[OMONA EXCLUSIVE] A BEGINNER'S PRIMER TO THE LADIES OF UNPRETTY RAPSTAR 2

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

Are you excited for SMTM 4 to be over and the superior hip-hop survival show to premiere? Did you enjoy or have you at least heard of the iconic Season 1 of Unpretty Rapstar? Do you want more drama, messiness, and timeless jams? Do you want to learn more about the cast for Season 2? Or are you simply waiting for the next Lil Cham to appear and slay us all? Well, I've been procrastinating all day on YT, Instagram, and Soundcloud to give you a brief guide to the contestants on this season of Unpretty Rapstar.

This post is inspired by the amazing work leopolitan did with season 1. As they are unable to make a post for this season, I've decided to do one. I'm not super familiar with past scandals, but I do listen to some of these ladies, so if you have some tea to share, maybe you help me fill in the blanks.

PS: All the links open in a new window, so you can read while listening.






1. Ahn Soo Min



Ahn Soo Min was a contestant on Show Me the Money 4 where she got unjustly eliminated over Black Nut in round 3, but she’s now on the superior hip hop survival show so I guess she wins. She doesn’t have any official releases or mixtapes as far as I know. However, she has a lot of potential imo so this will be great exposure for her. She has an official soundcloud where you can listen to her rap. Based on her social media usernames, I’m going to assume she’s a 91 liner. She also auditioned for Superstar K in 2009.


Listen: Soom , Good Mornight

Social media: Instagram, Soundcloud, Twitter




2. Trudy/Truedy




I don’t know much about her other than the fact that she’s associated with IWBH Sound, who released a snippet of her rap on Instagram. Her social media presence is almost non-existent, but she’s recently opened an instagram account where she uploaded a selfie. I saw Yuk Jidam in the comments, so I’m going to assume they’re either friends or know each other. She's also Korea's Rachel Dolezal.

Listen: sample
Watch: teaser

Social media: Instagram



3. Moon Suah




Moon Suah is the YG trainee sent on the show, so she’s probably guaranteed a track, a spot in the finals, and the win. She joined YG in 2010. I have no idea how she sounds like, but you can see her dancing in the Future 2NE1 video YG uploaded five centuries ago. She was born in 1999 (damn, I feel old).

Watch: dance cover



4. Kasper




Ellen Serine Lee (aka Kasper) is one of the rappers with a strong online presence and she frequently updates her social media accounts. She was born in Seattle. As you know, she was on SMTM 4 and got eliminated in the second round (if you don’t know, then Mnet will probably replay that clip every episode so don’t worry). She’s also close friends with Kisum and Tymee from last season and she's apparently dating Louie from Geeks. She wants to have the career Kisum has, which is why she auditioned for SMTM. Kasper was also involved in a dating rumor with B.A.P.'s Daehyun (he mentioned on Beatles Code that he dated a foreigner, but broke up because of the language barrier), but they've denied it and said they were only friends (thanks oxfordowls1 for the tip!).

She is also a member of the co-ed group Play the Siren, a group created by Baljunso (an independent label) in association with SM Entertainment. They debuted in 2014 with “Dream Drive” featuring Luna from f(x) and promoted it on music shows, but didn’t make much of a splash. They also released another MV for “Green Light”.

As a solo performer, Kasper has released a mixtape called “On/Off” and she’s uploaded several covers on her YouTube channel. She’s getting ready to release and album and has apparently filmed an MV, but I haven’t heard any news since the announcement, so maybe she’s waiting for Unpretty Rapstar to wrap up (get that promo!). She also does some videos about Kpop for WishTrendTV.

Listen: “Confessions” from her mixtape; her cover of "Blood on the Leaves" and I Wish.

Watch/Listen: Cypher with Play the Siren


Social Media: Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook



5. Gilme








Gil Mi Hyeon is a queen rapper/singer signed with GYM Entertainment. She was born in 1983 and she's friends with Bang Yongguk. She’s by far the most experienced of the bunch, so expectations are high. She is also a member of a project group called Clover, with whom she’s released several songs and MVs, such as “La Vida Loca” and “A Guy Who I Know”.

