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D8 life | THE STRAITS TIMES | FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 2017 | GoAheadQuoteMe The point is the Hip-hop for the masses character I’m playing. The audience doesn’t need to know who I am because I’m Artists under K-star Shay might just appear as a guest “It is not like I can’t get a not the Takeshi performer.” girlfriend. It’s not like I don’t want a BOOK IT / AOMG FOLLOW Jay Park’s label, On spreading hip-hop to the girlfriend. I’m focused on THE MOVEMENT IN Kaneshiro everyone masses, Park says: “We just have to accomplishing my goals. I can’t do SINGAPORE AOMG, will perform keep pushing. The listeners are not what I am doing now at 40, 50,” he imagines. here for the first time attracted to what they are not used says. WHERE: Suntec Convention to. You have to get them accus- “I’m hoping I can find love later Hall 601, Suntec City, tomed to the sound through on. Qualities of my ideal girl? She 1 Raffles Boulevard Gwendolyn Ng various ways, such as reality show has to be confident and have a nice Show Me The Money.” smile. I don’t have a standard. She WHEN: Monday, 5pm ACTOR TAKESHI KANESHIRO He is a judge on the upcoming doesn’t have to be a certain race, ADMISSION: $158, $188, ’’ Ex-communicated from the Korean sixth season of the televised rap height or look.” $228 and $288 from Asia Box pop scene for his outspoken ways, contest. Jay Park has defied the odds to As for love, it is not on the cards Office (asiaboxoffice.com) become a successful rapper in a for the busy bachelor. [email protected] music industry dominated by single-gender groups performing The guy is a legit bubble-gum pop. stud; he was a The Korean-American has also helped boost the hip-hop scene in professional South Korea by setting up indie baseball player, music label AOMG (Above Ordi- nary Music Group) in 2013. he’s a pilot, a father Park and his labelmates will show- of many well- case their music at AOMG’s first concert here on Monday, as part of adjusted kids, he’s a tour that has already stopped in a fisherman and New York and Bangkok. “Hip-hop is big now, but back a hunter and an then, there was no room for artists outdoorsman. like me. I wanted to give them a chance to be in the spotlight and I asked him if he’d be get greater credit for their talent,” my dad in real life says Park, who was speaking over the telephone from Seoul on his and I’m still waiting 30th birthday on Tuesday. to hear back. “I also wanted them to have the freedom to make music without the limitations of a bigger company, ACTOR CHRIS PRATT on Kurt Russell, who plays his father in Guardians Of which would probably pressure The Galaxy Vol. 2 them to make something more mainstream.” Park, who used to be part of boyband 2PM, would understand the restraints of being signed to a big talent agency. His two-year boyband career was I do sleep in my cut short after management agency make-up sometimes, JYP Entertainment terminated his contract for undisclosed reasons in but I always wake up 2010. It was widely speculated to be at 2am, freaking due to fans’ outrage over Park’s negative comments about South out and feeling Korea that he made online years completely guilty earlier. The singer-rapper soldiered on about it. My body and pursued a solo career. He knows. released his fourth studio album, Everything You Wanted, last year, and it went to No. 3 on Billboard’s World Album chart. He also recently earned a coveted spot in the sports and entertain- ’’MODEL BELLA HADID ment category of Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2017 list, which honours young notable talents across various industries. The success of AOMG also did not go unnoticed and, last year, Korean entertainment conglomerate CJ E&M acquired the start-up. Park prefers not to talk about the past, but acknowledges the initial challenge of going up against estab- lished entertainment agencies with deep pockets. “We couldn’t put that much money into promotions and big-budget music videos. We could rely only on our music,” he says. “But I think more people are catching on to hip-hop. Five years ago, a lot of these artists such as Loco and Crush, who are popular now, were unknown.” AOMG’s roster of artists includes the who’s who of the Korean hip-hop scene, such as co-founder and rapper Simon D, rappers Gray and Loco, and DJ Pumkin. The four acts are part of the ongoing tour. In Singapore, Park hopes that home-grown rapper Shigga Shay, whom he performed with at last year’s youth music event Shine Korean- Festival here, will join him on stage. American rapper A spokesman for concert Jay Park started organiser Launch Group says: his own music “There is no confirmation as of label in 2013. now, but you never know if Shigga PHOTO: WWW.BOOBAGRAPHY. COM Beethoven with wit, freshness and sunshine REVIEW / CONCERT phony Orchestra. Second, it is some- The sound he got from them was well, but matters of inner balance Particularly impressive was his what smaller than the Singapore fabulous. Oozing with the spirit and and coordinated phrasing seemed first movement cadenza, in which LIM YAN PLAYS BEETHOVEN Symphony Orchestra. character of Beethoven, this was a to be left to chance, and while the he struck the ideal balance between Resound Collective, Lim Yan, Piano This was the first concert in its gloriously robust and red-blooded musical performance was spirited, the international trend for caden- Victoria Concert Hall (admittedly short) history which performance. Seah led very much the overall sound was lumpy. zas to wander wildly off-piste and Wednesday dispensed with a conductor. from the front, with the result that Pianist Lim Yan took control in the Singaporean taste for keeping The logic seemed to be that as the music seemed to be ricocheting the final work, Beethoven’s First them strait-laced. Marc Rochester chamber music has no conductor, around the stage rather than Piano Concerto. Initially reticent in A conductor might have handled neither should a chamber orches- coming out at the audience from a his direction of the ensemble, he the communal bowing at the end of tra. single conglomerate entity. gradually became more involved as the concert better. There is no generally accepted defi- But with three dozen players on A party of nine wind players, a the concerto proceeded and the re- Lim came back several times to nition of a chamber orchestra – it stage, managing without a conduc- cellist and a double bass took the sult was a thoroughly stimulating take a bow and give an encore and seems that any group calling itself tor was always going to be a tall stage next for Dvorak’s delicious and enervating performance, full of was applauded enthusiastically by one can define the term. order, especially for an ensemble Wind Serenade, a work brimming wit, freshness and musical sun- the orchestra, but the audience was For the Resound Collective, that had played together in public over with fine melodies and a shine. denied the opportunity to applaud which describes itself as Singa- only twice before. wonderfully youthful vigour. For Lim has that gift of making every- fully the orchestra’s sterling efforts. pore’s first fully professional It was left to violinist Seah Huan this, no single player seemed to be thing sound easy and natural, of That aside, Lim Yan showed that, chamber orchestra, that definition Yuh to lead the orchestra through in overall command. looking completely in his element when good musicians take the comprises two elements. the tricky pitfalls of Beethoven’s The musicians conveyed the yet producing genuinely insightful stage, conductors are largely super- First, it is not the Singapore Sym- Coriolan Overture. melodies and the youthful vigour interpretations. fluous..

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