The Seoulite

To the world he is known as ‘Tablo’, the leader of Korean hip-hop group Epik High. At Stanford he was known as Daniel Lee. Then Daniel ‘Armand’ Lee. And now this talented renaissance man has published his first novel - a collection of short stories written during his time at university.

‘Pieces of You’ is the title and though originally written in English, it has been translated in Korean for its release in Korea earlier this month. 50,000 copies have already sold out and the publisher ordered an additional 20,000 copies. The English edition is expected to launch in February 2009.

The stories focus on broken individuals searching for their identity - troubled, but tenacious characters who keep chasing their dreams.

'Every era puts importance on different social values. Once, it was arts and at times, religion or truth,' says Tablo. 'At present, people value comfort and money the most, which limits their passion for other things, like the arts.'

The Seoulite and Tablo were friends for a while in college. Here is a music video they made when they were dorm mates in Okada. Tablo stole his sweaters. But the Seoulite stole his jackets. They did it for art.

Daniel Armand Lee (born July 22, 1980), more commonly known by the stage name Tablo (Hangul: 타블로), is a Korean hip hop musician, rap artist, songwriter and lyricist. He is best known as the rapper and leader of the South Korean hip hop group Epik High. Tablo produces almost all the songs of Epik High with DJ Tukutz, and writes the lyrics with Mithra Jin. He has also produced and featured on many songs in South Korea. His work incorporates numerous musical styles, ranging from hip hop, to electronic music such as trance, trip hop, as well as rock.

Order the book in Korean here.

Note: The Seoulite also underwent a name change/modification for artistic purposes.

Tags: Art, Books, Daniel Armand Lee, Epik High, Korea, Novel, Okada, Pieces of You, Seoul, Seoulite, Stanford, Stanford University, Tablo

This entry was posted on Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 10:56 am and is filed under KPOP, Literature, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.