Pod Crashing Episode 161 Tablo And Dexter Thomas From The Podcast Authentic The Story Of Tablo
Authentic: The Story of Tablo follows the Korean hip-hop superstar and his years-long struggle to prove to the world that he was not a fraud. The podcast will debut on February 24, with new weekly episodes airing every Thursday on iHeartRadio and everywhere else podcasts are heard.

In 2010 rapper Daniel Lee, known by his stage name Tablo, was on top of the world. Tablo, then 29, was the leader of the Korean hip-hop group Epik High. The trio's fan base had grown drastically in the States as they toured across the country and soared to the top of the hip-hop charts, beating out Jay-Z and Kanye West for the number one spot. But at the height of the group's fame, an unexpected twist would bring Tablo into the public eye like never before.

As Tablo's fame began to grow, an online forum popped up questioning his education credentials. People were skeptical of the validity of his bachelor's and master's degrees from Stanford University. The forum, titled Taijinyo (loosely translate to "Tell the Truth Tablo") quickly turned into the anti-fan club questioning everything from his passports, diplomas, military service and the very nature of his identity. With hundreds of thousands of people doubting all evidence presented in defense of Tablo, family members began receiving death threats, and massive media attention followed.

Over a decade later, Authentic: The Story of Tablo dives deep into how this came to fruition. With an exclusive interview, host Dexter Thomas Jr. brings us through Tablo and Epik High's success story, how the media played a role in the blow up of Tajinyo's hunt for the "truth", and the official investigation into the musician. Back then, the story seemed so shocking and bizarre. Today, we are all too familiar with the cacophony of disinformation that riddles popular culture and public figures. The internet's real-life effects still reverberate in Tablo's life more than a decade after the scandal. His story is the story of fake news before fake news had a name. It's the story of erosion of truth before a U.S. president had to be fact checked by Twitter. It's the story of the half-life of internet outrage before we even had words to describe it. And it's the story of the power of hip hop before it made its way into the K Pop mainstream globally.