BigOnKorea.com

This had to be one of the most random things that has happened to me in Seoul so far. It was last Tuesday and I was walking on campus going passed the international dorm house where I live headed for class. A Korean guy walked up to me and stopped me to ask me a few questions. He asked me questions about Eminem,  if I knew that Eminem’s new album had just been released in Korea that day. He asked me if I liked Eminem and I said “sure I do.” He then told me that he works for Universal Music, the company that is head of the record labels that Eminem is under (as well as The Killers, Lady Gaga, and several more). I was surprised. He said that they were putting on a promotion at COEX mall (the largest underground mall in Asia that is in Seoul). And they were looking for someone to be Eminem at their promotion and that they would pay me 100,000 KRW (about $85) for the three hours of the promotion. I asked what I would have to do and he said I would just be hanging out and people would be taking pictures with me and such, and just act like Eminem. I told him I don’t want to do any rapping because of course then people would know “Wow… he’s not Eminem.” He said I wouldn’t have to do any of that.

I thought about it and figured I’m here to do different things and this sounds pretty different and fun so I said yes. He was thrilled and took a few photos of me to take to his boss.

It’s odd really. I do like Eminem, I’m not like his biggest fan but I do listen to his music. Several years ago back when I was doing computer work I was spending a lot of time working at Harley Davidson Seattle and I had dyed my hair blond. I had only been working at Harley for a few days so not all the guys knew my name yet, so they ended up just calling me Eminem and that nickname stuck at Harley for the next couple years.

I also do enjoy doing an Eminem song at the noray bang (Karaoke) from time to time.

I got ready for the part on Saturday, I had a Nike set of matching sweat pants and hooded zip up sweat top. I also had a black Nike ball cap. I went to the event that they had set up and people were already gathering. They had a big poster that had several squares on it, each square had a number and prizes labeled in the squares. People would draw a square from a box hat had a piece of the album cover art on it and they would past it to the corresponding number and win a prize if there was a prize on that square. In the end the picture would be the new album cover.

Hundreds and hundreds of people came. They never thought there’d be so many people. I remember turning around once and there had to have been about 70 people surrounding the event area in a horshoe shaped crowd about 4 people deep all taking pictures. I just remember being surrounded by tons of people and cameras. They all had their cell phone cameras out and cameras taking pictures. It was crazy. Several people were coming forward and asking to get a picture with me. Girls, guys and I even took pictures with little kids.

After the event the Universal crew took me out to dinner and paid me. Later I met up with one of the guys and we had some drinks together. He gave me Eminem’s new album as well as a few other Universal label band CD’s. He told me that everything worked perfect. He said that so many people had actually thought I was Eminem. Even though they didn’t tell people I was Eminem, he said that some groups of friends were arguing over whether or not I was really Eminem, and that a lot of people had just assumed.

In fact I had found a blog post online, it was written in Korean and I showed it to a friend of mine and he started laughing and then translated it for me. This is what it said:

I saw eminem at coex today
I think the record shop invited him -_-;;
There were lots of people gather together so I just went
.. and Eminem was there
He gave Free Hugs, took pictures, and gave signatures
He looked just like the way he looked in the movie 8 mile
I personally really like him
and it felt really weird having seen him in Korea.
I took several pictures and i had to leave with my girlfriend because of the movie time… ^^;
I wanted to take a picture with him but;;;;

I didn’t do any signatures though, they probably would have been in legal trouble for that. But yeah, apparently I can pull of Eminem. They had to pull me away from the crowd and people were begging for “One more picture! One more!” and people were moaning as they took me away. It was so funny. It was very hard to not be smiling during the event. You  know you look at all of Eminem’s pictures, he doesn’t smile. So I tried to play the part. It was hard because it was a good time, it was really funny and generally I just smile a lot. But I felt like a celebrity for one day, it was pretty insane. All the attention and pictures.

Universal is supposed to be sending me some pictures they took during the event. They took several. I will post them when they come in. Here’s one I found on the internet, it’s not very good I think it was right before the event actually started. Here is a girl holding a poster of the album cover. The album is titled RELAPSE.

Click to enlarge photos.