Staying on top of his game

American hip-hop artist Pinnacle TheHustler releases first solo album


In a waistcoat, bowtie and crisp white shirt, Pinnacle TheHustler looks sharper than your average MC.

He says it’s the dressiest he’s ever performed, but while it may be more formal than his typical preppier look, he admits his image is important to him.

“You need to consider yourself a cut above the rest. If you don’t have that integrity you will not succeed. But it’s not enough to just say ‘I am a cut above the rest’ you have to display that.”

He’s just ripped through a set to launch his first solo album at Money Lounge in Gangnam, Seoul, with the assured showmanship of a man who knows his game backwards.

Hard to believe him then, when he says he is nervous before every show.

“Nervousness is just unchanneled, raw energy so what I do is I try to channel it and push it out, so my energy goes to the crowd. And generally their energy is going to reciprocate and give me more energy, so I try to use my nervousness to create a cycle.”

The record he is promoting, “K.O.R.E.A.,” shows Pinnacle can hold his own against pretty much anyone.

The catchiest part of the 7-track record is the bouncing chorus of baby samples on “Drop the Bomb,” but while the album’s production is smooth, the highlight is Pinnacle’s voice. While he doesn’t put a foot wrong on any track, the outstanding performance is on “Hip-hop Got Seoul.”

The record features performances from fellow expat MCs Black Illumin, Jake Pains and Elliot Ashby, all part of what has become a burgeoning scene in Seoul.

It’s one Pinnacle says is a pleasure to be part of.

“Honestly, because seeing the scene building and actually being a part of it is like something that you can’t really describe,” he says. “Although I consider myself to be a cut above the rest, a lot of MCs that I fraternize with feel the same way.”

“So it’s like ‘you think you’re better than me? I think I’m better than you, let’s get on a track together.’ And the track is going to be good because we’re both looking at each other thinking, ‘I’m going to make his verse look bad.’”

This creates an atmosphere of constant collaboration. Pinnacle says he’s worked with other MCs in the three years he has been performing here ― he released an album with Korean outfit South Cide last year ― but those that made it on to the album happened to be available at the right time.

“I’ve actually done a few other tracks that were not on the CD that went on other people’s CDs. Especially with some of the other Korean artists they say ‘I really like this song, can I have this song?’ I’m like sure! Yeah why not. A lot of it had to do with timing. The timing was right with the acts I got on my CD.”

It’s a pretty gregarious approach. Musicians of all stripes are usually pretty territorial about their work. But Pinnacle says the scene in Korea is one in which musicians can trust each other enough to share work and opportunities.

“Granted there’s a lot of ails and difficulties foreigners go through when generally living in Korea,” he says. “But one thing that you can’t deny is that there’s definitely a feeling of community.

“I mean, obviously it’s that type of culture. And I feel like once you become amalgamated in that culture, you kind of have that same feeling.”

Elsewhere Pinnacle is preparing to release an EP with Pinnacle and the Antidote, in which he is backed by a four member band blending rap with funk, rock, jazz and blues. As well as the musical differences, he says, the live experience is very different.

“There’s a lot more impromptu things that we do, things flow a bit different because I don’t have to wait for my DJ to start the next track or to scratch over it. If something crazy happens, like if the crowd starts chanting, we’ll make a song out of that chant.”

Readers also might know Pinnacle as one half of a YouTube video response to the black man who attacked a middle-aged Korean man on a bus in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province. The video got more than 250,000 hits in the first week.

When Sonny approached him to create the video, Pinnacle agreed with the need to address how the incident had affected the image of black people in Korea.

“At first, the comments we so racist that you couldn’t even get mad, it was just like a hurt, because this one individual has become a representative of black people in Korea. ‘Angry black man on a Korean bus’; ‘Angry N-word on a Korean bus’ ― that’s what we became for that week, and probably still.”

Once the decision was made, Pinnacle says, making the video was easy.

“It didn’t take a lot for me to write it because I just wrote what I felt.”

“Essentially that was the reason ― it was just the representation of the black people in Korea. I wanted Koreans to see more of a positive image.”

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)

“K.O.R.E.A.” is available from www.planethustle.com, where you can also hear tracks from the album ― Ed.