K-hiphop is trending now: the growth of Korean hiphop on Twitter!

With BTS (@BTS_twt) recently topping the Billboard ‘Hot 100’ Chart, the popularity of #Kpop as a global phenomenon is clear. In the wake of Kpop’s explosive growth, #Khiphop has emerged as a  rapidly growing genre, receiving global attention from hiphop fans around the world. 

In Korea, hiphop musicians are turning to Twitter to engage with their global fanbases. From #Khiphop legend Drunken Tiger JK (@DrunkenTigerJK) to Jay Park (@JAYBUMAOM), Simon Dominic (@longlovesmdc), Gray (@callmeGRAY), Loco (@satgotloco), San-E (@san_e), Ugly Duck (@uglyduck062), Hoody(@Hoodykim), Wonjae Woo(@munchinthepool), Punchnello(@fkuropinion), Dokki (@notoriousgonzo), Zion.T (@SkinnyRed), Crush (@crush9244), BeWhy (@meshasoulja), and DeVita (@lilchoster), first generation to third generation hiphop artists are leveraging Twitter to communicate with their fans in unique ways.

Recently, the musicians from one of Korea’s leading hiphop labels, ‘AOMG (@AOMGOFFICIAL)’ have been particularly active on Twitter. There are a number of innovative examples in recent months of AOMG artists taking to Twitter to share their music and engage with their fans in impactful ways.

Jay Park:

Jay Park, the founder of AOMG, is known for proactively interacting with his fans on Twitter. Park frequently encourages fans to Tweet questions for him to respond to, using the hashtag #ASKJAYPARK.

Loco:

Park’s organic fan engagement has inspired other AOMG artists to leverage Twitter to connect with their fans as well. After completing his two years of mandatory military service, popular K-hiphop sensation, Loco (@satgotloco) turned to Twitter to celebrate the release of his new EP album, ‘Some Time.’ 

Loco leveraged multiple tactics to engage his fans on Twitter starting with a Twitter Q&A, in which he solicited questions from fans, which he then answered during an official Q&A session.

Loco answered some fans’ questions, including ones from Twitter Music (@TwitterMusic) and Twitter Music Japan (@TwitterMusicJP).

Following his Q&A, Loco visited the #TwitterBlueroom where he recorded a live stream program discussing his new album and answering additional fan questions. The 70 minute live stream garnered over 1M viewers and received positive engagement from fans. 

To celebrate the launch of his new album and the surrounding Twitter conversation, Twitter created a custom emoji that automatically appends to any Tweets containing the hashtags #로꼬, #AOMG_Loco, #satgotloco, #LocoSOMETIME, or #AskLoco. Loco announced the emojis by Tweeting an interactive GIF that displayed all of the hashtags that populated the emoji.

Wonjae Woo: 

Rapper Wonjae Woo (@munchinthepool) also joined Twitter to connect with fans in conjunction with the launch of his first full album titled, ‘Black Out’. Woo is known for having a notable darkness to his music, and this album reflected that.

‘Black Out’ was released on August 18th, and that same day Woo published his first Tweet to the great anticipation of many fans. 

As part of Woo’s album release press cycle he also visited the #TwitterBlueroom for a live stream using Twitter Korea’s tailored Blueroom format. The stream kicked off with the music video for his new song, ‘USED TO (Feat. CIFIKA)’ and set the tone for a darker atmosphere than usual live streams, in keeping with the theme of ‘Black Out’. 

Throughout the one hour livestream Twitter was flooded with questions from fans around the world using the hashtag #AskWoo.

Interestingly, many fans submitted questions to Woo about fellow AOMG artists, including rapper Simon Dominic, Code Kunst (@code_kunst) and Jay Park (@JAYBUMAOM). Some asked witty questions such as “Five years old Jay Park versus Five Jay Parks?”, which Woo responded to with,  “Jay is very reliable so I’d be happy with five of him.” His responses were short but clever. 

Woo’s fellow artists joined in and asked him questions of their own. Park asked Woo, “Why u so sexy bro #AskWoo?” illustrating his love for the fellow AOMG member. Woo triggered laughter among the audience by saying, “I will just take a pass on that comment.” 

The Q&A was was followed by the highlight of the event, #WooBlueroomLIVE, where Woo played treated fans to a live performance of all of the songs from the new album. Woo sang a total of nine songs over a roughly 30 minute set to wild acclaim from fans around the world. The #TwitterBlueroom drew over 1.2 million viewers, which is a testament to the massive interest in K-hiphop.

Hoody:

In July, rapper Hoody, (@Hoodykim) visited the #TwitterBlueroom  for a Q&A promoting the release of her new song Submarine. Hoody used the Twitter VIT app to facilitate the Q&A, allowing her to quickly respond to a number of questions from her global fanbase.

These are just a few examples of how K-hiphop musicians are increasingly turning to Twitter to actively engage with their fans. And there’s much more to come. To check it all out, join the #Khiphop conversation on Twitter!