Did Tiger JK predict the tobacco price hike?

Seo Jeong-kwon, also known as Tiger JK from hip-hop duo "Drunken Tiger" / Korea Times file

Rapper Tiger JK is being lauded for his intuition because a song he wrote in 2004 seems to “predict” the government’s recent price hike on cigarettes.

In the song, titled "

Would-Be Singer 1,

" Tiger JK rhymes about overpaying for a pack of cigarettes. He pays 4,500 won ($4.16) for a pack, which is what many cigarette brands now cost following the Jan. 1 price hike.

At the start of the song, from the album “One Is Not a Lonely Word,” the rapper has 5,000 won in his wallet. He then enters a “bread shop” to buy a pack of cigarettes, but as he pays, he becomes mesmerized by a “pretty woman” who appears on a television screen.

“Then I realize I was given only 500 won in change,” he sings. “The cigarettes cost 1,500 won. What’s 5,000 won minus 1,500 won?”

Netizens unearthed the track following the government price hike. One commenter called the premonition “scary,” while others wondered if his wife, rapper Yoon Mi-rae, whose first name translates to “future,” had anything to do with the “prediction.”

Tiger JK, whose real name is Seo Jeong-kwon, debuted as a member of hip-hop duo Drunken Tiger in 1999.