There has been hip-hop in South Korea since at least the early 1990s, but in recent years it has grown widely, with numerous independent labels emerging to promote the music outside of the traditional K-pop avenues. Keith Ape was originally signed to one of these, Hi-Lite, but in many ways what he’s doing, so heavily influenced by American eccentrics like Travis Scott and the Awful Records crew, is at odds with the mainstream of South Korea’s hip-hop scene, and even its underground. (There’s actually a popular “American Idol”-like reality competition, “Show Me the Money.”)

He suggested that “It G Ma” was also an implicit response to the increasing absorption of hip-hop into K-pop, from boy bands and girl groups to novelty acts like Psy, he of the 4.7 billion YouTube views. Keith Ape wanted to make what he considered to be true hip-hop, “not to be wearing makeup and dancing up and down onstage.” (Coincidentally, to extricate Keith Ape from his previous contract, his managers hired a lawyer who also represents Psy.)

“It G Ma” — which was made with the Korean rappers JayAllDay and Okasian and the Japanese rappers Loota and Kohh — wasn’t the first time Keith Ape had tried repurposing American flows. Months before, he’d remade Bobby Shmurda’s “Hot Boy” (Its original name includes an epithet; the Keith Ape version is called “Hot Ninja.”) A few months later, he was in the video for Okasian’s take on Rae Sremmurd’s “No Flex Zone,” wielding a smartphone like a gun.

Much is lost when culture is consumed at a distance. When hip-hop, often a product of a specific social circumstance, is reduced to gestures and aesthetics, exaggeration is almost a given, and the potential for offense is high.

This, too, has been part of Keith Ape’s education in recent months. “Obviously, I didn’t grow up in that American social structure, around people slinging drugs or things like that,” he said. “It G Ma,” he added, is “not necessarily a rap about struggle, but it’s definitely using the method of a turn-up to appeal to people who are antisocial, people not accepted in what’s considered mainstream, people who feel alone and disconnected.”

The initial version of “It G Ma” wasn’t sold anywhere, partly because of legal concerns. “I took it to a musicologist and he was like, ‘Yo, you’ve got to clear this,’ ” Mr. Miyashiro said. Keith Ape and his Cohort rappers didn’t reach out to OG Maco — or, for that matter, to any other artists whose songs they’d been remaking — because, he said: “We never imagined it would become as big or popular as it did. We weren’t trying to sell these records — it was a fun thing to do.”