T.O.P. vs Choi Seunghyun

Q: What’s the difference between rap and acting?
T.O.P: Within Big Bang, I think I’m showing myself as T.O.P. but when I’m acting I’m showing the 24-year-old Choi Seung-hyun. Of course they are both me, and they both love music. But T.O.P is someone, an imaginary being, I have been drawing, designing in my head. It’s me that isn’t me. On the other hand the person doing this interview is my self, and in my acting as well, my self is expressed.
Q: Thinking about it, there were a lot of times when an imaginary character is played on stage. Especially when doing featurings for artists like Gummy or Uhm Jung-Hwa.
T.O.P: I’m a rapper, and I believe a rapper is someone who delivers a message. Therefore it’s important that my rap is remembered by many people, so I try to deliver the message through the intended emotion and visions on stage. When performing “Sorry” I performed it as a wounded boy, in “D.I.S.C.O.” I tried to create an image kind of like Jude Law and his acting as the robot in one of his movies. Like this I try to show an imaginary being on stage.
Q: It looks like acting is affecting music, and music is affecting acting.
T.O.P: It feels like it. The 24-year old self is learning acting, but also writhing in order to develop its own color. Doing this, in order not to waste time, I think I’m merging my rapping self and acting self together. Instead of something other people can do, I think I’m searching for something only I can do.
“It’s crucial to make the rap feel like it was written honestly”
Q: When you look at the lyrics, you speak about how although worries and burdens continue, you must think about overcoming the current self.
T.O.P: Always throw questions at oneself. In my 10s, I think my head was very complicated. I spent a lot of time at my desk writing lyrics. So even now when I write raps, I don’t like to become this story teller trying to explain in detail, illustrating the exact picture of the situation. For example.. I’m like this right now. My love is going to this place. (laugh) Instead, in order to let the listener relate and sympathize, I try to simplify and omit details so that each person can have different thoughts on it. And above all, It’s crucial to make the rap feel like it was written honestly.
Q: It seems like you will be able to find yourself again by creating music. What style of music do you want to make these days?
T.O.P: I wrote lyrics since I was 11, and I loved hip-hop. Honestly, because I loved it since then, I’m getting sick of it (laugh) Because I have heard it for that long. So doing just plain hiphop seems like a matter of conscience now(laugh) I’m thinking of doing the most fresh, new music with a lot of fusion.
Q: Are your raps reflective of your current thoughts at the time? When you performed with Kim Hyun-Joong on MBC<대학가요제> the lyrics: “the given homework, is a subject called Time, you can’t lose your focus for a moment, it’s arrogant. Scarlet youth is braver than anything, Originality is the flower, renovation is the weed” seemed like something personal.
T.O.P: As a rapper, I felt that even in acting, unless there was some sort of meaning to relate to I was not willing to do it. As a rapper, or as an actor, I want to become someone who delivers a message. Whether i’m filming or rapping “Originality is the flower, renovation is the weed”, I feel this way. I was able to film because I had a lonely part in my youth. It wasn’t that the situation left me solitary, but I had some complicated thoughts. I had wandered. Looking at Oh Jang-bum in , I was reminded of those days in my 10’s. I think that’s why I knew I could act as him.
Q: When he played as JaeBeom, he exhausted and researched the information about the war. Therefore, he understood the war and the military service deeply.
TOP: Although I have already knew some information about the Korea War from my parents and grandparents, after researching, I got to know how painful the war was. When I decided to play the movie, what I knew about the Korean War is all from the textbooks. In order to challenge it better, I tried my best to search the information to expand my awareness of the war before started shooting. Otherwise, I could not do this. Through this, I learnt much about the cruel facts. I can’t even imagine how this 17-year-old guy could go through this. The picture of those student solders is the reason why I can act the boy successfully. Though they look so young in the picture, we can see them with deep thoughts….Let people think they are mature. They are so different from when I was a 17 year old. Their expressions infected me and finally, I can act JaeBeom well. Since it is hard to imagine being someone different from me, that was the hardest part of my work.
Q: Last question. If you had write a rap about yourself right now, what kind of lyrics would you write?
T.O.P: A very sweet melody with sugared lyrics. (laugh) I think, in order to find myself, those lyrics will help guide me.