While chatting to Creators Project spearheads Hosi Simon and David Haroldsen, of VICE and Intel respectively, they mentioned that they like to mix things up a little. This was one of the reasons behind moving the 2012 event, which took place on Saturday, from arts warehouse Platoon in Gangnam to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza. Located in the midst of Seoul’s famous discount retail area, the Zahid Hadid-designed plaza offers a refreshing break from the towering high-rise architecture that surrounds it.
Aside from the futuristic, outdoor venue being the perfect choice for the event, the impressive line-up was also a rare treat in K-pop-laden Korea. Although 2NE1 appeared on the bill, the other artists were all either underground or alternative musicians, with hip hop artist Drunken Tiger and electro musician Idiotape headlining the event. Before the Korean heavyweights took to the stage, however, the crowd were treated to a set by the critically acclaimed electronic artist Nosaj Thing. Playing a selection of tracks taken mostly from his 2009 album Drift, along with his beautiful remix of Islands by The XX, the LA-based DJ’s performance provided one of the high points of the evening. DJ Soulscape was also enjoyable, playing soul and funk influenced mixes, as well as 90′s old-school tracks such as The Fresh Prince’s Summertime and TLC’s Creep.
After 2NE1′s whirlwind performance, which was greeted by the audience with an ocean of smart phone LED screens, the elated crowd remained in good spirits despite being subjected to a torrent of verbal abuse by Tiger JK of popular hip hop act Drunken Tiger. As an aggressive tirade of expletives poured from his mouth, most of which began with an ‘f’ and were sometimes preceded by the word ‘mother’, the English-speakers surrounding us at the venue looked bemused by this strange turn of events, particularly when he started bragging about the money he was paid for the show (100k apparently – let’s hope that was in won) and giving “props to Psy” (K-pop star who has gained recent international success with his hit Gangnam Style). Carrying on with his sour outpouring, he also chastisted Hollywood for their use of Asians as “comic relief” and brought his own brand of racism into the equation with some less-than-PC comments about “white people”. He has now somewhat apologised for this on Twitter.
Peace to allthem white folks I cussed out last night.
— Tiger JK(@DrunkenTigerJK) September 23, 2012
All in all, The Creators Project was an enjoyable event for Chincha, allowing us to meet Idiotape, interview Nosaj Thing, film the festival, see 2NE1 close up, check out the stunning installations and have a generally good time all day and night.
Video review coming soon!
If you want to see more 2NE1 pics, here are some we put on Tumblr.
UPDATE: Tiger JK has tweeted this article and has apologised further for some of his comments.
Regardless. I was being a hypocrite that night by callin out ‘all’ white people. Since I been a strong advocate against racism.
— Tiger JK(@DrunkenTigerJK) September 25, 2012
According to his Twitter some guys in the audience were heckling him, “During my set, these dudes kept telling me to horse dance , F rapping just dance. I had to cut all my song short. Without self control.”
The horse dance is a reference to Psy’s dance in the worldwide viral hit Gangnam Style. Tiger JK was offended by these comments and saw them as racist as well distracting.
Unless you were right at the front of the crowd (which our reviewer wasn’t) then this wasn’t clear to the rest of the people at the show. The story behind the comments was not clear until Tiger JK explained his point of view on Twitter 4 days after the concert.
On Wednesday, MissDrunkenCamp linked us to her website, which is the number one English fan site for Tiger JK. As someone who has known Tiger JK for a long time, MissDrunkenCamp gives her own heartfelt perspective on the situation and on the rapper himself, who she strongly insist is “one of the last people I would call a racist.” Worth a read.
Photography by Rob Gillespie.
22 comments
TC says:
Sep 26, 2012
Ah good old white people privilege. Always amusing when I see it.
Eunice says:
Sep 26, 2012
Nice job on the spin. Definitely doesn’t make Tiger JK look bad at all. Nope. Not at all.
