Korean R&B Is Breaking Out – Let Tabber Be Your Guide

It’s no secret that Korean music is setting new records. The flood of K-Pop projects dominating the charts is self-evident, but in truth music on the peninsula runs a lot deeper than that formula. Korean R&B is on the up-surge, and it seems that artists like Tabber are leading the way.

Recently breezing into Europe for a headline, Tabber – together with Miso – performed a range of packed out shows, including influential Shoreditch nightspot Village Underground.

CLASH caught up with Tabber during his short London stint, to get the inside track on Korean R&B.

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Hi, this is Tabber, and these are six Korean artists in the R&B space that I would recommend. I like to focus on vocals, so I think everyone on this list has a very unique voice and I’ve been lucky to be able to work with all of them.

The first one is Dean. We’re both on the same label, you.will.knovv. As we know, he’s a really great artist. The first song I worked on even before my first single was with him, it’s called ‘3AM freestyle’. I think he’s one of the few Korean artists that is building bridges between Korea and other countries when it comes to music, particularly the US. He has a very special voice that is very recognisable and unique in Korea, but he also produces a lot of music for other artists, so his influence is really big in the scene. The last song we did together called ‘Chi-Ka’ is very special to me.

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The second one is Marldn, I work a lot with him as a producer, but he also started to release his own music. He is a very talented artist, he plays a lot of instruments and he’s very talented on guitar and keyboard. He’s a great songwriter and although he’s still kind of unknown to the public, I think he’s going to grow a lot in the next couple of years. He recently worked on a track for RM of BTS’ last album, so I would put him as an artist to watch out for.

Third one is Miso, we’ve just been on tour in North America, Oceania and Europe together. She has a really good voice, soft voice. She also writes and produces all of her work and she’s been doing that from the start, which is not easy, so I think that’s really cool. The mood of her music is really personal and her lyrics are very intimate. I would recommend listening to her when you need music before you go to sleep.

The fourth one is Soyoon (styled as So!YoON!), she’s a member of a group called SE SO NEON. She’s a real rockstar in Korea. Normally she does more rock type of music, but as a solo artist she’s worked on, and all kinds of genres too. Her last album was more contemporary R&B. I’m very thankful she featured on ‘Like A Vampire’ from my ‘Deep End Mixtape’ back in 2020. There are not many artists like her in South Korea so I would definitely recommend her.

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The fifth one is Paul Blanco, he’s one of my good friends. We’ve also worked together before, on my song ‘Creepin’ (with Miso as well). He grew up in Canada so I think he has more western sounds that he brings to the scene. If you’re looking for a new hip-hop / R&B male artist to listen to this year, he’s the one. He’s got a very deep voice so if that’s what you’re into, go listen to him.

And the sixth South Korean artist I would recommend is Yerin Baek. I think she is one of the best vocalists in Korea, that’s why I was happy that she featured on ‘Being’ from my ‘Madness always turns to sadness’ album. I would describe her voice as really cloudy and soft too. She debuted when she was really young so she’s been in the scene for a long time and has a lot of really great songs. I think music comes very easy to her, she’s a natural. If you’re looking for more R&B or rock, she has a lot of music in that mix.

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