As a solo artist, Gilme has released two full albums (“Love Actually” and “2 Face”) and multiple singles and OSTs, some of which she’s promoted on music shows, such as “My Turn” and the amazing “Success”. She’s also collaborated with Eun Ji Won and Outsider. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to her and I hope she doesn’t pull a P-Type.


Listen/Watch: Success, Tell Me This Is Real (to get a taste of her rap and singing voice), Love is War (feat. Outsider)


Social Media: Twitter, Cyworld



6. KittiB



KittiB is an underground rapper and a member of the Royal Class Crew with Sims, Taewoon, Roydo, Chancey and Winner's Mino. She describes herself as an independent artist. She was famously dissed alongside Tymee by Jolly V in “Bad Bitches”. She responded by releasing the diss track ‘I Am a Woman’ (link to all the songs with subtitles), which makes me sad she wasn’t on season 1 for the drama lol.

She’s collaborated with a lot of rappers and indie artists such as Sims, Zion T, and Nieah, but she’s also released solo material. My favourite song of hers is by far the eternal jam “Must Be Nice” feat. Sims.

Listen: “Must Be Nice”, Wake Me Up (a mellow jam), "I'm Her" (feat. Zion.T)

Watch: a club performance of "Must Be Nice"


Social Media: Twitter, Instagram


7. Ash-B



Ash-B is an underground rapper born in Incheon in 1993. She is signed with TNL Records and under them she’s released one mini-album called “Who Here”. The title track is called “By My Side” and it has a music video which you can check out below. She gives me major Lil Cham vibes performance-wise, so I hope I’m wrong for her sake. She has some other raps on her soundcloud, so judge for yourselves. She also previously dissed Kasper because she didn't like her mixtape or something.

Listen/Watch: By My Side and the two other songs on her mini “Dangerous” & “0773”.

Watch: a live performance of “By My Side”

Social Media: Twitter, Soundcloud, Instagram



8. Heize



Jang Dahye (aka Heize) is an underground rapper born in 1991 and debuted in 2014. She speaks both Korean and English and her OneHallyu profile says she’s super friendly to fans and interacts with them a lot. She’s also dating rapper Crucial Star (you might have seen him audition on SMTM4), with whom she’s collaborated on her mini-album and on his mixtape. She’s also collaborated with other indie artists like Hyobin and Monokim.

In 2014 she released a mini-album called “Heize”, followed by some digital singles. Her songs seem very mellow and public friendly, so I’m curious to see her try more aggressive raps. Overall, she has a very cohesive and precise (if that makes sense) sound and I like her a lot. She also sings, but I hope she doesn’t pull a Jessi and start singing in the middle of a rap battle lmao.

Listen: these two songs from her mini here and here + eternal jam “My Boyfriend Thank You”.


Watch: a live performance (there’s a slight awkwardness about her, but it’ll probably disappear as the show progresses, like it happened with some of the girls from UR 1).

Social Media: Instagram, Facebook



9. Yezi



Lee Yezi is one of the three idols competing this season. She is Fiestar’s youngest member and the group’s rapper. Fiestar is signed with Collabodadi, a label under LOEN. Unlike most idols, she used to be an underground rapper and Wikipedia tells me she’s released several mixtapes but I haven’t found anything yet (get that street cred, I guess). Her official profile states that she wants to work with Dynamic Duo and likes collecting ballpoint pens #truethug. She is also a vocalist and a dancer and she has several rap compilations and covers on YouTube. I’m not super familiar with Fiestar outside of their title tracks, but ONTD girl group stans say that ‘Black Label’ is the album of the year.

You can check out her cover of “Girlfriend” and an old rap here

Listen/Watch: Rap Compilation


Social Media: Twitter



10. Yubin



It feels weird writing an intro for Yubin and Hyorin, so I’ll keep these short, since we all know them.

