A very special Blast from the past #221: Officially meeting “Clouds” for the first time.
— Cloud cover by: Stephe, Managing Editor ^@@^
With Rain’s official 8th Cloud Fan Meeting, which took place this month on Saturday, October 12, still fresh in mind, I can think of no better time to Blast back and revisit the one that started it all — 비’s first fan meeting waaaaay back on August 18 of 2002, his debut year.
He was all arms and legs, boxing gloves, baby-faced, and loose as a goose. His first album n001 and its title track, “Bad Guy”, had been well received and gotten a lot of attention until the national soccer team’s bid for that year’s World Cup suddenly came along and, unfortunately, distracted the public. He was a victim of bad timing and faced with one hell of a decision for a young, inexperienced artist—let it go and pin his hopes on a second album, or try again with another song off of his first. Talk about pressure.
The general consensus around rookie 비 was, Dude, just chock it up as a loss and concentrate on succeeding with the next album. Don’t be crazy. But that Rain intuition that we’ve all grown to know and love over the past 11 years was already at work by then. He went with his gut and released a second track off of n001, “Instead of Saying Goodbye.” You know what happened next, of course.
That decision shot him to Number 1 like a bullet, and the rest is for the history books.
The man who would become an icon in his own time was launched into stardom. That mega-star is still going, at the speed of light.
Please enjoy this glimpse back at Rain’s first fan meeting! I couldn’t stop grinning at the cuteness overload and the fans’ overwhelming enthusiasm. I grinned until I was hurting. LOL! (He might have been our baby boy, but his voice was a grown man. Make no mistake.) 🙂
— Stephe @cloudusa.wordpress.com / CloudUSA.org
(All videos credited to rainbialice @YT / 02music.com / CHOL.com)
Instead of Saying Goodbye.
Handshake.
Bad Guy REMIX.
Can’t Get Used To. Overwhelmed by the song for his Mom. Aww. *heartbreaker* ♥
I Believe I Can Fly. Holy Moses, the VOICE. Didn’t know a lick of English, but he knew what the song was about and he was feeling it big time, yo! 😀
Reading a letter to his fans.
Cloud USA 
I’ve discovered “I believe I can fly” quite recently and wanted to find out more about the song, so I’ve come searching here again… can’t stop crying now, seeing that young boy singing this (although I don’t understand a word he’s singing, haha). Ehm, in 2002 I also believed that I can fly 🙂 but he really managed it, and I hope that he still believes he can fly! Also happy to see him singing Iksukjil anhaso in 2002, so sweet… thaks 🙂
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😢More than any other time that I’ve heard you Jihoon sing this song did I feel the emotion and it was joking in my throat and pulling at my heart. This was such a beautiful performance and the strong soulful richness in your voice! My Lord. I would love to hear you sing this song again some day. 😌
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