There was a year or two, around 12 or 14 years back that I was following a Korean rapper and genius named Daniel Armand Lee or more known with the screen name TABLO. Last night, I was third-wheeling with my brother and his girlfriend and we got to talking about Kpop and remembered how I used to listen to TABLO.
And I remembered how amazed I was in the way he penned his emotions and what he was going through. And how his melancholic underground rap songs helped me cope with whatever confusion I was experiencing or perceiving then. Truly grateful to TABLO and the people who assisted him, his wife who was pregnant then with Haru, his direct family, and friends for not giving up despite all they had to go through where they were subjected to unnecessary hate and rage.
I am happy I got to buy one of his group’s album (EPIK HIGH’s SHOEBOX, 2014) in Korea. But my most favorite one by him as a solo artist is FEVER’S END, 2011. Putting that physical album as an ASK to the God & Universe. I’ve yet to finish his award winning book – Pieces of You, a compilation of short stories he wrote while finishing his undergraduate and masters at Stanford University.
Here’s a playlist of those songs he wrote during the “modern-day witch hunt” he suffered in 2010.
And here’s an article released by STANFORD UNIVERSITY about the whole ordeal and overview of everything that happened then. The backstory or context of how the songs and lyrics came to be are such a gem.
THE PROSECUTION OF DANIEL LEE: An Internet smear campaign nearly destroyed the South Korean star, but he fought back with the only weapon he had: the truth. (July/August 2011)
the Asian Review 