Yubin is a member of Wonder Girls. She is the rapper, but also uses her vocals from time to time. She speaks both Korean and English and writes her own raps. She is credited for writing the lyrics for "Girls Girls", "Me, In", and "Sweet Dreams" (jam tbh) from Wonder Girls' second studio album “Wonder World”. She also wrote the song "Hey Boy" for Wonder Girls’ mini-album "Wonder Party".

Watch/Listen: a recent rap compilation

Watch: WG’s performance for “Back”

And as a bonus, here is their song “Candle” featuring Paloalto (who is now the go-to rapper for hep-hap credibility).

Social Media: Instagram, Twitter



11. Hyorin



Hyorin is Sistar’s main/lead/idk anymore vocal/dancer/idk. She likes cats. Her previous encounter with Unpretty Rapstar was when she collaborated with Ailee and Jessi and covered “Bang Bang”. Now she’s changed gears and wants to rap, and since “Ego Trip’s Miss Rap Supreme” isn’t around, she’s now on season 2 of UR. #StayStrongBora.

She’s previously shown her rapping in this performance of “We Missed” and she recently dropped a teaser (and her brand) with Paloalto and some guy.


Watch/Listen: Rap Compilation

Social Media: Instagram




Sources: kpoplists; soo min: mnet, soomz1 (1, 2); trudy: dj_marcia, mnet; suah: ygentertainment; Kasper: meatzone, baljunso1, mbckpop, baljunso2, WishTrendTV, kasper, kasper2, kasper3, kasper4; Gilme: 1thek (1, 2, 3), koreanpride, ki_mumblestash22); KittiB: Tymeesubs, eleon15 , kittibitch, kittibitch2, n_aomi; Ash-B: asiandreamvod, ashbcom, thomas b (1, 2), tnlrecords; Heize: stu93kk, blueberry-g2, song4uch2, mumblestarmusicj01, soo pia; Yezi: 1thek, fyfiestar, kpop creations; Yubin: kim k, mbckpop, itoanyone music IV; Hyorin: TV-People, lovelyhyorin, 1thek, rhy yeon

I hope you all enjoyed the post & found it helpful! *collapses*

Comments

[hipployta.livejournal.com]

BUNI...babe you aren't even trying to be unbiased for people who don't know anyone...that's messed up but you built the post so *shrug*

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

This took forever to make and you all know who some of them are so pls...

[yuzuruhanyu.livejournal.com]

Moon Suah is the YG trainee sent on the show, so she’s probably guaranteed a track, a spot in the finals, and the win. lmaooooo ilu op

im excited for gilme n i think kittib has the markings of the next lil chamteuse. excited <3

[iznanassi.livejournal.com]

anyone can try rapping!!!! stop hating on hyorin!!!! she's better than bora it's bora's fault!!! /s

i'm still not seeing it unless she does something really awesome on the show i don't think i'll ever really buy it as anything other than a gimmick

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

Mteeee I need to screencap more images of Cheetah being judgemental lol.

[iznanassi.livejournal.com]

Thanks op :D

The show probably wouldn't have been able to progress season 1 with KittiB on it bc she would've boxed Jolly V out the minute she fixed her mouth to say something lol, love her.

[kwikimart.livejournal.com]

Omg thank you for this post OP! I'm so excited to see Yubin on this and now I get to know of some potential female rappers that I could stan for in future

YG are pretty clever putting all their youngins on shows like this, I guess it's to give them 'credibility' as rappers or w/e. I've never watched the show before but I'm here for it coz of Yubin.
Gonna check out some of these girls' music but I hope that the cultural appropriation on this (word to Hyorin!) is kept to the bare minimum if at all

[jrt131n.livejournal.com]

"But I hope that the cultural appropriation on this (word to Hyorin!) is kept to the bare minimum if at all"

Since they want to be hep hap, they pretty much will. I don't think it will be as bad as like SMTM is, but who knows. I'm gonna try to watch and see how it goes because I didn't feel like watching the last season.

[vonnadarling.livejournal.com]

GILME IS QUEEN which of course means they're gonna find some way to do her wrong.

