Fajarasia.co – f the lurking bass and syncopated beat of Silkybois’ recent hit “Bomaye” sound familiar to fans of drill music, the pair’s lyrical content might not. Flitting between English and their native Korean, the Seoul-based rappers inject numerous local references into the genre’s typical allusions to street rivalries, cars and money.
The track’s metaphor-heavy lyrics recount “swinging” like Korean baseball player Choo Shin-soo, acquiring cash like casino developer Kangwon Land and “stacking up the cheese” like dak-galbi, a spicy chicken dish.
Even threats of violence are delivered with distinctly Korean flavor: “My chopsticks bust you open, steaming, leave you laying there like a dumpling,” raps one half of the duo, Park Sung-jin, who goes by the name Jimmy Paige.
Silkybois are part of a wave of rappers bringing the hard-hitting sound of drill, or “deulil” as it’s known locally, to South Korea.
“Bomaye,” which means “kill him” in the African language Lingala — and was famously used by boxing fans cheering on Muhammad Ali when he fought George Foreman in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) — has amassed almost 2 million views on YouTube since it was released last year.
“I didn’t expect foreign YouTubers to make reaction videos or the song to trend on platforms like TikTok,” said Silkybois’ other member, Kim Dae-woong, whose rap name is Black Nut, in a video interview from Seoul.
“We just did what we wanted to do in our style. I enjoyed watching people’s reactions, which were unexpected.”
Though drill originated in Chicago in the early 2010s, South Korea’s scene borrows heavily from a British subgenre dubbed UK drill.
With similarly gritty and provocative lyrics, but faster beats and more melodic sliding basslines, the sound has since spread from south London to influence scenes around the world, including, in turn, America’s.
But while drill artists in the UK and US are known — sometimes controversially — for rapping about knife violence and firearms, things are somewhat different in South Korea, which has one of the world’s lowest gun crime rates. References to physical violence are prominent nonetheless, and the country’s drill rappers are uncompromising in their depictions of urban hardship.
“The lyrics are about city things,” Park said. “Good or bad, it has to be facts. Things that happen in the streets, in the neighborhood and our mentality — it’s all about us against them.
“To me, drill is just another (art) form,” he added. “We like the hard lyrics … We’re always looking for ways to make harsh metaphors and punchlines, and I guess it worked.”
Crossing continents
Global interest in contemporary Korean culture has skyrocketed over the past decade, with the so-called “K-wave” seeing groups like BTS and Blackpink achieving mainstream success in the West.
K-pop has been the country’s primary musical export, but there is also a healthy domestic hip-hop scene.
The number of drill artists may be small by comparison, but several of the country’s best-known rappers — including Keith Ape, Changmo and Korean American artist Jay Park — have recently released music influenced by the genre.
Among the musicians crossing over is Shin Young-duk, or Blase, who helped thrust drill into the spotlight last fall with a performance on the hugely popular South Korean TV rap competition, “Show Me the Money.” His 2021 self-titled album features an array of genres, from grime to garage — but it’s the drill-inspired “Peace Out” and “CVS” that have racked up the most plays on Spotify. (“I’m on road all night long working,” he raps in the latter, with a chorus that combines English and Korean. “Don’t close like CVS 24.”.****