MIN says:
Sep 26, 2012
racism from or against any race is not ok. it doesn’t matter to me who started that shit. it’s about not playing in to it more. if you wanna go on about your white privilege stuff, fine. go on, tell the world all about whiteness and about who shitty white people are. i don’t think you’ll ever understand that there are in fact white people who see what’s going on and who are equally not ok with it. but in this occasion, however you want to see it, both the jerk boys and tiger jk were at fault because both were being racist.
tea says:
Sep 26, 2012
the “tiger jk is a racist!!!” reaction is like when a driver hits a pedestrian, gets a little scratch, and then screams, ‘YOU VILLAIN YOU DENTED MY CAR!!!!!!’
the pedestrian: tiger jk
the driver/car: systemic racism perpetrated by whiteness, white supremacy, white privilege.
i read tiger jk’s tirade as a tirade against the driver/car, against SYSTEMIC RACISM AGAINST NON-WHITES, PERPETRATED BY WHITENESS.
yeah yeah you weren’t the one yelling at tiger jk. but systematic white racism is what prompted the “white bois” in the audience to harass tiger jk in the middle of his fucking performance. and he literally calls out the white/western media for that. (see http://www.racialicious.com/2012/09/20/psy-and-the-acceptable-asian-man/ for an explanation about what’s so fucked up about psy’s popularity and the bois’ demands that tiger jk do a horse dance for them) he wasn’t pointing at YOU WHITE PERSON A, YOU WHITE PERSON B, or YOU WHITE PERSON C, as the villains, but systemic racism and discriminatory views against non-whites.
it is unfortunate that people who weren’t there feel… hurt… by this, but like being generalized to be grouped with racists is like nothing compared to like the whole racist white expectation for asian men to play the fool (ah from breakfast at tiffany’s to psy, how far we’ve come…) and just yeah. like focusing on tiger jk’s outburst, but NOT DEALING WITH WHAT CAUSED HIS OUTBURST is just. really crappy i think.
(and yes i know and tiger jk CERTAINLY knows that korea has its horrendous issues with racism, esp against non-korean, non-whites. but you cannot deny systemic racism perpetrated by whiteness, white supremacy, white privilege exists, even in korea. the overwhelming demand for english, the fixation with light skin, etc… yeah… cmon.)
MIN says:
Sep 25, 2012
bad guy? well guess what: rather than making him a saint, which he is not, he also stated that on his twitter and accepting he made a mistake, just accept (like himself) that he did indeed make a mistake. sure those boys were jerks, but why did he feel the need to be one too? i’m white, i’m female and my parents taught me not to be racist against anyone and always to respect people no matter what. i looked up to Tiger since he was such a strong advocate against racism. so i was mad when he just cussed out all white people, just cause some of them are jerks. some koreans are jerks too, doesn’t give anyone the right to cuss the whole nation out. and @ that generailizing shit: you are generalizing just as much. and in return are being a fucking racist yourself. stop trying to be better, when clearly you are not.
MIN says:
Sep 25, 2012
can i just point out that the post above me/ MIN is me, while the person above user KITE is someone completely different. i didn’t check the names before and just used mine, so i’m trying to make things clear. the person above this post (MIN) is me, while the one above KITE is someone else.
Min says:
Sep 25, 2012
lol and people are getting mad because he cuss out White people
but when international fans bash the hell out of Korea just because some 3-4 immature Korean netizens everyone agrees and even say let’s kill all knetizens
looks like international fans forget their stupid oppas are also Korean and netizens.
White people love generalizing all countries and races that they don’t even know so STFU
“stop being so sensitive” this is what international netizens tell Koreans everytime they complain
so yea, stop being so sensitive
Kite says:
Sep 25, 2012
‘White people love generalizing all countries and races that they don’t even know’.
That’s racist.
I’m white and based on that, you’re saying that I ‘love’ stereotyping people and cultures, something I don’t do because, hey, that would be racist won’t it?!
Cory says:
Sep 25, 2012
But it can’t be racist if it is against white people can it? At least not as racist as if it were against a minority. /sarcasm
MIN says:
Sep 26, 2012
i really hope you mean that in a sarcastic way. because otherwise that logic is not working, racism works any way and can have any form. that’s why it’s so dangerous.
je says:
Sep 26, 2012
lol you can’t be racist towards white people. Racism = Prejudice + Power. Minorities don’t have power.