I'm excited for Kasper and KittiB tho!! and also for Yubin because she's my ultimate girl bias and she's grown and improved a lot over the years.

Great post Buni! Thanks for compiling all this!

[myrrhcat.livejournal.com]

let's be real, no one will ever live up to the legend of lil cham. but hopefully we'll get a new mess this season

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Hyolyn? Except maybe the judges won't feel as free to bash her...

[hyungmoney.livejournal.com]

kittib!!! and maybe also truedy i guess since she tricked me into thinking she was nada

[ideservestars.livejournal.com]

omg thx op. this seasons gonna be so good

[ah-mui.livejournal.com]

Thanks OP definitely helpful but whyyy a So Hot-era pic of Yubin? Not that she's not hot all the time but lol

[frequency.livejournal.com]

i'm rooting for yezi tbh though i know she probably won't last long on it :'(

[sundaetea.livejournal.com]

But Kasper has literally 0% charisma/stage presence, and her lack of rapping skills showed in smtm4.
Unless she was just super nervous??

[iznanassi.livejournal.com]

She's pretty much a worse Kisum idk why they're still trying to make her happen

[hebk.livejournal.com]

thanks op!

i can't wait for the faux drama

[pineapple-soda.livejournal.com]

ty for this post! and omg heize is gonna be on here?? i'm rooting for her, gilme, and yubin the most right now

[awsteven.livejournal.com]

looking forward to kittib, gilme, and heize! lol shamelessly rooting for hyorin since i just really lover her and yubin too!

[pbutterlion.livejournal.com]

lmao mte

[allegsiseu.livejournal.com]

i'm rooting for kasper because us seattle girls gotta stick together. and i did like what i saw of her on smtm.

nnnnnnnnnnn @ hyorin's pic including bora. op, you shady guh. i ♥ it!!

[dickslikejesus.livejournal.com]

If Gilme, Heize or SooMin don't win this I'm going to Korea bout to fuck shit up. Also that comment about YG's trainee is cruel, y u gotta do me like this OP, why!

[beanii.livejournal.com]

The only person who seems to have anything to deliver is Kitti B. Ash B (What's up with the b's?) has some jams, but I wonder how she'll fare when it actually comes to missions.

I don't understand what covers are supposed to tell us in regards to rap skills, like oh yeah nice, she can keep a rhythm. She fulfilled the R in rap.

Hyorin has been mentioned a lot, but why has no one said anything about Yubin. Negl, I'm always most excited about her part in So Hot, but tbh she sucks.

[lazmy.livejournal.com]

yubin does suck ://////

[lazmy.livejournal.com]

since “Ego Trip’s Miss Rap Supreme” isn’t around, she’s now on season 2 of UR
you made me fall off my couch LMAO that show was so entertaining #throwback

heize's teaser has me really curious. i've heard yezi is a great rapper but since she only gets lines like ~it dont matter if you dont like me if you think im yours ya wrong bout me~ i was like yeah yeah w/e ok

[rightclick5ave.livejournal.com]

late reply but Yezi's actually saying "bite me" not "'bout me" lmao.. I still refuse to believe it but I checked several sites and they told me the same thing. she's one of my fave idol rappers (fave is probably Erine); I went for a guerrilla perf during One More promos and she freestyled(?) a little, sounded great!

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

OP correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't it seem like a lot of these contestants have a very similar rap style?

The contestants on the first season seemed a lot more diverse.

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

It doesn't help that there's so many this season. :(

[fayfayren.livejournal.com]

just waiting to see the lil cham of the season. #justiceforbora

[waves-of-light.livejournal.com]

"She likes cats."

I don't why, but I can't stop laughing at this.

[kjc48.livejournal.com]

Came in here looking for receipts, got fanfict instead.

Can someone make an list of the contestant who have used the n-word or named themselves "Jepp Blackman"?

[canxi.livejournal.com]

As the show progresses the tea might be spilled from everyone's cup. I would just wait, lol.

[canxi.livejournal.com]

I think I'll root for Heize.