[OTHERS] 131025 YG Producer Big Tone talks about Kang Seung Yoon and WINNER

YG Entertainment producer Big Tone was interviewed by Cuvism Magazine last October 2013 (same day as Choi Pil Kang’s CUVISM INTERVIEW release)  and he mentioned Seung Yoon and WINNER.

Recently, you also worked with Choi Pil Kang on Kang Seung Yoon’s “Stealer”. However, when you started working on this song you wondered if it would suit Kang Seung Yoon.

Yes. We worried a lot because it was his first song after the audition program. At that time, he sang songs that already existed, so even if he had managed to put his own style into it, they were still songs of other artists in the end. We thought more and more that we should keep this image but still show Kang Seung Yoon’s unique color. Besides, when people talked about Kang Seung Yoon, he’d be recognized “by instinct”. That’s why we worried a lot about how to break this mold.

How was the reaction after the song was revealed?

People often said that the lyrics were really cringe-worthy [? t/n: the word he uses is more like “give you goosebumps] because Kang Seung Yoon’s own name is in the lyrics. To be honest, the first time I heard the lyrics, my reaction was also “does his name really need to be there?”, but I ended up being okay with it. This is all part of the concept.

I saw on social networks that Kang Seung Yoon gave you a drawing.

Yes. Seung Yoon draws a lot in his spare time. He was bored, so he drew this. (laugh) Then he suddenly showed me his drawing and was somehow proud about it. (laugh) He drew me. It was cute. I took a picture and uploaded it online. (laugh)

Today is THE day. It’s the day of the ultimate battle for the YG rookie group that is currently the biggest issue not only for YG but also in the entertainment industry. You appeared as Team A’s rap instructor in Mnet’s program “WIN”.

Yes, I was shown as their rap trainer. (laugh) I’m also a songwriter, though…

Song Min Ho and Lee Seung Hoon, the rappers of Team A, are currently under your rap training. On broadcast, you said that Lee Seung Hoon’s rapping style was countrified. As their instructor, what do you think of their talent?

To be honest, it’s something I had been thinking ever since “K-pop Star”. I’m not pretending to diss him, I am dissing him and he knows it too. When he sang “Mother’s Bean Paste Soup”, he prepared the song with Pil Kang-hyung who felt the same way and told me “help me a little. This won’t work at all”. His pronunciation was shaky and, although he could really dance, there were many problems like his sense of rhythm when he rapped. I already knew that and he started rap training with me from the moment he entered YG. I had thought about it beforehand because I had knowledge from my hip-hop experience. You’ll probably see when you look at him now, but his skills really improved compared to before.

What about Mino?

Mino is already very good because he had activities on the underground scene. This is what I told him. “I know you can rap, but how will you convey emotion to people who know nothing about rap?”. He’s really good at rapping, but he’s no longer on the underground scene. That’s why I taught him how to appeal to the general public a little bit more.

Original article: cuvism
Translation: onesunnylady
Edited by @canoeknits

[for the rest of the interview, you can read it at thesunnytown]