slow

Year and again, Show Me The Money makes headlines with misogynist lyrics. Year and again, I shake my head and go on with my life. This year however, I was so upset about what happened that I could not just ignore it. I felt the urgent need to unleash this energy that had accumulated inside of me, and here it goes.

First of all, let us start with what happened. I expected the diss battles to contain some shocking lyrics or actions, and it did not let me down. On one hand, there was Maniac who brought a garbage can on stage, which as his fan I found rather tasteless and disappointing, but what happened on the other hand was too important for me to waste time on this.

Several contestants spit some really misogynist lyrics and the frontrunner was no one but a woman. While watching Asol rap, her not knowing that she was in fact dissing herself, I not only felt second-hand embarrassment, I also wondered over and over why people had let this happen. I wonder why she had felt inferior to the men to write such lyrics and why nobody who had heard those lyrics prior to the recording had stopped her. I wonder if those people who had heard those lyrics just put up their feet and watched Asol run straight into a wall or if they themselves had no notion of misogyny either. Also, why did Mnet record this and air it, knowing that fans from all over the world would watch it? Have their producers never heard of misogyny either? Or did they think, “Better bad headlines than none?”

Then I also felt sympathetic for Asol for having grown up in a society that did not teach her to be proud of who she is. A society that taught her that women are inferior to men.

When I googled “Asol SMTM” in Korean, everything I got were articles or websites that blamed her for “sexual harassment.” Now, that finger pointing and the corresponding lyrics were definitely sexual harassment, but why, WHY ON EARTH was no one talking about the obvious misogyny???

Another point of criticism is, why choose the oh-so-obvious diss of “mother and child?” In a diss battle you're trying to be witty and convince the audience that you're better than the others. How are you going to do that if you choose the most boring thing to diss about your opponent(s)? Plus, personally, I do think that there is a line that should not be crossed even in dissing, because once you cross it you're only putting yourself down and not your opponent anymore. Take Woochan for example, Asol could have dissed him for reaching puberty vocal change soon, or maybe for still learning to walk when she was already learning to rap or (since this is probably not the case—she was born 1997 and he 2005) something similar.

So I would like to blame her for not choosing a better topic to diss them for but I also don't know the circumstances in which she had to write, little time, the exceptional situation, yada yada. Moreover I am blaming Korean society and everyone and the media who painted this masculine picture of hiphop. Like Nahae already mentioned on Twitter, as the only remaining female contestant Asol had the chance to represent all women and go all out feminist—or at least not rap something so misogynist and disappointing.

Oh right, then there was Young B. He already has a reputation, though I don't know much about it, but the thing I know about is what he did in that diss battle. Again, the Korean public did not care much about the misogyny, more so about the “Suck my d*ck” line which was not shown in the episode but heard by everyone in the audience. “Sexual harassment,” they say. “Yeah, probably,” I say. What about the mini skirt though? Why did Young B think that that was a diss? Who put that in his head?

Then there was Hangzoo. Yes, Hangzoo too spit hateful shit, at the very end of his verse to be exact. He made a pun on “Ja Mezz” and the Korean word “jamae” (sister/s) to which he put an English plural -s: “jamaes.” Why would it be a diss to call Ja Mezz and his team “The Sisters?”

This made me so angry, he is a grown-up man and should have had enough time in his life to educate himself. But no, there he goes spitting hate. Moreover, he did not make any headlines. I ask myself, did everyone look away because there's a big label backing him or because they like the guy, or did nobody see what was going on?

Though I have to point out that liking someone does not mean we overlook their mistakes, no it means we point their mistakes out to them because we like them and want them to better themselves. We don't turn away from them or pretend they never did anything wrong.

What I expect from diss battles is artistry, I want super witty puns, unexpected disses, funny disses, disses that the opponent too will laugh about and go “Woah!”

Some might say that this is whiny talk, that diss battles should be tough and dirty and loaded with strong emotions, but that's their opinion and I respect that but this is mine.

I want diss battles that entertain, diss battles that won't make me feel embarrassed and worried and shake my head in disappointment. If diapers, a mini skirt, a bikini and a trash can are all you can come up with, then you're obviously lacking in creativity.

This said, let me applaud Woodie Gochild. He stood out immensely with awesome, funny, classy disses. Imitating his opponents' rap style, citing their lyrics to turn them on them, that was pure genius. None of his disses were deeply insulting yet they still hit home and were SO entertaining. Everyone laughed at it, Hash Swan laughed at it, and that's what I want to see, not the perplexed expression on the face of a thirteen-year-old.