2017 · From the album First Album: Rap Legend
Pass the Rhyme (feat. CHANGMO & Dok2)
by SUPERBEE
The reading
Three Korean rappers trade verses to stake a claim as scene leaders, framing rap as both a flex and a documented climb out of poverty
02 · Interpretation
Pass the Rhyme: SUPERBEE, CHANGMO and Dok2 Trading the Crown
"Pass the Rhyme" is built the way its title promises: a baton handoff. SUPERBEE opens, CHANGMO takes the middle, and Dok2 closes, with each rapper using his verse to argue that Korean hip-hop's center of gravity runs through him and the people next to him on the track. Released at the end of December 2017 as part of SUPERBEE's "First Album: Rap Legend," it functions as a thesis statement for the project's title.
SUPERBEE's opening verse works in two registers at once. He addresses younger rappers almost paternally ("Bro, 삽질해라, 화이팅") while positioning himself as an "Underground Rockstar" who was already touring with his crew Illbition when peers were still sightseeing. The imagery stays combative: he compares rival rappers to a snack-sized KitKat snapped under his water pressure, promises to uproot everything in his path ("굴러가는 돌 모든 돌 뽑아 뿌리채"), and name-checks his hometown Deokso alongside G-Dragon as a kind of local-boy-made-good shorthand. The verse also carries a quiet product-placement swagger, the Amex Platinum card that he says he'll keep swiping until it turns black, framed not as decoration but as proof of a self-made arc.
CHANGMO's verse pivots from flex to origin story. He calls himself a "기타없는 rockstar," a rockstar without a guitar, and dismisses rivals' performances as more embarrassing than smashing one. Then he grounds the bragging in autobiography: his old home was a vinyl greenhouse, then a lightless semi-basement, and only later the "집 다운 집," a house worth the name, in Deokso. That line does a lot of work on the track. It reframes the earlier luxury talk as earned rather than inherited, and it links the Ambition Musik roster's current foreign cars and bling to the concrete they say they came from. The mixtape years, he notes, were cold like his Cuban link, a joke that only lands because he can now afford the chain.
Dok2's closing verse is the elder-statesman cameo the song is built around. He slides in with a bilingual "¿vato, qué pasó?" and consolidates the three crews under one umbrella: Illionaire, Ambition, and Ghood Life, no need to split territory. His bars are the most purely craft-focused of the three, insisting he never treats this as work, that he keeps it thorough across boom bap or trap, that he's wagered his whole life on the mic. The final image, "Got my third eye open, 여기 니들 바로 위에," closes the song with the same hierarchy claim SUPERBEE opened with, now spoken by the rapper who, in 2017, had the longest resume to back it up.
Context
The track sits inside a specific moment in Korean hip-hop. By late 2017, Show Me the Money had turned rappers like SUPERBEE and CHANGMO into mainstream names, while Dok2 and his Illionaire label had spent years codifying the luxury-rap template in Korean. Putting the three on one song, with CHANGMO's Ambition Musik and SUPERBEE's Just Music orbit alongside Illionaire, reads as a deliberate alliance pose. The repeated Deokso references matter here too; CHANGMO and SUPERBEE both came up from that Gyeonggi town, and the song keeps circling back to it as a shared point of origin.
Why it lands
Posse cuts live or die on whether the verses escalate. This one does. SUPERBEE sets the terms, CHANGMO supplies the biography that justifies them, and Dok2 ratifies the whole thing from above. There's no hook pulling focus, no concept beyond the pass itself. For listeners tracking the mid-2010s Korean rap scene, it works as a snapshot of which rappers were willing to stand on the same track and claim the same ceiling.
