Much of my recent aural energy has been spent indulging in hip-hop, specifically Korean hip-hop. As far as my last.fm account goes, it has had a healthy boost of Korean hip-hop tracks logged for the past few weeks.

MC Sniper (MC 스나이퍼) has been near if not on top of the recent Korean hip-hop scene for quite some time now. Releasing his debut album, So Sniper… in 2002, success quickly followed. His break-out single, titled “BK Love” was a memorable love song for/about his friend. MC Sniper has released three more albums since, with his most recent — How Bad Do U Want It — hitting store shelves on March 7, 2007.

How Bad Do U Want It

After my first time listening to MC Sniper’s How Bad Do U Want It, I got up out of my chair strangely with mixed feelings. My thoughts concerning the album were all positive yet the sound of the album itself was what left a funny taste in my mouth (ears?), figuratively speaking.

How Bad Do U Want It is so beautiful — fleshed out with deep layers of natural instruments: pianos, guitars, strings, horns; performed passionately and very diverse. While especially musically beautiful for a hip-hop LP, How Bad Do U Want It’s some 18 tracks are full of frustration, anger, and sadness. It is that seeming contrast between the album’s musical “tranquility” and it’s vocal angst that make it somewhat enigmatic, more beautiful, and feeling more so like art.

Musically, MC Sniper’s latest effort is a mash up of organic layers supplied by an array of instruments played in diverse styles. Tracks employ ska and flamenco guitar styles and horns do the same. Most of the album actually feels like something produced in turn-of-the-century Spain or Latin America shortly thereafter, with rapid Korean rhymes interspursed. These musical tracks are most likely loops but the album’s producers sure do a great job of making these sound live. Are they?

How Bad Do U Want It features collaborations with the likes of Outsider, Mr. Room9, MC BK, Yuri, Skull of Stony Skunk, Horan of Clazziquai, and more. Those featured bring a wide range of vocals styles to MC Sniper’s work.

Themes that pop up throughout the album deal with issues that seem close to MC Sniper — love, poverty, hope.

“Come Unto Spring”
The leading single off of How Bad Do U Want It is 봄이여 오라 feat. 유리 (Pomiyeo ora, Come Unto Spring feat. Yuri). It’s a fitting and beautiful song mixing MC Sniper’s slightly aggressive rap with Yuri’s smooth, calm vocals.

The music video for the song is interesting. It’s sad and beautiful but while the song is about hope, many visuals supplied in the video lack it. The performance segments of the video are very nice. These parts have MC Sniper on a grand piano while being backed by an on-stage band as well as Yuri. Distinctive lighting illuminates and casts dark shadows as well (MC Sniper’s videos often don’t show much of his face). It’s long and a bit of a narrative. Enjoy:

Buy “How Bad Do U Want It”
It’s obviously on the (new) “Currently Spinning” list, I can’t get enough of it. If you thought “Come Unto Spring” (Pomiyeo ora) was good, the entire album is like that if not better. 5 STARS ★★★★★