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Epik High’s Tablo says he has had to buy his own band’s rare merch at “huge resell markup”

Epik High‘s Tablo has shared that he has had to purchase his band’s merchandise at “huge resell markup”.

The South Korean hip-hop trio previously announced that they would be producing limited edition vinyl of their 2019 mini-album ‘Sleepless In __________’. The vinyl run was strictly made to order, meaning fans who did not manage to pre-order their copies will not have the chance to purchase them again in the future. The pre-order window for the vinyl collection began earlier this month on September 6 and concluded on September 12.

Following the closure of the ‘Sleepless In __________’ vinyl pre-order window, Tablo took to his personal Twitter page on September 28 to tell fans that he had forgotten to order a copy for himself. “Looks like I’ll be buying from one of you resellers for 10x [the price] (again),” he wrote in a separate tweet shortly after.

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“Believe it or not, I’ve had to buy some Epik High stuff like rare albums & limited edition merch drops at a huge resell markup,” Tablo later clarified in another Tweet, although did not go into detail about his past experiences. “Multiple times. And I’m Epik High.”

After sharing his experience, fans responded to Tablo’s tweets by requesting that Epik High “reprint older stuff” and launch additional rounds of pre-orders for the ‘Sleepless In __________’ vinyl. However, Tablo explained that the group refrain from doing this as it would “devalue” the experiences of fans and collectors who purchased these goods during their original sale period.

Epik High’s ‘Sleepless In __________’ was originally released in March 2019, marking the trio’s sophomore mini-album. That record featured seven tracks in total and was led by the title track ‘Sleepless’. The upcoming vinyl edition of the album will include all songs from its original tracklist on Side A, and instrumentals of the same songs on Side B.

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Meanwhile, Epik High’s – completed by Tukutz and Mithra Jin – last release was ‘Epik High Is Here 下, Part 2’, a 12-track studio album that dropped in February this year. In a glowing five-star review of the album, NME’s Rhian Daly wrote: “A light in the darkness and a beautifully encouraging portrait of the very essence of life, it’s an album that should be remembered for a long time to come.”