Kasper’s Debut with Play The Siren
Before debuting, Play The Siren members made a mixtape that was uploaded through their agency, Baljunso, on its official YouTube channel and one of the members, Kasper, also did the same thing in her own YouTube channel.
In 2014, SM Entertainment acquired Baljunso as its subsidiary. After an announcement to launch a showcase together titled Baljunso World Wide Promotion, SM assisted the debut of Play The Siren in the music industry by releasing the single album Dream Drive in July 2014. Play The Siren would be debuted as a five-member group (Siren, Squalla, Beckbum, Chichi, and Kasper) which self-described as “urban music” group and focused on hip-hop and R&B music.
Prior to the album release, on July 16th, they dropped the music video teaser of their debut track “Dream Drive” featuring f(x)’s Luna.
On July 21st, they dropped the music video on SM’s official YouTube channel which also features f(x)’s Luna. The song uses powerful EDM with raps and Luna’s voice completes the song.
On the same day, the group finally made their debut stage on KBS’ Music Bank and other music shows as well.
However, many thought that the group adjusted their music to reach wider audiences. Some even noticed that Play The Siren had more hardcore raps from their previous pre-debut videos. Moreover, Luna got more lines and screen time when she was supposed to be featured not the other way around. Nonetheless, the song is not bad to fill out our days.
On July 23rd, they released another song, “Cypher,” whose music video was uploaded on Kasper’s YouTube channel. This time, they made a track with a full hip-hop rap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0tZBLFmJ1o
Months after their first album, on April 19th, 2015, they finally dropped a comeback teaser and released the music video of “Green Light” on April 27th. This time, it only featured three members: Siren, Kasper, and Beckbum.
On July 16th, they released another single “I’ll Be There” with only one member, Siren. The song is featured by Miel, a member of the girl group Bay.B.
It was unclear whether Siren was making a solo debut, or he was the only remaining member of the band. Because numerous members departed, including Kasper, Play The Siren finally disbanded in August 2015.
Kasper on Survival Show Appearance
Mnet’s Show Me The Money Season 4
It was reported that Kasper updated her Facebook with a caption to wish her luck, showing that she was auditioning for Show Me The Money Season 4. The show was aired from June 26th until August 28th, 2015. In the first episode, all of the judges were introduced. They were Team YG (Tablo and Jinusean), Team Brand New Music (Verbal Jint and San-E), Team AOMG (Jay Park and Loco), and Team ZiPal (Zoco and Paloalto).
The first episode was focused on the audition where all the contestants would be judged by a judge (selected randomly) and all of them had to rap a cappella. The ones who passed would be given a necklace by the judge. It showed that many artists, including idol rappers, joined this season of SMTM, like Seventeen’s Vernon, VIXX’s Ravi, WINNER’s Mino, and more.
Kasper appeared and was judged by Tablo. She said she hoped that she could make it like her close friend, Kisum (another SMTM 4 contestant and also Unpretty Rapstar 1 contestant). After showing her rap, she was passed by Tablo so she could continue to the next round.
In the second episode, the passed contestants had to do a 60-second rap. The only way to pass this round was to get at least one pass from the production team. Kasper was the first female shown in this round. She started her rap well but flustered when she received the first “fail.” Then she messed up her lyrics and eventually, she got all “fail” from the production team so she could not continue the competition.
Mnet’s Unpretty Rapstar Season 2
Kasper made her way to join the female rap competition, also known as Show Me The Money spin-off, that is Unpretty Rapstar Season 2. The show was hosted by rapper San-E, aired from September 11th to November 13th, 2015. The contestants were Kasper, Hyolyn, Ash-B, Gilme, Truedy, Sua, KittiB, Heize, Yubin, Ahn Soo-min, and Yezi.
In the first episode, the girls entered the studio one by one and sat together next to each other and face to face with San-E in the middle. The tension was suddenly built because San-E talked about many things, including Ash-B who had even dissed Kasper’s mixtape but Kasper didn’t give any response about it. For starter, each contestant had to make a self-introduction with a cypher (freestyle) with the same beat.
It started with San-E who called Yubin and the others until Kasper, who could not hold herself, finally stood up and walked towards Ash-B while rapping. After she finished, she then asked, “Is there anyone left?” which was meant for Ash-B who was the only one left to make a self-intro.
