the duo pretty much started the movement of 90's hip hop, rap and r&b in korea and also had the "bad boy" image of the music industry, or at least they were marketed that way. from what i can recall as a kid, i remember thinking that the group's major fan base was a certain demographic of girls. all the female hardcore rebels and bad-girls of korea finally had an anthem and soundtrack to play in the background at the clubs and in the streets as they beat bitches down korean-style. listening to their music now, some of their tracks have obviously been sampled from american songs but the countless number of people who get a sense of nostalgia every time they listen to deux can easily look past that (probably also due to the fact that many koreans back then didn't know american hip hop). one of their songs in particular titled "여름안에서" is my karaoke-go-to-song, it's easy to sing and there's no complicated rap part on top of being a sentimental classic for anyone who listened to their music back then.
the duo released three studio albums as well as additional remix and concert albums, then the they split and kim sung jae put out a self titled solo album which i really like. he died suddenly in 1995 soon after his album release and being young and not understanding korean that well back then, i'm still not sure how he passed away. i remember there were a lot of rumors and speculation going on and it was reported that his girlfriend killed him by giving him some drugs that were horse tranquilizers, but knowing the korean media and how they love to sensationalize things, especially shit that has to do with illegal drugs, i have no idea what happened to him. the sad thing is he died pretty young.
here are their albums that i never get sick of.
Interesting I've never heard of them before, will check out their music.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting piece of music trivia I was totally oblivious about.
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