If you love internet drama, you’ve never seen it like this: ‘Authentic: The Story of Tablo’ tells of the hip-hop star and the conspiracy surrounding him
Maybe you’ve heard of Tablo because of his boundary-pushing music made with his alternative hip-hop group Epik High. They were only the first major Korean act to play at Coachella in 2016. They’re also one of the first Korean hip-hop groups to break into the national mainstream.
Tablo even released his own solo album while one of his bandmates served mandatory military service in South Korea, launching him into bonafide hip-hop superstardom. Or maybe you’ve heard of Tablo because of a bizarre conspiracy that had his life come to a screeching halt – a conspiracy that became an international online obsession and is one of the oddest stories in internet history. Hear just what happened from Tablo himself in “Authentic: The Story of Tablo.”
New as of February 2022, “Authentic: The Story of Tablo” is a multi-episode, serialized iHeartRadio and VICE podcast. Over the course of multiple episodes, host Dexter Thomas Jr. speaks with Tablo, his friends, journalists, and many others who were involved in this strange story. Episodes are just 45 minutes long.
Tablo’s rise to fame begins in the early 2000s. It was then that he met his future bandmates, Mithra Jin and DJ Tukutz, in the underground hip-hop scene in South Korea. Hip-hop wasn’t very popular in 2003 South Korea, and the new-found Epik High’s first album release was a critical failure. Their second album, High Society, did slightly better. Their third album, Swan Song, released in 2005, was intended to be their last album and instead ended up reaching number one on multiple music charts and swept the hip-hop awards that year. From there, Epik High was on the rise – and not just in Seoul. They were on their way to becoming international sensations.
At one point, they were beating out Jay-Z and Kanye on the international hip-hop charts. They were one of the first mega-popular hip-hop groups in South Korea and one of the first to break free from their country’s borders. Their albums were selling tens of thousands of copies, and they even opened their own record label. Then, Tablo’s life veered completely off-track by a bizarre internet conspiracy that he found himself at the center of.
In 2010, Epik High announced they would be going on hiatus while DJ Tukutz fulfilled his mandatory military service, with Tablo and Mithra Jin embarking on solo careers. It was then that internet users found themselves with plenty of time to speculate. It started off with questions about his academic credentials, a B.A. and M.A. from Stanford University in under four years, which people claimed to be impossible.
But these meaningless and baseless online accusations caught like wildfire, and soon, hundreds of thousands of people joined an online forum to find out if Tablo was lying. But those accusations were not just about his academic record: people began to accuse Tablo of not being who he said he was. From ties to the Illuminati to bribing the FBI, the internet had never seen anything like this at this scale. Interpol ended up involved, and multiple people faced lawsuits. And that story hasn’t necessarily ended.
“Authentic: The Story of Tablo” is a fascinating podcast, giving Tablo a platform to speak about what he went through, what it was like to have half of his home country turn against him, and taking a stand on who he is. The situation is shocking if not for its ridiculousness: people demanded that Stanford release Tablo’s transcripts and even then, didn’t believe them. “Authentic: The Story of Tablo” is a look into the strange world of international cyber crime, the power of a mob, and the incredibly talented musician caught in the middle.
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