K-Pop Beyond The Charts is a weekly review column highlighting Korea's modern day musical innovators who have yet to find mainstream success.
"It's 2016! Why don't we have real hoverboards like the ones in 'Back To The Future Part II,' flying cars like The Jetsons did or laser blasters like the ones in 'Star Wars?'"
It's a common complaint lodged by anyone old enough to remember a time when the future seemed like an approaching train carrying a bounty of cutting edge technology. And although Internet memes and the freedom to watch television on your phone from anywhere in the known world may not carry quite the same appeal as zipping over the city in a computer-operated jetpack, futurists can take solace in the fact that there are musical advancements being made globally that are befitting the 21st century.
Case in point is "Me," the new single released Thursday by South Korean singer and rapper Loptimist and featuring the talented Ji Jong Hwan and Kim. Comprised by what appears to be entirely digitally generated sounds, "Me" could almost pass for a conversation between two robots if it weren't for rapping that is as raw and human as it gets.
That being said, even the vocal hook is split up and heavily processed, along with a striking amount of twists and turns in the sound and arrangement, making the track a bold leap into the future.
Hip-hop, particularly in its earlier incarnations, often had a tradition of cutting up tracks and vocals that was carried on by many of its seminal producers from J Dilla to Cut Chemist to Kanye West. But the way Loptimist slices and dices the tracks on "Me" while superimposing synths is straight out of science fiction. The drum programming is a triumph.
The further into this new millennium we go, the more that the term "futuristic" seems to lose its meaning. But one thing is for sure, if you had heard "Me" in an 1980s movie about the year 2020, it would be a highly believable bit of movie magic.
Listen to the new single "Me" by Loptimist featuring Kim and Ji Jong Hwan RIGHT HERE
