Background
Jung Hunchul, better known as Iron, is a 92’er underground rapper who came in second place on the Korean hip hop show “Show Me the Money”. He is part of the DaeNamHyun crew along with rappers Marvel J, i11evn, Kidoh, Supreme Boi, Kyum2, Rap Monster, Samsoon, Illipse, and DJ Snatch. He was also in BTS’s original line up! He’s now a trainee in Polaris and will debut in a group called HIVE. (source)
Recommended Songs
(you can find the studio version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMah7ArWFbY)
Thoughts on Iron
To be honest, before “Show Me the Money”, I had never heard of Iron or his crew. I am so glad I decided to watch this season because it introduced me to some amazing hip hop artists I didn’t hear of before. When I first saw Iron on the show, I liked him because of a shallow reason: how good looking he was. When I heard him rap for his audition, I wasn’t sure if I really liked him as a rapper, although the rap was pretty good. He has a very rough,coarse, aggressive voice when rapping. It makes him sound like he is pissed off. Generally I like a smoother tone and style-sort of like Zico-as it sounds more pleasant to my ears. But as I watched the show, his style grew on me. It was his own unique style which helped me distinguish him from other rappers. What made me like him even further is how hard he worked on the show. Fans of the show know that in the beginning his mentor, YDG, didn’t help him at all. Iron had to create his own song for his first performance from scratch. It worked in his favor as he earned a lot money and won against Team YG.
He mentioned his weakness several times: bad pronunciation. But he makes up for it through his strong performances; he’s the type of charismatic person who can command attention simply by standing on stage. During final four competition, he did one of the best performances in the whole season. He sampled Leessang’s “Poison Gas” and talked about how he missed out yet learned ethical lessons because of the lack of money. Many people know I am a huge Leessang fan, but honestly I think his version is better. The lyrics really touched me because it’s something very relatable. Some people can understand the pain he went through and what he gained in the end. When he was performing that song, I didn’t see a handsome rapper. I saw someone with a similar experience as me. Sometimes people tend to forget performers are human beings too; we tend to constantly bash and criticize their mistakes. This song really helped me see Iron in a different way.
It’s hard to imagine him in an idol group, but as a fan, I cannot wait to see Iron grow as a rapper and see him more often! I highly recommend checking out his mixtape. He performed Psycho for his audition and it really grew on me. Iron really seems to like Reggae, which I am sure you can tell from his songs.I don’t really like the reggae/rap mix but he manages to make it quite enjoyable.
Social Media Sites
twitter: https://twitter.com/mightyirony92
his crew’s twitter: https://twitter.com/Official_DNH
instagram: http://instagram.com/mightyirony
facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/%EB%8C%80%EB%82%A8%ED%98%91/478557645515869?ref=profile
