Sunday, March 29, 2009

Map the Soul

I just realised that I have not paid appropriate attention to the superbly talented Tablo and his band, Epik High. So now that I've finally really given their music a chance... I'm gonna rave about them!

Their 6th album (yes... they have 6 albums already, and a slew of songs they've been featured in or have written and produced), Map the Soul, is a breath a fresh air to me. I've been overindulging in electronic music as of late, and found this to be pretty much on par with Ra.D, whom I had also recently discovered. I'm only gonna review a select few tracks.


1. Believe
2. Cipher
3. Map the Soul
4. Customer Service (Skit)
5. Top Gun
6. Scenario (피해망상 pt. 2)
7. London (instrumental)
8. Free Music
9. Map the Soul [Worldwide Version]
10. 8 by 8, Part 2

The first song I heard was of course, Map the Soul. I like the background music accompanying the rap and all. The only difference between the normal and the worldwide version is the additional rapping by Tablo. Someone tell me. The MV was pretty artistic. You can watch it here.

*edit* I just noticed that the 'worldwide version' is in English. I guess that's why it's 'worldwide' :D Silly me... So it's additional rapping by Tablo, plus, it's all in English. I'm impressed... I guess I now know what the song is about. Hehe!



Cipher is a great song, accompanied by some impressive beat boxing.

Customer Service isn't a song, but a skit, as indicated. I have a feeling they were inspired by Russell Peters' "Do the right thing!" :P

Next is Top Gun, which was probably inspired, in a way, by the Tom Cruise movie, as I gathered from bits and pieces of the lyrics. I like the intro of the song, and the overall flow. Makes me feel like dancing... that old skool beat...

I'm pretty sure Scenario is some kinda love song... cos it sounds a bit sad, the tone of the song.

Free Music is definitely about piracy... haha... I'm sorry I didn't buy the album... but I can only afford so many >_<

You can find some of these songs on YouTube. Just search "Epik High" and "Map the Soul". I'm looking forward to getting the subbed versions. Would like to understand what he's singing... even though he's already using lotsa big English words in his songs. Did I ever mention that Tablo has a Bachelors Degree in English from Stanford University? :D

As for Ra.D... I still hardly know the guy. But his songs are awesome. It has that very black American flavour about it, but it's in Korean... :D I've never skipped a single track when listening to this album.


The title of his 2nd album is Realcollabo. Not sure what that means... I recommend Track 4 (Cool Fella), Track 5 (Sweet Love) and Track 8 (SP Collabo). You won't regret it :D

2 comments:

Peter Cho said...

Check out Ra.D's MySpace page to hear songs that he produced - he is also featured on most of them.

MySpace.com/radh80

Thanks for supporting Ra.D :)


BeLikeWater Productions

tinuade dina said...

tablo lived in between korea and America for most of his life so his English is really. The other guys, kero one and myk understand but can't speak. the worldwide version is more interesting to me bcos its in English. Ra.D is freaking amazing. I'm not that into rap music, korean or otherwise but these two separate entities make me want to listen to selective rap music everyday.
Just wanted to give some updated info on why the English is soo good, lol