vice frowned upon by the commercial audience. He released the teaser and it showed him smoking even more cigarettes.

Given that it was obvious he wasn't interested in sales, the merit of the album should be analyzed from the quality of the songs and that's what we are about to do.

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Drunken Night

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Although not the carrier single, Drunken Night might be the most personal of all the songs in the album. It is also the most non-commercial. The song is too much of a hybrid of different genres, none of which is strictly commercial. It is so mashed up that it seems so out of place in the whole album unless you know Gary, then it will seem it’s the one song that nails it home for him. 

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Contradictions and Interruptions

It starts out with a 40s vibrato, sharp notes on violin accompanied with Gary’s now signature offbeat rapping. It then shifts to some sort of a marching band type of beat but not for long. A whimsical tune joins in only to be spoiled by the jazzy chorus. The song hardly rests and settles into a specific genre which is consistent with the lyrics of the song.

It is a song of interruptions and contradictions in its music as it does in its lyrics. He starts off by enumerating what prevailed in his youth, hunger, loneliness and lust… and then, right in the second line, said that it’s all what he had to go through to succeed. He then talked about getting what he wanted because of love only for his enemies to take everything away. The abrupt push and violent pull is the rhythm of the lyrics. Gary sets up an expectation with one line, only to crash it in the next. 

“I became the me I was ten years ago”

The most telling of this is when he confessed that he feels he is back to who he was 10 years ago, internally at least. While he worried about not being able to achieve anything after Honey Family broke up, he now feels the creeping terror of failing after succeeding. He is back in his insecurities, only this time, they are worse because whatever his failures may be, millions will know about it. Pain will be deeper, humiliation will be greater and loneliness will be darker.

This is especially because he is making a move he doesn’t have to do. He is made, self-made and has already earned a place in Korean entertainment. He doesn’t have to go solo and no one expected him to. It feels like he is running after a kind of success that he doesn’t need. 

 

Still Honest

He seems very present in this song. It is a story told from where he is in his life right now. He talks of his success, 8 albums in 10 years. He talks of having all these money. He talks of having all these women and how wasted success can make him. Yet, there is no arrogance traditional to hiphop songs. It was not delivered to brag but was there to set up to what he will reveal to be “where he really is”. It was simply the thoughts and truths of a successful man alone and drunk. 

 

“I Sell My Emotions”

There is this unspoken creed among elitist art fans, an artist must be authentic to even be considered a real artist and not a manufactured product moulded in the perfect image of commercialism. It has always been the de facto commandment that is sacredly preserved by those who resist, successfully or otherwise, the gripping power of multi-million companies that have mastered the art of turning people into singing dolls. It is also why LeeSsang was able to establish some amount of credibility early in their career. Their lyrics spoke of their own experience and their songs.

Many may argue the “quality” of their music but no one can argue that what they create is all their own. To a certain degree, LeeSsang held this with pride. They have always emphasized how they dig their own life for words and melody. Then, Gary turns around and drops the one line that casually challenges the reigning seal of authenticity of any art.

“I sell my emotions,” he said. It is probably the single most rebellious statement he has ever declared against his own craft. For an “industry” who blatantly frowns at the vanity of commercial artists and the tendency to sell personal matters above their craft, penning his own life to his music and selling it may just as be as vainly crooked as dancing to and singing to someone else’s songs.

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Zotto Mola

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I am about to say something completely earth-shattering. Zotto Mola is not a love song. Many were hooked with the first line, “I don’t need a hundred women, I just need you.” They took that first line and equated it to the song. I don’t blame them. The opening line and opening instruments provide some sort of a melancholy hook that is often associated with hopeless romance.

 

The Progression of the Intensity

However, Gary was never a musician with a single dimension and I thought that with so many people claiming to be a fan of his music, they’d know this by now. He says as much with the things he says as with the things he doesn’t. The opening line is a profession of love if only the rest of the song didn’t go the way it did. The song starts off as a recital, a profession of a man’s strong emotions for the girl. However, it escalates, from a seemingly simple and honest declaration of desire to an almost delirious expression of one’s need to possess.

The rest of the song does not talk of purity, respect, understanding, commitment or any other emotion that demonstrates the authenticity of love. Instead, the lyrics talk of intense desire to possess someone and the unreasonable lengths he will go through to make sure he keeps the girl. Yes, the lyrics talk of how the girl is the only one he needs, how the girl cares for him, how the girl makes him smile. But it also talks about “killing” anyone that the girl might date… about getting too rough… about wanting to have sex the minute their skin touch… about everything not making sense.

It is a song of a guy that pulls the girl towards him and away from everything else. It’s about not giving a fine f$%k about the future or the past or the present. It’s just about the two of them. That is, by no means, love. Love, by Gary’s own idea, is a pure emotion that conquers all through its ability to care. Love, by Gary’s own idea, inspires maturity and growth, not damnation towards everything that matter. 

 

The Musical Void

If you close your eyes and take away the lyrics, you will realize just how “intense” each of the instruments was. The piano plays a set of melody that goes in an upward spiral that provides the feeling of a dizzying flight. It is repetitive and goes round and round and louder and louder.

There are several percussions, slow in its beat but heavily pounced. It feels like the one playing it were it hitting it slowly but with all of its strength. There are several more percussions that provides a more chaotic support that fills in the in between of the main instruments. Each of the supporting instrument plays lower notes that provides some illusion of depth… as if the whole song is happening from some slumber in hell. 

 

Drowning in His Own Emotions

The message is confirmed with the video which was Gary’s whole idea. The video is all him… alone… in a suffocating tube that is getting filled up by water that eventually drowns him. Water that is coming in is representative of his emotion. It starts out like it’s a soothing element until it becomes too much and Gary refuses to move. That is exactly what obsession is. It starts out soothing, refreshing, like love… until it becomes too much.

