The whole point of this playlist is to encourage open-mindness through music, and to celebrate art as a powerful tool to find both what's universal and what's unique about each human being.
That being said, "Happen ending" by Epik High fits "Music to Dali & Jay-Z lovers" in so many levels that it's hard to describe.
We can begin by saying that it's sonically glorious, it's a jazzy rap ballad with traditional Korean music influences.
The aggressive flow of the group and the paced beat are balanced by the softness of the singer's voice in the chorus and for the piano and violins, which it’s perfect for the lyrics.
This is a song about sabotage and rejecting the idea of love for the fear of what it can do. Love and fear; softness and anger; a piano melody and a hip hop beat. Different polarities perfectly combined in an amazing song.
The group raps about their avoidance to get in touch with emotions (“I’m still perfectly breathing after the break up anyway / So I won’t do the thing that kills me and buries my heart”), and you even if you don’t understand Korean you’ll hear the pain in their voices. The chorus, though, is quite collected and almost blasé, as the guest sings: “Like always / It will end / Am I really in love? / Or am I dating to break up? / Once again, it’s coming to me / An easy ending”.
Aren’t those questions and feelings anyone can relate?
"Happen ending" is a Korean/English wordplay that alludes to the expression "Happy ending", using the Korean word "헤픈" ("heppeun") to end up meaning "Easy ending" - "easy", not because it’s not tough, but because it’s inevitable, the self-destruction that one attracts when they’re in the mood to fear love.
I am always so mesmerized at how beautiful Korean language is, especially when I hear songs like this. Their flow here is particularly fucking awesome! No wonder rap music got so accommodated in South Korea, their language really favours the construction of interesting lines and rhyme schemes.
This, by the way, is another thing that fascinates me, how music can be such an anthropological experience, getting you in touch with so many worlds, so many feelings, to the point that you can’t really define if you’re intrigued by how exotic or how familiar it is. I mean... This song, man! The fusion of styles is very unique and beautifully done, and the lyrics are amazingly profound.
I’m not surprised, though. This is what Epik High does: they go deep, they get you high, and they always do epic shit.
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About the curator: Ana Clara Ribeiro
Music, art and entertainment have always played a big role in the life of Ana Clara Ribeiro. She grew up in Gurupi (an inland city in Tocantins, the youngest State of Brazil), listening to all kinds of music, reading, writing, watching stuff and connecting them to her personal beliefs and other ideas she read about.
As she became a lawyer and a writer, all the topics to which she is constantly exposed continued to give her insights about life, people and the universe, through the lenses of art.
Nowadays, when she isn’t analyzing lawsuits or producing content about Law, Marketing, Business or Music, she is certainly doing something related to her various personal and professional projects, always to the sound of a playlist as eclectic as her life.
