From 1990s, hip-hop started in the U.S. and became the center of a new generation around the world. Hip-hop has become a more liberal and impromptu form of fashion, music, dance, singing and even ritual culture. In particular, the popularity of hip-hop is rapidly increasing these days, and hip-hop music is seen in the real time chart rankings of various music sites. Following this flow of twenty culture, The Inha Times conducted an interview with Gearo, a hip-hop club at Inha University.

INHA Times(IT) : Please explain briefly about Gaero.
Gearo : Gearo is the central hip-hop club at Inha University. Gaero, a club that creates and performs hip-hop music, deals more with the importance of writing the lyrics than composition. Rather than creating songs by the club itself, we share songs that we have created personally.

IT: Please describe the main activities in Gaero.
Gearo : We have meetings every Monday and Thursday. The content of the meeting is announce a new performance and decide the direction of the performance. There is also time to share songs that have been made with each other. And the practice for performance begins a week before the concert. Other music clubs gather a lot before the concert because they have to perform together as ensemble. But in the case of rap, the rapper only has to practice his or her own beats assigned in order, so each of us practices ourselves and we gather at the end to complete the final piece of music.

IT : What is your most memorable performance?
Gearo : We remember a performance in Inha University. During the 1st semester festival in 2019, many of our classmates came to see the performance and enjoyed the performance together. So the members of Gearo club were also able to increase their tension and create good performances more and more. When we're performing in our university than outside, the audience's excitement is much better because of sense of belonging. Also, we remember performing at ‘Mega Bounce Hip Hop Festival’ in August 2019. We think it's memorable because we used the waiting room and the stage with famous rappers such as BewhY and Superbee, who were fans.

IT : What was the most difficult thing when you were doing the Gearo activity?
Gearo : Club members work hard, but it's hard because there are not many new members. We want more people to be free to apply Gearo and join us. We are also difficult to find a place where Gearo can perform. We want to go to more places and perform, but it's hard to find a place like that. We hope many media platfrom will help us become more famous.

IT : Unlike other hip-hop clubs, what is special about Gearo hip-hop club?
Gearo : The most special thing is that the outward appearance is normal. When we go to various performances, we see trendy hip-hop styles such as "excessive concept" and "a ragged style." Between those styles, Gearo pursue a more common appearance. But when the performance starts, we have a special music performance more than anyone else. We only compete with musical ability

IT : What do you think hip-hop?
Gearo : We can't decide on the hip-hop culture itself, but we think it's a ‘personal expression’. We think hip-hop is about creating and expressing yourself using something like dancing, singing and rapping. Also, we think hip-hop is a ‘means of empathy’ and empathy is the most important thing. If you listen to other songs, you can easily get empathy because most of them sing love stories. But hip-hop can tell other stories besides love stories. For example, the rapper is free to write what he or she wants to say or think in the lyrics. So the rapper is hard to get compassion and empathy because the rapper sing the own honest stories. However, we think that empathy is the only attraction of hip-hop in the sense that hip-hop can greatly contact with other people's thoughts and values.

IT : Lastly, what do you want to say to Inha University students?
Gearo : Although many people think the image of hip-hop is scary and strange, Gearo has many ordinary and enjoys music together with good people. Don't hesitate to apply freely! If you are interested in hip-hop, please feel easy to apply. There are also people who are currently active as hip-hopper. ‘OWLER’ and ‘FEELOSOPHER’ are hip-hop artists who deal with rap, indie music. OWLER creates songs based on experiences that many people can relate to with their own emotions, and expresses them beautifully, aggressively and smoothly. FEELOSOPHER is also a rapper with a similar feel and usually does a singing rap. Please give us some warm attention for the two rappers and love for Gearo~

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