K-hop is a budding movement of Korean hip-hop music with with ties to pop, R&B, soul, and electronica.
In Korea, the hip-hop movement began in the mid-1990s, with early artists such as DJ Doc and Seo Taiji And The Boys (one of its members, Yang Hyun Suk, went on to set up R&B and hip-hop-heavy music label YG Entertainment). They rapped almost entirely in Korean, with some even incorporating traditional Korean music into their rhymes.
Coming from Los Angeles, Tiger JK, who rapped in both English and Korean, was able to reinterpret the appeal of gangsta rap for his audience at home.
In 2000, he spearheaded The Movement, made up of hip-hop artists whose goal was to bring hip-hop into the mainstream. Members of The Movement, which still exists today, include Epik High, Leessang, Dynamic Duo and Dok2.
Thanks largely to The Movement, there is plenty of hip-hop-infused K-Pop these days, also known as K-hop, and it has proven to be a force to be reckoned with on the global stage, with groups such as 2NE1 and Big Bang, both with YG Entertainment, last year winning international MTV awards for Best New Band In The World and World Wide Act. .
