Unpretty Rapstar Vol. 3 (2016-07-29) E01 (raw:
Mnet or
OnDemandKorea; subbed (
BBX Subs):
Part 1,
Part 2 (Facebook))
Spoilers ahead.
The first episodes follows the previous seasons: individually arriving at the set, awkwardly staring at each other, the host comes in to start an cypher, first mission one-take music video, and voting for the worst rapper.<ul class="bbc">[*]
Kassy (pronounced kay-see) is the first to arrive and is given no backstory.[*]Next is
Giant Pink, whose only real public appearance has been on
Show Me The Money 5 (2016). (Though she is technically also in Mystic Entertainment's hiphop crew All I KNOW MUSIC.)[*]
Jeon So Yeon enters with a story about not having been able to show her rap skill in
Produce 101. She's still attending school, and apparently has to wear a wig since she dyed her hair. She wants to be known not as someone young who has gotten good but as someone who is good.[*]
Ha Ju Yun comes in wanting to redeem herself from her golden days in Jewelry and her poor performance in SMTM5. She's been job hopping for the last two years.[*]After is
Nada, who is praised for
her mixtape. She guarantees to the viewers that she's coming in hard this season.[*]
Janey's story is mostly about her time in GPBASIC and modeling in commercials. If given the choice, she'd rather pursue rapping. The show creates an implicit rivalry between So Yeon and Janey because they're the same age.[*]
Miryo walks in, with all the other members showing their respect. She considers herself a first generation hiphop artist, having been rapping for 17+ years. She vowed never to go on another music survival show after embarrassingly forgetting her lyrics on
Show Me The Money (2012), but she wants to overcome her fear of them by participating in UPRS3.[*]
"Grazy" Grace confirms that she's living in her own world and wants to create her own style. Is she a rapper? Is she a singer? She just does what she does, creating her own genre "Grazy Hip Hop". She wants to show her own color on the show. She's the only one who comes in quite talkative, but Giant Pink shuts her down.[*]
Euna Kim describes how her dreams are slowly going down hill. She was recruited after her appearance on
Superstar K3 (2011) by YG Entertainment, collaborated with MFBTY, had a short-lived debut with THE ARK, but is now working part time at a restaurant. She has
a short English conversation with Grace, and then surprises everyone by
not recognizing legendary rapper Miryo in front her.[*]
Yuk Ji Dam enters by trying to kick the door down, making everyone curious as to why she's on the show again. She wants to disprove to people that she's not done with rap.[/list]YDG follows after everyone has greeted each other and starts the cypher initiation on top of The Fugees' "Ready or Not" (
P1,
P2): YDG =>
Giant Pink =>
Yuk Ji Dam =>
Euna Kim =>
Janey =>
Grace =>
Ha Ju Yun (
video) =>
Miryo (
video) =>
Kassy =>
Nada =>
Jeon So Yeon (
video). This went really well until Kassy started rapid fire rapping and messed up her lyrics. Nada followed by fumbling as well.
Since everyone knew about the cypher, YDG asks to see some members freestyle instead. The topic is "first impressions of each other", which turns into a mini diss battle:
So Yeon => Nada,
Nada => So Yeon,
Kassy => Giant Pink.
The show cuts to the first mission with producer Primary and director Lee Ki Baek (ZICO's "Boys and Girls", Girls' Generation's "You Think", etc.) describing the task: shoot a one-take music video. The worst performing rapper will be cut from the final edit of the video.
The members are given time to write lyrics to the track. The segment gives Kassy the Yezi editing by trying to show she can't count measures. When it comes to the hook,
Yuk Ji Dam dislikes all the suggestions, but Grace's lyrics end up winning in the end. After a quick showdown, the members choose Giant Pink over Miryo to perform the bridge.
After a difficult shoot, as usual, the next session reveals the final, raw one-take video to YDG and the members. After reviewing the video, YDG asks everyone to vote for the best and worst rapper during the shoot: YDG => Ha Ju Yun (lacks confidence), Euna Kim => Ha Ju Yun (lacks confidence), Janey => Yuk Ji Dam (only cares about her appearance), Giant Pink => Kassy, Ha Ju Yun => Kassy, Grace => Euna Kim (lyrical mistake), Kassy => Euna Kim, Jeon So Yeon => Euna Kim, Nada => Kassy, Miryo => Kassy, Juk Ji Dam => Kassy. Final counts: Kassy (5), Euna Kim (3), Ha Ju Yun (2), Yuk Ji Dam (1).
Kassy's verse was removed from the final cut of the music video. Both the
raw footage and
final edit can be watched for comparison.
Next week, team battle missions.
---<ul class="bbc">[*]Kassy: Not too impressed with her performance so far, especially since she hasn't doing anything well. A double-time meter during the cypher probably wasn't the best choice given the beat; it completely backfired on her. Getting cut from the music video is pretty harsh, but it's certainly better than getting eliminated.[*]Giant Pink: From her super husky voice to just her whole presentation, she's oozing that hard hiphop style. I look forward to her performing on the more aggressive tracks.[*]Jeon So Yeon: Far more assertive than I expected, and I approve of it. She's going to be fun in diss battles. She still has one of the more impressive flows out of the contestants. She's ridiculously good.[*]Ha Ju Yun: She really needs to step up if she wants to survive on the show. She's become very sulky far too early in the game.[*]Nada: An unfortunate failure during the cypher, so I'm left disappointed. TBD.[*]Janey: She's definitely grown up since her time in GPBASIC, and she sounds nearly identical.[*]Miryo: Miryo being Miryo. Did as well as I expected.[*]Grace: Definitely the most entertaining member so far with her unique charisma. She's just so funny. I'm still unsure about her rapping, but she is mighty confident in herself.[*]Euna Kim: Her intro rap was fine; her MV performance was bad. TBD.[*]Yuk Ji Dam: She's quite different from season 1, particularly a change in both character and attitude. That maniacal cackle after Janey called her out at the end was hilariously unexpected (P2 35:07).[/list]