Jessica Ko forges own path in Korea's indie hip-hop scene

Jessica Ko's "Astronaut" single cover / Courtesy of Jessica Ko

By Daniel J. Springer

Imagine that you are not quite out of high school yet. You live in a sleepy lay-low go-slow suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, so your life overall is almost annoyingly predictable and pretty tame.

High school blurs by, you’ve just turned 17, and you’re kind of done with it and this little frozen burg you’ve called home for as long as you can remember.

So, you decide to change things up and head off the beaten path — and by “off the beaten path,” we’re not talking about an impromptu flight with friends to Florida for some rays, or a wild weekend in New York.

No, in rapper Jessica Ko’s case, we’re talking about flying halfway across the world to stay permanently and train to become a K-pop star, and all this before she'd even legally become an adult.

Just for reference, most people at that age have just found enough courage to look at themselves in the mirror so they can pop their zits effectively. But in the competitive K-pop trainee system, that’s borderline elderly.

“Minnesota was a blur compared to all the memories I’ve made in Korea,” Ko told The Korea Times. “I grew up with Korea as part of my daily life, and studied [the Korean language] for a few months before coming here, but nothing could have prepared me for what I was in for.”

Having moved to Korea in 2016 right as the Korean wave was first hitting the West, Ko (as many expats moving here can attest) was a bit of a mark on the streets due to her 178cm height and overall appearance. “I was super targeted while shopping and many store owners and taxi drivers tried to trick me into paying higher fees than usual,” explained Ko, who is one quarter ethnically Korean herself, having one Korean grandparent. “I'm really grateful to my Korean friends who taught me early on how to avoid being scammed.”

Once here and ready to start training, Ko had already been on an extremely strict diet for several months, sometimes losing as much as 2.26 kilograms a week. “When I entered my company, I was training sometimes (from) 5 a.m. until midnight," she said. "We've all heard of the limited diets they feed trainees. In my case, one sweet potato, one hard boiled egg and boiled carrots or broccoli.” Not exactly a hearty diet, but for her even this was too much.

“I wouldn't eat the sweet potato because of the large traces of sugars and carbs. It got to the point where officials would meticulously watch me to assure I would eat all of my food, because avoiding it meant I would be nearly delusional at practice. Being a perfect idol means you have to have clean, sharp dance moves, but I was moving more like a puppet.”

Jessica Ko / Courtesy of I Men Bok

As you may have already guessed, this did not last. After a month, Ko left due to some fundamental disagreements with her company. Given the well-documented cases of body dysmorphia for both K-pop artists and fans, this was probably a positive development in the end for Ko.

But where to now? You’re 17 and you’ve become the first person to go from zero to 1,000,000 kph before graduating high school, but you suddenly have nowhere to go.

“I had a quarter-life crisis and tried going back to university in America for a few months. But at that point I was so culturally accustomed to Korea that I just desperately wanted to go back home to Seoul. And I found myself constantly wanting to find ways to make it as a solo musician,” Ko explained.

This is when the idea of getting serious about a solo music career germinated. “Through a friend of a friend, I was introduced to a producer and began working with him," she said. "We spent full days, I'm talking up to 48 hours nonstop, working on tracks.”

The result of this was 2022’s “Obsessed,” which appeared on Ko’s solo hip-hop debut "The Many Phases of Faces."

In her latest venture, we have a reimagining of Masked Wolf’s viral hit “Astronaut in the Ocean,” named simply “Astronaut.”

In the presser for the release, Ko states, “Did you ever feel like Masked Wolf’s ‘Astronaut in the Ocean’ could have been something...more?” As it said that Ko’s version has “more impressive bars, better range, and let’s face it, better vocals,” it was honestly a bit difficult to read if this was a tribute or a diss track.

“[The song] is by no means a diss track,” Ko laughed. “If you want to hear my diss tracks, listen to ‘Obsessed,’ a diss track to my simps caught in a parasocial relationship.”

“Astronaut” dropped on Feb. 10 with an accompanying video, which was shot at Lit Lounge in Itaewon. The filming and creation process itself, Ko noted, was “fantastic.” “I've actually filmed with highly esteemed industry professionals and this was honestly a better experience.”

As one might expect from such an independent endeavor, pretty much everyone was working pro bono, but the talent on display in the camerawork from Ryu Tae-gon and Seo Han-beom is pro grade, as is the work from all the extras putting in their time on the visuals.

Ko continued, “My production team is honestly amazing. We've been working together for almost a year, and I'm always so impressed with them. This was honestly a really last-minute project, and yet we still prevailed with one of the best filming experiences I've had.”

When asked if her DIY career transition to an independent hip-hop artist and overall experience had been positive, Ko replied, “It's so hard. And it will [continue to] be hard. It will be so hard, and you will question yourself constantly. There's always this little voice in your head saying, ‘Let's just give up. Is it worth it?’”

For Ko, it certainly is, and her decision to persevere is a testament to her fortitude. “I always want to encourage those around me to pursue their passions, but realistically you have to have the mentality for it. If you want to pursue music seriously, you can't just treat it like a hobby. You can't just let opportunities fall into your hands," she said.

“Actively pursue the dream. I always tell people, I don't have any days off, just moments. It's not a 9-to-5 office job you can clock in and out of and go have a beer after. I'm always on the clock because, when you want to be an artist seriously, your art is your life.”

Being that the life in question now takes place here in Korea pretty much permanently, how have the physical surroundings affected Ko's sound overall?

“I honestly think that I found my true sound in Korea. Korean hip-hop has a lot more micro genres than Western [rap]. I have gained a lot of inspiration from artists like DPR Live, DPR Ian, Bibi, PH-1, Dean and lots more that I wouldn't have known about unless I lived in Korea.”

It’s actually the Korean people that have really impacted Ko in the end.

“The crowds here are so amazing. You can really see people's love for music in their eyes and that's really what I want to deliver. I want to share my passion for music with the audience and give them a personal experience. I'm able to do that here, and that's all I want.”

Daniel J. Springer is the former producer and host of “The Drop with Danno” on GFN, now independently released, and is the current Music Director and Resident DJ at FRIENDS Gwangju.