If we made the first album again I wouldn’t call us a hip-hop group. That felt like a bridle and was really suffocating. Of course when we do hip hop, we confidently do hip hop. If hip hop fans listened to that song, I think they would think we were a hip hop group. Because of 1, they judged 99. The people who liked our emotional songs defined us in their own way. Each conception of Epik High is so different that no matter what, it doesn’t matter to us. But worrying about making music that will be loved by both is really difficult. If I went back to the past I think I would say that we’re a pop group, but that we have confidence in doing rap and hip hop well (laughs). From the beginning it wasn’t something that we said. A lot of qualifiers about us being hip hop warriors stuck (laughs).

If you make depressing music, you get even more depressed. Now I don’t want to make music like that. From that time, the album’s direction became very different.

I requested it. It was my first joint work. These days if I make music it unconditionally becomes depressing. I played piano and if you only heard the chords it was clearly bright, but at the completion it became depressing. That was incredibly annoying. I made it brightly but because it became depressing I was stressed out. Even the members felt heavy, and because they said it would be better if it came out brightly than gloomily, I sought reinforcements. They gave the energy that we needed to be bright and enthusiastic.