Themes catalogued
03 · Lyrics
"Pass the Rhyme (feat. CHANGMO & Dok2)"
Yeah, oh
Yeah, yeah
난 쪼개 하이햇처럼 너네 하이틴
래퍼들을 보며, "Bro, 삽질해라, 화이팅"
Underground Rockstar here, 너가 미국 sightseeing
할때 난 투어 하였지 with illibition, my team
My gang, yeah, my squad, 팬 귀 독점 나의 숙원
애들 귀엔 오직 나이스한 음악, rhyme이 이빠이 풀로
들어가야해, 네 clan은 거 안 부합해
나의 수압에 눌려 나온 네 장 내 간식, KitKat
뒤엘 조심해, I go boom, boom
겨낭해서, click-clack-bang
안 갖혀, 클리셰, 작은 손 가득 cream색
난 굴러가는 돌뒤에, 굴러가는 돌 모든 돌 뽑아 뿌리채
Dickheads are afraid of me, I'm motherfuckin' 핀셋
직행티켓을 잡아 전날에 또 pick-pack
홈런을 쳐 cricket (yeah), 그래, 내가 사길게 (what?)
너넨 아마추어 같으니 가서, 골라 type beat
리민, 그리고 my mate 'BEE는, 천을 사임 세종
한장인듯 써대는 놈들 가짜 사이 진짜 배기
너넨 못봐, 나의 패, 우리 패, 또 우리 fam 패배
덕소 GD 옆엔 승리뿐야, rat-tat-tat (brrr)
Yeah, brother, mans not hot, I just make the crowd hot
더기리 덕소놈의 카드 Amex Platinum, I wont stop until
I get the black one (black one), 난 selfmade의 상징 (yeah)
오, 저거 살까? 저거 벤테이가 맞지 (skrrr)
내가 맞았지, 흐, 이 나라 힙합의 미래를 두 어깨에
짊어졌어 like 멜빵바지, 흐
I go, fuckin' legend, CHANGMO는 기타없는 rockstar
네 rap은 기타 부수는 퍼포먼스보다 창피하지
우린 모두 플래티넘 카드를 치직
너도 할 수 있어, 다만 League of Legend 얘기지
귀로 듣는 음악엔, you better microphone check
메세지는 그 다음 'cause a microphone is ain't 책, bitch
내 옛 집은 비닐하우스 빛이
없던 반지하 그 후 덕소리 집 다운 집
I'm so busy now, 회사 차가 집이 아닌가?
분간이 안가, 허나 확실히 말할수있는 건 난 rich
그리고 star 친구 훈기가 태워준 foreign car
배기음 클래식 음악인듯 (부릉), 연주 하고 난후 parking
Bling, bling, 우리가 누리는 삶, 멋진 라임들이
없음, 못누렸다네, we from the concrete
Concrete, 이 아스팔트위 기어는 D, I never R
대부분 B급 못돼, 'BEE급, 이 바닥의 problem, ayy
We livin' Ghood, Bition은 full 더 넓은 비젼을 품어
믹테 시절을 추억, 믹테 시절은 추워 like my Cuban, ayy
Makin' history, 미스터리한 작업량, 통장안엔 빗소리 나
All we do is victory, ayy
인벤토리에 모이네 big money, yeah
어디에 있나 또 내 벌이, yeah, uh
Yeah, SUPERBEE, CHANGMO and Gonzo, 비트가 날 또
부르네, ¿vato, qué pasó? 언제든 불러, 늘 vámos, yeah
일리, 엠비션, Ghood Life, 굳이 뭘 나눠?
사이 좋게 쓸어 담어, 인생은 충분히 달어
Rap legend, mic 하나 무대 위 killa
Flow iller, 불 질러 버려 랩 스킬로
절대 구린 짓은 안해, 지키는 태도 와 steelo
절대 일로 생각않지, 즐기며 빵에서 mill로
만들어 버려, keepin' it thoro, 쫌 가다 뽀록
나지 않는 mic skill, one hunnit 나를 걸어
Boom bap이든 trap이든, 랩이면, smackin' 'em
내일 처럼 하지 한번 나는 내키면
애끼면 뭐해, one motherfuckin' life
That I'm livin', 이미 모두 걸어 버린 한
후회 없이 오늘도 앞으로 위로 가기 위해
Got my third eye open, 여기 니들 바로 위에
Lyrics via Google. Copyright belongs to rights holders.
04 · FAQ