pitchblack says:
Sep 25, 2012
I gotta admit, I’m still reeling from what tigerJK said in the middle of his set… after listening to DT pretty much every day since I came to Korea some years ago~ 게다가 드렁큰 타이거 노래 덕분에, 그의 가사를 이해하기 위해 한국어 배우기 처음 시작했거든요. Just not sure how to react to it. He doesn’t have the right to cuss out an entire race just because of a few idiot white people in the audience. Anyway……his music’s too good for me to stop listening altogether, but it’s definitely taken some of the shine off
tropicalgirl says:
Sep 25, 2012
And everyone who read this article and didn’t know exactly what had happened would really believe that Tiger JK is a rude person and a racist! Just bcos ‘horse dance’ happen to be a fenom nowadays doesn’t mean everyone like it,u mock him by asking him to do that dance just bcos he’s came from the same place as ‘horse dance’.. you hurt his pride as an asian by trying to make him as a laughing stock!he has the right to be mad, yet he also apologize..peace yo~
HK says:
Sep 25, 2012
This is ridiculous. If a ‘white’ artist went off on a racist rant at a concert brought by asians no one would even dare try to defend it. Celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Kat Graham were asked if they know the gangnam style dance and were asked to do the dance at the VMAs, it’s a world-wide phenomenon. Of course, Tiger JK was in the middle of his performance so he could’ve taken it personality but he totally overreacted. It was disrespectful and inappropriate regardless of what some people were saying to him. And other people were NOT aware of the horse dance comments. It’s a freaking concert. You can’t hear what everyone’s saying in the audience.
Racism is not okay, ever. I really don’t understand why people are trying to defend it. This is disgusting.
arums says:
Sep 25, 2012
ah ah ah really lol
so you’re implying that racism comes not from exploiting slaves or colonies in asia, but the opposite, yes, that is The Deal nowadays worldwide.
ok then, that is really the night in which all cows are black.
you should have never felt racism on your skin, on your roots, on your language from “whiter” people. because I am white (a bit red spotted sometimes) but there’s always someone who thinks s/he’s “whiter”. that is racism.
And sorry if I want to point out that I’m glad for psy and all the money he’s making, but in USA and Europe they don’t even know what Kangnam is and the critics that lies in the song. they just like that “choppy” korean old man moving like a tarantola. …cute little asian, they’re so funny… let’s laugh.
Asking an artist who is performing his works to do the horse dance and repeatedly… no way man, you have some issues. and this is provocation. and sorry if an artist is human.
I would have done even worst.
and sorry, sorry if somebody pointed out how Psy is from white people.
because there… there lies the truth, the ugly truth.
Dalia says:
Sep 25, 2012
Exactly. Please write the real story instead of making him look like the bad guy. Obviously you guys did something wrong and he just reacted. Maybe it wasn’t the best way to react but i definitely would have reacted the same.
7cinta says:
Sep 25, 2012
I was going to comment on the Tiger JK incident but @GERRRRYYYY took the words right out of my mouth. I’ll admit, Tiger could have held his tongue, but he definitely didn’t pull this rant out of his ass for no reason. He came to rap, period.
ohchincha says:
Sep 25, 2012
Everyone who heard that rant around is had no idea WHY he was ranting, it seemed almost intelligible. Still not really clear why race was brought into it, even if some idiots told him to mimic Psy’s horse dance?
Schnery says:
Sep 25, 2012
It might be because Asians in general – and by asians I mean Japanese, Koreans and Chinese – have beem stereotyped as the comedians who make fools of themselves?
But yea, ‘white people’ aren’t the only ones who have stereotyped them as such. So I don’t think he needed to include only the ‘white people’ in his abuse. -.-
But i would appreciate irt if you’d include the reason for his racist rant among other things. The article is very vague if you ask me.
ohchincha says:
Sep 25, 2012
The problem is that Tiger JK didn’t make it clear why he was shouting abuse about white people, which is why we are being vague about it. If someone can clarify exactly WHY he went off on a rant then we’ll gladly put it in the article.
HK says:
Sep 25, 2012
He explained himself on his twitter. https://twitter.com/DrunkenTigerJK
But at the show he didn’t make it clear, and people in the audience didn’t hear the horse dance comments. Chincha wasn’t trying to purposely make Tiger JK look bad.
Gerrrryyyy says:
Sep 25, 2012
Lol funny how you make Drunken Tiger seem like the bad one when you didn’t even mention WHY he got mad in the first place. Why not mention the fact people told him to not rap and just “horse dance” ? You made him look like a fool and frankly I would have done the same thing. All you people ever do is try to make something into a comedy. YOU should apologize to HIM.