Korean rappers say that the hip-hop industry is full of people who offer them illegal drugs

A little over a year ago in January of 2023, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration declared a "war on drugs" in South Korea to combat the rapid rise of illegal drugs in the country. However, the administration has since received the scathing criticism that it has completely "failed" to make advancements in this aggressive policy. 

According to Korean rappers Khundi Panda and Son Simba, the Korean hip-hop scene is in fact full of people offering illegal drugs to musicians. They are most frequently offered drugs either "when they invite you to come over to their house for drinks" or "at clubs". 

Son Simba revealed, "Once, I went to a club for a party. I think they delivered it to me by mistake, but they brought me some white powder. I took out some ice, and sprinkled it on the ice to get rid of it."

The two rappers were then asked if rappers who "talk about drugs in their lyrics" actually do drugs in real life. 

Son Simba explained, "Up until a few years ago, there was a workaround. You could get psychotropic drugs prescribed, and some of the rappers would write about that experience in their lyrics. But now that there are stricter rules for those kinds of prescriptions, they've resorted to doing real drugs." 

He added on, "If they seem suspicions, if they look to you like they're doing drugs, then they probably are. The kind of vibe that comes from doing drugs is something you can't fake. If they wrote that they are doing it in their lyrics, that's not something that people can just fake easily." 

Next, Khundi Panda clarified why rappers often use Telegram to communicate, despite it being a communication platform notorious for drug deals. He said, "If you use Kakao Talk to send audio files, the files expire after a month. Telegram doesn't have that expiration date, so rappers use it to send audio files. But people always ask us if we get drug offers on Telegram." 

Finally, the rappers remarked, "The prosecutor general actually said this once. If you have enough money to order a pan of pizza, then you can get drugs delivered to you just as easily."