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Shower Later

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The song is about sex. The song is straight up and so is the review. It talks about a girl and a guy who just had sex and the guy asking the girl for some more. Whether the two are a couple and are in love is something not really addressed in the song and also immaterial because the song is not about the love they share, just the sex they had and more sex the guy wants them to have.

Delving Into R&B

LeeSsang does not do a lot of R&B. They have always been experimental in their melody and they have certainly mixed R&B in some of their music but never devoted an entire track to the genre. This is approach is completely new for Kang Gary. It’s one of those tracks you can imagine playing in a one of those clubs where the dance floor is dominated by gyrating hips and each dance step seems to simulate sex. 

The Perfect Simulation

The music video itself is a perfect simulation of everything that happens in sex. Image of the girl touching the head of the stick shift, the car shaking while the girl is on top of Gary, Gary holding the girl while she goes up and down as she rides the seesaw, the girls holding on to the grilling machine, the girl with her back to Gary while Gary was driving the car… all meant to simulate sex. 

Lyrics is Even More Straightforward

Unlike the music video that slightly leaned towards using symbolisms, the lyrics made no reservation. Gary tells it like it is. He wants the girl’s thighs between his legs, he likes her breasts, and he wants her on top of him. 

But Why?

Gary did say that for those who know him as the goofy guy in Running man, they’ll be shocked and for those who are used to the profound meanings of LeeSsang songs, they’ll find the album void of the complicated emotions present in LeeSsang songs. The song does one thing that may represent what Kang Gary MAY become as a solo artist, one that deals with snippets of life. LeeSsang is that group that feels like they are always outside looking in. Even when they are examining their own life, emotion and career, they feel like they pull back and pull out.

Gary feels like he is trying to a different approach. He becomes painfully present, that he manages to pluck out a moment and turn it into a song. That, however, is just a speculation. He neither always offer justification nor appeal for a common man’s right to be given the benefit of the doubt. He does one thing consistently and that is to not give a f$#k about what other people will think about him. When he feels like doing something, he does it and that just might be why he created “Shower Later” – because he can. 

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Mr. Gae

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Mr. Gae seems like pure indulgence to the painfully stereotypical image of rappers. He strips off the convenient “good guy” image that has been unfortunately attached to his name and lets go. He becomes a dog, turning what was supposed to be an bullying method used against him in his childhood to a fiercely ruthless personification of who he is. The drumbeats are typical but the repetitive pounding and reverberating base make the song sound like a foundation of a futuristic internal battle between humanity and their own demons.

Gary’s entrance is perfectly timed. After the listeners are submerged to the harsh rapping of Juvie Train, Gary comes in with a flat but forceful tone. He brings with him that sense of abandon, the understated rebellion. He laments about stripping his good boy image and succumbs to the self-moulded monster he created out of his desire to survive a painful childhood. He invites lust and everything worldly. This is the wrongfully stereotypical rapper… until the chorus comes in.

In the vast and deceivingly beautiful universe, in the minds of the soundless violence, against all the clashing stars, he is still looking for his venus, that one tiny planet that he could call his. And yes, that’s the closest he ever got to a love song in his whole album. 

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Final Words

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It is important to understand that even though music is a universal possession, each genre still belongs to a certain past and is a reflection of someone’s history. When an artist delves into an art form that does not belong to “his kind”, it is but a sign of common decency and humanity to understand how faithful or respectful the artist is towards the identity of the genre. In HipHop’s case, it is a genre that was developed by African Americans. However, there is a lot of misconception about why and how it was created. You may read this for a more detailed history of its origin. 
Despite common belief that rap as a music genre and hiphop as a culture were created as a device and method for African Americans to voice out their protest against slavery, it is much deeper than that. HipHop and, under it, rap may be looked as a device that chronicles African Americans’ journey towards self-discovery, freedom from external and internal slavery, and shaping of their identity. It is not just meant to be used as a protest against others but a chronicle of a people’s determination, hunger and commitment to know who they are and live it, damn the world. 

It is the same journey Gary is going through. For all of his 16 years in the music industry, he has always been a part of group, a piece a puzzle… an important piece but still a piece. His most prominent partnership is with Gil and it is the partnership he will most likely be most identified with. 

He hit mainstream popularity with Running Man, as the goofy gentleman that is witty with his mouth as he is fast with his feet. 

Although incomparable to the struggles of African Americans that inspired them to develop HipHop, Gary, too, is struggling and he admitted it in his interview. For a guy who hasn’t appeared in the MTV of his own songs as a lead in the past 10 years, having the spotlight to himself could be terrifying. He is struggling against the identity he has been assumed to have, against the expectation brought by his own history, against what he is destined to become for the rest of his career. 

He is just starting to discover who he is as a solo artist, challenging him to dig deep and deeper and go beyond the honesty he has always demonstrated with LeeSsang. It is terrifying to the fans who know him as a LeeSsang half. How do you rebel against the greatness he worked hard to build for almost 2 decades? 

Like any child, you can still hear the tentativeness in his sound. No, he is nowhere near the Kang Gary of LeeSsang, not even close. But you can feel the control he is trying to exercise, his hunger to find his path and uncertainty in his steps. 

It is also what makes it a glorious sound. It is one that remains true and faithful to what hiphop stands for. It is bare of pretentions. He did what he wanted even when he knew of the possible backlash especially from those who only know him as a Variety Star and that’s a lot of them. 

Gary admitted that this album is nowhere near the depth of LeeSsang albums but it is also nowhere near the fulfilment of who he is as a solo artist. He has a long way to go and no one is sure if he will ever get there. One thing is for sure, though. This is the most faithful he has been in the last 5 years to his roots as a hiphop artist in years. 

And for this first solo album, that’s saying a lot.