an irreverent start of a new chapter

On the ultimate track of their final launch, ‘Epik Excessive Is Right here 下, Half 2’, Tablo declares, ominously: “Epik Excessive was right here.” Later, in an interview with NME, he defined he was surprisingly OK with the thought of the album being their swansong. “It simply sounds proper. You don’t know with life. So, if that turns into actually the outro of my final work, I would love folks to keep in mind that Epik Excessive was right here,” he mentioned on the time.

Paradoxically, it’s taken a brand-new launch to clarify that ‘Epik Excessive Is Right here 下, Half 2’ was certainly a farewell – however solely to the final 20 years of their profession. Or the first 20 years: understanding them, Tablo, Mithra Jin and Tukutz will most likely be making music after they’re 80. With the previous behind them and given its due, Epik Excessive’s new EP ‘Strawberry’ begins a brand new chapter for the group. It introduces their “villain arc”, as they are saying on ‘On My Manner’, the place they push, with vigour and cheek, even more durable towards conference.

‘On My Manner’ options Jackson Wang – who has poetically been facilitating his personal renaissance with ‘Magic Man’ – and sees Epik Excessive flip their again on the previous, each the great and the unhealthy. They rap in regards to the inevitability of endings: “Ultimately, parting is one thing that may’t be averted / Start turns into loss of life / The place the flowers bloom, the snowflakes bloom / Simply as darkness falls the place the sunshine as soon as shone.” Their bravado, nevertheless, is contrasted by Wang’s uncharacteristic vulnerability: “Please child are you able to gimme room to breathe / You don’t know what it feels wish to be me,” he sings. It appears this decision to maneuver on was prefaced by resignation to the truth that issues may by no means change.

Even so, you’ll by no means ‘Catch’ Epik Excessive slipping. For all the injuries they’ve licked in personal, they’re additionally thumping their chests and claiming their place in public. It feels proper to have MAMAMOO’s Hwasa on a observe like this, given how she’s waged her personal wars towards haters on songs like ‘Maria’ and ‘I’m a 빛’. “I don’t make the foundations / You’ll by no means catch me placing on a noose / God is actual, I’m the residing proof,” Tablo fires off on ‘Catch’ – presumably referencing the TaJinYo witch-hunt that almost destroyed his profession – earlier than proclaiming he’s above all of it by poking enjoyable at Korea’s obsession with the MBTI character check and claiming his is ‘IDGAF’. It’s humorous as a result of it’s true.

Tablo’s irreverent contempt for traits du jour continues on ’90s hip-hop throwback ‘Down Dangerous Freestyle’, condensing the insanity of the occasions into an informal, succinct salvo. “Who wants a metaverse? / Yo, it’s a meta curse / Diggin’ up metadirt to place you in a metahearse,” he quips. There’s some aid right here from the mini-album’s in any other case combative tone, however you additionally know that Tablo is barely half-joking.

It’s the ethereal, atmospheric closing observe ‘God’s Latte’ that gives essentially the most perception into Epik Excessive’s trajectory post-‘Strawberry’. On this track, Tablo meets God for a espresso and asks: “What sort of folks find yourself in hell?” God doesn’t reply, however Tablo tries to. “Who’s pointing a finger at who? / It’s humorous, whilst you fake to carry good and evil in your palms / whilst you resolve a prize or punishment for others / It’s you that’s on the dimensions.”

It’s clear that Epik Excessive aren’t fascinated by stooping to the worst of a world the place “there’s nobody under and nobody above / however everyone seems to be making an attempt to be God,” as they put it on ‘God’s Latte’, however in creating their very own. The trio have at all times proven naysayers an enormous center finger, and on ‘Strawberry’ they reiterate their renewed, mature ethos: Epik Excessive can be out right here evolving and being who they’re. The whole lot else will work out.