The next mission was One-take Video where all the contestants collaborated with producers and fellow contestants to make a music video in one unedited take for an original rap track. Each contestant also had to make their own lyrics and arrange the song. This time, the #1 track was produced by D.O, a producer and songwriter and also a member of the hip-hop duo Deux, who became one of the first to incorporate hip-hip into Korean music.
At the end of the session, they will be ranked from best to worst based on voting from themselves and the result will be read by the host un-anonymously. The best will have the advantage for the next mission and the worst will be eliminated for a while. Kasper managed to do well during the mission and got to do the next mission.
For the second episode, the next mission’s producer was veteran rapper Verbal Jint. He made two tracks: “Me, Myself, and I” for the #2 track and “음악이 아나였다면” (If There Weren’t Music) for the #3 track. Each track would be performed in a group in front of a 2,000 people audience. Verbal Jint further said that each track would be featured by a female rapper that turned out to be the former contestants of Unpretty Rapstar Season 1, Jessi and Cheetah. Jessi would be featured in the #2 track, while Cheetah in the #3 track. There were only 5 spots for each track and each contestant got to choose when their name was called so it was a matter of luck.
Kasper was the first one to pick. Even though she thought that the #3 track suits her better, she ended up choosing the #2 one with Jessi in it because she thought it would be less risky to mess up the lyrics. One by one, they got to choose until all the spots were taken. They had the chance to rehearse the track in the group and the featured rapper would choose the worst one to be eliminated from the live performance.
Jessi evaluated the rehearsal and thought Kasper left an impression but still lacked a bit. However, Kasper and Yezi were on the least ranks chosen by Jessi. After some thought, Jessi said she could see Kasper improving so she decided to let Yezi go.
After finishing the performance, Verbal Jint gave out his comments. He criticized Kasper for being too passive in her delivery on stage. Meanwhile, Kasper commented back in her interview clip saying that Verbal Jint was also very passive.
The next episode, all 11 contestants were brought back to the studio. San-E said that from then on, the elimination would be permanent. The first mission was a 1-on-1 battle and the winner would be determined through live online voting. They got to choose their opponent when their name was called. Hyolyn was first to pick and she picked Kasper which surprised everybody. The guest judges were Zico and Mad Clown.
The first battle was Hyolyn Vs. Kasper. Up until then, Hyolyn hadn’t shown her capabilities yet so Kasper was surprised when she saw her practicing. After the battle, Mad Clown thought that Kasper’s rap was very tight, while Zico thought that Hyolyn’s rap had depth. Yet, according to the votes, Hyolyn won over Kasper by 360 votes.
After all the battles were finished, they were left with five contestants, including Kasper, who lost the battle, in other words, she was in danger of being eliminated permanently. The judges only got to save two contestants and the remaining three would do last battle to determine the last two who would go home. Luckily, Kasper was saved by Zico because he wanted to see her again and she didn’t have to do the last battle.
Starting from episode 4, 4Minute’s Jiyoon joined the show and the girls were not pleased. For the next mission, they got to the #4 and #5 track both of which were produced by Jay Park and Cha Cha Malone. When they entered the studio, Kasper commented that she was familiar with Cha Cha because of Instagram and she likes a lot of his beats, amazed at how a foreign producer could be active in Korea.
The contestants were divided and got to choose which track they were interested to do by entering a room. Kasper chose the #4 track along with Truedy, Yezi, Sua, Gilme, and Yubin. Then they were told that each team of each track would be split into two teams and would compete against each other.
Kasper, Yubin, and Sua wanted to be in the same team as Truedy but she picked Kasper and Yubin. All contestants had six hours to prepare their live performance in front of the audience.
In the performance, Kasper started the first verse and unfortunately, she didn’t get feedback from the crowd and it almost seemed like her performance was plain. Even though Yubin seemed like she could save the team, Truedy messed up her lyrics and the team couldn’t bring the performance they had expected. Unfortunately, Kasper’s team had to let the other team win and advance to the #4 track.
The next mission, in episode 5, was probably the one everyone had been waiting for, a 1-on-1 Diss Battle. After one name was called, the one who wanted to challenge her should stand up. When Kasper was called, Gilme and Jiyoon volunteered, making her choose between them. She then chose Jiyoon because she didn’t know her well so she thought it was easier to diss her.
