Portrait: Krops – Jungsoo Lee
By The Social Eyes Team
It was on the way up to the stratosphere of breakdancing that Krops’ fall came – literally. It was 2013, during intensive training to represent South Korea at a competition in France. He was 24. Dreams of breakdance stardom danced in his head. He embodied an explosive style that classed him among the best. But one jump, and a bad landing, changed everything. He fell. His spine was damaged. He was paralyzed.
The break was brutal and definitive. He was hospitalized for long weeks. His circle launched a campaign to pay for his care. Everything seemed frozen. But amidst all this immobility, something resisted. Krops refused to believe the dreary diagnosis. He decided to fight. Another dance began: that of re-education.
Believe, Act, Battle
Three years of battling ensued, with a lot of pain and some small victories. Slowly, certain muscles started to respond. First it was one hand. Then the other. Feeling returned. Not everything, not like before, but enough to stand up. Enough to dream again.
During the rehabilitation process, music entered his life in an unexpected way: his doctor recommended that he play video games as therapy. But soon, Jungsoo Lee put that aside for a mixing table. That’s how he launched himself into DJing as a manual rehabilitation exercise. Mixing vinyls, manipulating turntables, working on precise movements… His therapy was transformed into a passion.
“I discovered DJing as therapy. Today I am one of South Korea’s best breakdancing DJs.”
DJ Standing in the Light
The Montreal public, present during the No Excuses, No Limits show last summer, discovered another facet of hip-hop – that of the DJ. For without the DJ, there is no hip-hop. No battle. No party. No rhythm.
On stage, his demonstration of DJing was more than just a solo performance: it was a defiant gesture against fate. Proof that one can regain control of one’s body through music.
Dancing Again and the Battle of the Year
These days Krops is dancing. With ILL-Abilities, the collection of disabled hip-hoppers that tour the globe (including Montreal), he shares his story, representing a strong message: no trajectory is set in stone, even when all seems doomed. Since 2017, he has been an official member of the ILL-Abilities crew, which he considers a second family.
“Mind, body and soul. Believe, act, and a miracle will occur.”
His performances aren’t miraculous, but they’re proof of conscious resilience. Each movement, each scratch on the turntables, carries the message of his fall … and of his getting up again.
Krops’ story is intimately tied to a mythic event in the world of breakdancing: the Battle of the Year. It has been regarded as the premier b-boying competition in the world and has been referred to as the « World Cup of B-Boying ». It was when watching this competition that, as a teenager, he discovered the breakdancing universe. It was a revelation. In 2013, he realized his dream: he won the Battle of the Year representing South Korea.
The paradox is cruel. That same year, a few months later, he sustained his serious injury. But the year also exists, in his story, as the memory of a summit. An anchor point that helped him rebuild.
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