MIK Festival, with its 1st edition in London last July, was the first Korean music festival to mix K-Pop and Hip Hop.

The Paris edition of the festival also included a day dedicated to Hip-Hop on February, 19th. While less crowded than for the prior day, the venue welcomed thousands of fans who effortlessly proved that the Korean Hip-Hop stage is a bet worth taking in Europe.

GSOUL

The R&B star relied on sobriety. In an all-black outfit, he doesn’t need anything other than his voice to engage the attention of the audience. For 40 minutes, he sings numerous tracks, including his main success “Hate Everything”. Sometimes sitting on a chair, sometimes standing behind a mic stand, he always delivers feelings.
His R&B ballads receive loud cheers and screams from enthusiastic fans.

BIG Naughty

His second place in the line-up is almost surprising, considering he’s a very trendy Hip-Hop artist. The young (19 years-old) artist showed up in a colorful outfit, oozing confidence and energy. Communicates with the audience is easy as he explains the story behind some of his songs, such as Franck Ocean, named after his ex-girlfriend’s favorite artist.

His performance is enough to understand why Jay Park later calls him a future legend, as it’s very easy to picture him making more and more fans everywhere he’ll go.

JJANGYOU

During the event, JJANGYOU appears as the embodiement of “expect the unexpected”. Among the audience members, those who were unfamiliar with him and checked his MVs expected a somewhat quiet, maybe even introverted artist.
Instead he shows limitless energy. In the middle of MIK’s “Hip-Hop Day”, we’re suddenly attending a rockstar performance. He even jumps off stage to reach fans in the seated sections, and almost walks around the whole venue. He’s both not what fans were expecting, and what they needed to get even more hyped up than they already were.

Han Yo Han

JJANGYOU’s performance surely didn’t make it easy for Han Yo Han, who proclaims himself a rockstar in some of his songs title, to leave up to that image.

Maybe realizing that at least part of the crowd had been waiting for him to perform in Paris for quite some time, he gradually looked more and more at ease on stage, until his rockstar self came out under the form of a bright pink guitar. The instrument didn’t stand a chance when he smashed it before exiting the stage.

GIRIBOY

The leader and founder of WYBH is a flexible artist. With his easy-going image, he switches between rap and softer tracks and efficiently keeps everyone’s mood up.

With imperfect English, he talks with fans, checks their reaction, and occupies the stage. BIG Naughty joins him for the song “Tomorrow”, giving us the first collaboration of the day.
Unlike one of his songs claiming “Let’s Not Love Each Other”, it seems impossible for fans to not love him. Especially when he smiles bright before opening his jacket over a Paris Saint Germain jersey.

KID MILLI

KID MILLI, just like the other artists performing before him, is a member of WYBH.
Among MIK Festival’s artists, he’s probably the one that gives off the image of “street rapper” the most. Hence, it’s not really a surprise when he comes on stage with a crew of videographers who wear masks and film the artist for an upcoming MV.

He’s energetic and obviously happy to be in Paris, where he performs his unreleased song that seems to be inspired by the city itself. The highlight of his performance, however, is the rest of the WYBH crew joining him on stage.

While each performer was great individually, their moment together on stage was just different. They looked genuinely happy and playful, throwing water at each other and just bathing in their love for performing.
If anyone wondered how such diverse people gathered as a crew, seeing them together made the question look quite silly as they just complete each other perfectly.

JAY PARK

Jay Park was a late addition to the line-up. As someone who has been ever-present in the Korean industry lately, both as an artist and a CEO, he easily dominates the stage and embarks the audience with his. His dance moves seem relaxed as he performs tracks that are well-known by the audience. “K-Town”, “Mommae” or “All I Wanna Do” received, as expected, incredible love and cheers.

Even some members and staff from WYBH became a part of the audience to just enjoy Jay Park’s performance and experience.

CL

CL’s performance was to the Hip-Hop day what SNSD’s Taehyeon and Hyohyeon were to the K-Pop day. To many fans, it meant finally seeing live a legend of the music they love. She appears dominant and powerful as she sings “Spicy”, “Hwa” or “The Baddest Female”. And as she does so, we realize that she is not just the baddest, but also the only female of day, proving her special place in a Hip-Hop industry often represented by male artists.

“MTBD” clearly makes her most nostalgic fans happy before she ends her set with “Hello Bitches”.

With its MIK Festival, Magic Sound Entertainment is taking the risk of mixing K-Pop
and K-Hip-Hop. Using a diverse line-up as its main asset, the festival proves that
both genres have their audience in Europe. While hip-hop artists already regularly
tour the continent, the festival proved how high they can aim internationally