Third SKS-7 member reveal: Let’s go Cray-Z!
Hey there (hopefully) future K-Pop Idol Diaries readers!
We’ve been super busy getting things in order before volume 1 of our debut book
series launches this summer on July 21st. We released a sneak-peek
of volume 1 on our website which you can read here, so please take a look and
if you like, the link to pre-order should be there as well.
Meanwhile,
we’re also still revealing the members of SKS-7, the featured idol group in the
series. In addition to series star Gigi, we’ve revealed Shine (SKS-7 leader)
and Bae (the hyung of SKS-7). Since then, we’ve also revealed SKS-7’s
flamboyant producer and lead rapper Cray-Z, whose reveal is the purpose of this
blog. We hinted last blog post that things were gonna get a little crazy, so
let’s get to it!
Cray-Z,
whose stage name is obviously inspired by a particular real-life rapper, is an
extremely talented musician with a love for hip-hop and the hype performances it
brings. He was one of the first characters in development back in 2017, but has
since gone through considerable changes in terms of back story and attitude
since his original origins (all for the better, trust us). One thing that
hasn’t changed about Cray-Z is the way he styles his stage persona. With
hip-hop elements such an essential part of K-Pop, Cray-Z decided that in order
to stand out amongst the crowd, he needed to look the part of his stage name,
hence the red & blue color contact combo he’s sporting in his profile
picture. He certainly looks a little crazy, but in a fun way, which is why it
was fun to draw/color him and think about other ways he might try to stand out
once SKS-7 debuts. Some other ideas were white-zombie contacts, but that looked
a little jarring to have as a profile picture, so we thought a quirky
mismatched color combo would suffice to get a sense of his crazy personality
and style choices. We imagine that if SKS-7 were real, it would be Cray-Z in
particular that netizens would want to see in between comebacks to talk about
his fashion and other aesthetic choices. We’ll definitively have some fun
drawing Cray-Z in SKS-7 group photos – he’s one of our favorite members, but we
think readers will disagree after reading the first volume.
Why you
might ask? Well, we don’t want to give away spoilers just yet, but as our book
preview states, Gigi joins an experimental co-ed idol group, and the boys
aren’t so thrilled by her presence in their
group. Well, no one feels more strongly against Gigi joining than Cray-Z,
which makes him somewhat of a villain this volume! But while it might be easy
to dismiss Cray-Z as somewhat of a jerk (for lack of a better word), there is definitely
some depth to him that will unravel as the story progresses.
With Cray-Z
revealed, we can also reveal that all the rapline of SKS-7 is complete – which
consists of Gigi, Shine, and Cray-Z. The rest of the members belong to the
vocal line along with Bae… well, sort of. It would be too much of a spoiler to
go into detail, so we’ll leave you to wonder until the next SKS-7 member
reveal. Hint: rocky road up ahead!
Fun Fact: Cray-Z and
his obsessive hobby of gaming is based off the traits of another character we
developed for a different story, but we transferred those traits to Cray-Z in
subsequent drafts of his character.