The guest judges were Dok2 and The Quiett from Illionaire who were also the producers of the #6 and #7 track. The winner of the battle got to choose which producer they’d like to work with. Kasper and Jiyoon performed in the third round and Jiyoon got to start first. Kasper used “Kasper’s Lesson” by Freshboyz Beatz as her beat and made a strong performance. Jiyoon unexpectedly gave out her best too and the battle seemed to be even. However, Kasper was chosen as the winner.
After all the battles finished, the winners got to choose which track they’d like to do. Kasper chose the #6 track which was produced by Dok2.
In episode 6, each producer team had to compete for the track. For Team Dok2, Kasper had to compete with Hyorin, Yezi, Trudy, and Sua to win #6 track “Hip Hop (Lalala)” by Dok2, Double K, while Team The Quiett had to compete to win #7 track, the instrumental version of YGGR (feat. MC Meta) by Illionaire Records. The best two of each team were determined by the producer and audience votes then they would do a diss battle to win the track.
Kasper’s part was too short to show off her skills. As expected, she didn’t get to be in the best two. After all the battles were done, the show got newcomers: Kim and Exy.
The last producer was revealed, it was YDG who produced the #8 track for the competition. For the first mission to win the track, the contestants would compete against male rappers from Show Me The Money Season 4 (seven rappers from SMTM 4 and four rappers from Super Rookie Challenge). Since all of them had to be ranked based on the audience votes, the bottom 3 would be eliminated. The result was shown in the next episode.
In episode 7, it was revealed that Kasper and Jiyoon had the same number of votes so they were placed either on 12th or 13th position, meaning that they were saved from the elimination. For the second mission, a team battle was held where they were divided into three teams and each had to perform a YDG song but only one could survive based on audience vote. Based on the previous ranking, Yezi and Truedy got to choose their team and that gave way for the unpicked to become a team, they were Kasper, Exy, and Jiyoon.
Each team had to choose a song so they needed to pick a representative to do a cappella rap battle. The representatives of each team were Kasper, Hyolyn, and Truedy. In the end, Kasper’s team got a chance to pick the song and they chose YDG’s “Shake It.”
When they performed, Kasper’s team was helped by an amazing performance by the newcomer Exy. Unfortunately, they were placed on the third position with 21 out of 188 votes.
In episode 8, the remaining contestants had to team up in groups of two. The team who had the lowest score would be permanently eliminated. Kasper was teamed up with Exy. Many rapper-producers would participate as judges like Mad Clown, Rhymer, D.O, YDG, Vasco, Basick, Nuck, ZITO and DTheo (Soul Dive). Kasper and Exy performed the fourth.
Regrettably, Kasper didn’t perform her best and some viewers commented that her rap was quite monotonous even though her lyrics were good. Meanwhile, Exy seemed to perform quite better. At the end of the battle, the ranking was shown and Kasper and Exy were placed last so they were both permanently eliminated from the competition.
You can read the full review of the show from episode 1-5 here, episode 6-final here.
Mnet’s Show Me The Money Season 6
Kasper indeed loves challenges. She challenged herself again to join Show Me The Money Season 6 after not succeeding with the two previous rap competitions. The competition was aired from June 30th to September 1st, 2017.
She passed the first and second round. For the third round, the 1-on-1 Rap Battle, the contestants were randomly selected one at a time then they had to choose one opponent that they thought they can beat. The two rappers had to prepare a performance in front of the judges to be evaluated. The winners go on and the losers go home. Kasper chose Grxxd (a contestant who was known as Milan in Show Me The Money Season 5) and managed to beat her so she could continue the next round.
In round 4, Team Choosing or known better as Cypher, the contestants were divided into 5 groups of seven members selected by the production team and each had to do a freestyle rap. The order of team performance was determined through the producer team’s live performance with the most audience votes prior to this round.
After each cypher round, the judges would rate the performance from best to worst. The best one from each group got to select which production team they want to be in and the worst ones got automatically eliminated. The remaining rappers were selected by judges until each production team was filled with five members and the unselected ones were eliminated.
Kasper was in Group 1 (along with Double K, Young B, Maniac, Hanhae, Mike Choe, and Ice) which performed Kendrick Lamar – “Humble” and Lupe Fiasco – “Jump.” She later was ranked 6th out of 7 so she was saved from the automatic elimination. Unfortunately, Kasper didn’t get selected by any production team so she had to leave the competition.
