What follows are three of the best underground Korean hip-hop videos you’ll ever see.

As you may have noticed, Flight 808 has been sticking to the artist profile model pretty rigidly over the course of the last month or two. After several days of scanning the net for that next ’bout-to-blow Korean emcee, my Word document featured a combination of too many ill videos from a host of rappers but hardly enough [English] biographical material to write a paragraph about any of them. I was in a veritable Korean pickle… and I fucking hate pickles.

Fortunately, I was able to cook up some tangy and delicious pickleade. As the old Proverb goes– when you have some hot shit but lack biographical content, put that hot shit on your website and fudge the rest.

This first video is from the group Garion: “An Ancient Tale” features infectious, semi-dark keys; a hefty dose of turntablism, especially after the third verse; a second verse by a dude who sounds a bit like Brother Ali; and a short sample from a classic Wu joint to get it all started. Enjoy:

This next jam really set my weekend off right. A fat dude rapping in a plain, white t-shirt… smooth horns… a ballerina in leu of a stripper… a b-boy or two… pure happiness. Check it out.

Finally, we’ve got a cut from the Korean production team Primary Skool. The emceeing here is handled by MC Meta, a very well regarded underground rapper. Funky and up-tempo, “So Much Soul” receives high marks across the boards. Anyway, this concludes the post. If anyone has more information on any of these artists (or perhaps a video you deem iller than these three?) , please drop a comment, as usual. Peace! and enjoy “So Much Soul” …

Like so many of the artists covered here on Flight 808, Epik High is fairly unknown in the U.S. In Korea, they are huge. MC Tablo, a Stanford graduate with a prolific catalogue of guest shots, formed the group in 2000 with Mithra Jin and DJ Tukutz.They experienced their first taste of success in 2005 with their third album, Swan Songs.The single, “Fly,” was featured in the game FIFA 2007 – and like much of South-East Asian hip-hop, it features catchy, slick, pop hooks just as prominently as the rhymes. Tablo and Mithra perk up and smooth out their flow to match the synths and vocals – it’s a syrupy-sweet mix to swallow, but if you can block out images of 90′s boy bands it makes for a killer up-tempo dance track.

mp3: “Fly”

Now, contrast the album’s single with the corresponding video – we have a high-budget thriller (not like MJ’s “Thriller”) with a special effects budget and semipro actors. On the surface, it doesn’t seem to have much to do with anything. However, the thing to know is that film in Korea, Taiwan, and Japan has a tendency to be heavily symbolic, while conveying the anxieties of a modern and globalized Asian culture. Keep that in mind as you watch the “Fly” video (and the other music videos as well). It still might not make total sense, but at least you’ll know why.

Fast-forward to early this year, and Epik High has just released Remapping the Human Soul, which would sell hundreds of thousands of copies internationally. The next track is another lead single in the vein of “Fly” – take everything pop and catchy, and push it as far as possible – so much, in fact, that I’m not even sure I can call it “hip-hop.” The result is “Love Love Love.” This is the kind of track you play once, casually dismiss, and wake up the next day to find playing on repeat on your mp3 gadget.

mp3: “Love Love Love ft. Lee Yoong Jin”

Also from Remapping is the video for “Fan.” This is on the same tip as “Fly,” a slick, surreal video that seems emo to American audiences. Maybe it is emo – even though their wikipedia entry hints at some sort of political controversy with Korean television stations, I can’t confirm or deny since the only Korean-speaker I know isn’t returning my calls lately. Either way, just suspend your disbelief and enjoy: