A Focus Study of Asian Americans in Hip-Hop

"Asian Americans need strong representation in all areas of media. By that we mean, not have somebody sellin' out their people, and be, like, up in a video munchin' egg rolls and throwin' side kicks, or being like the yellow version of Vanilla Ice ...as Asian Americans, we're used to being underestimated, not being taken seriously, in the things that we do. Especially if it's not shit we're expected to do good at, like kung fu or calculus, or frying up noodles."
- Scott Jung, Mountain Brothers

A contemporary emergence of Asian Americans in hip-hop has been occurring across America's high schools and college campuses over the past few years. One can now find them participating at almost every extent of hip-hop culture, behind the turntables at clubs, break dancing across the floor, creating graffiti designs upon backpacks, and more recently, voicing their opinions on the mic in rap and spoken word. In this article we will discuss the questions "why hip-hop culture and why now?" It's a current major misconception of the exact origins of hip-hop that plagues the media. Most believe that its roots are primarily new and exclusive when in fact it can draw parallels to the most ancient of times and cultures. Hip-hop's beats and rhythms are almost tribal, the poetic stories and words are similar to Greek rhapsodies (meaning woven songs), and the plights of city life expressed within its art form are nothing fairly new nor unique compared to what any other highly industrialized city has gone through. So why does the media define hip-hop under such black and white lines? Where does the misconception of hip-hop's strong associations with race develop?

Hip-hop as a Race

The term hip-hop was first defined in the inner city of New York in the early 1980s. Its colorful origins included many of the inner city youths from Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Jewish, and most predominately, the African American community, who had been stripped of culture roots. It was not long before hip-hop music, culture, and expression took upon itself a close association to its majority, expressing with the struggles of inner city life. Guru, a rapper growing up in the midst of an early hip-hop landscape, claimed it actually acted as a safety valve in society, preventing further chaos in the streets. Black Americans began to break away from the America identity that had rejected them through hip-hop. When most black rappers began speaking about their particular angst and bringing focus to their racial issues, the color of race seeped into the American's consciousness of hip-hop and become synonymous. When people saw hip-hop, it was black. When people thought about the face of hip-hop, they visualized a black man's face. It had come to a point when it was a common expression when any white (or Asian) kid who would express their identity through hip-hop (such as clothes, vernacular, and music) that they were labeled as "trying to be black." When white rappers started becoming successful, social analysis would draw parallels to "white people stealing black music like Elvis did to blues." It had become clear that hip-hop had become another social construct in the eyes of the majority of America.

Hip-hop as a culture: How hip-hop found Asian America

The problem of the social construct built around hip-hop during its development was that as the art form rapidly progressed, so did its growth of its audience. In fact, the basic principles that drove hip-hop never meant to stay within the walls of the cities. Its main focus, after all, was primarily to be heard. About the mid 90s, hip-hop had become more heavily a part of the normal America mainstream and was almost an inescapable part of everyday life in the clothes people wore, the slang people would use, and the commercials people would see. People grew up so saturated in its presence that it had actually become a part of peoples' identities. This new generation of hip-hop identity could no longer be confined to black.

The reason why most Asian Americans were not seen very much in hip-hop early on was not primarily due to a slow reaction by the community, but due to the fact hip-hop hasn't been old enough for everyone to gain equal exposure to until recently. Starting within black communities within the inner cities like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, its movement was largely unseen despite its rapid growth. "I didn't grow up in the ghetto," exclaims Nazareth Nirza, world famous DJ, "I grew up in a suburban area. But, you know, I was able to relate to it in terms of, like, you know, not being your traditional Asian kid, going to school and stuff, you know." Relational associations in hip-hop brought many ethnic minorities together within it. Many people never considered what we think of now as hip-hop as what they were even doing at the time. Similar to the pan-ethnicity, it was a concept of unity by a certain common bond that slowly included everyone under that name over time. It was a name initially asserted by individuals to live by. The Asian Americans whom adopted hip-hop culture did so through their new, more American part of their identity. Now about 20 years after its birth, hip-hop has also transcended globally, having a rebirth of essence in foreign lands such as the United Kingdom, France, and Japan where it shares the common love.

But most of the Asian Americans in hip-hop that we see today, primarily the rappers, are in hip-hop beyond the reasons of popular adaptation of mainstream American culture. The move was not just a grasping of American culture by dislocated young Asian Americans, but a chosen path with a logical motive. Like many of the Asian American activist movements, paths often followed concurrently along the footprints of previous African American civil rights movements. Hip-hop can be said to be another, more modern, method of activist movements. Within this art form expression in its earlier and forms, political views and social issues were dialoged and given a wider forum through the medium of music. An example of this would be rap groups like Public Enemy, whom had close ties to the Black Panther party. Hip-hop has always been very liberal about its subjects as well, often becoming overly offensive at times due to its nature of design. But like poets of the past, this was the new generation's option for means of expression. A good example of how active Asian American's utilize hip-hop culture for activism is Blacklava. Based in California since the 90s, Blacklava creates awareness by t-shirt designs that make bold statements, and sell through various Asian American artists shows, hip-hop and spoken word in particular.

Hip-Hop as a glass ceiling

"ask anybody that's anybody, they'll tell you that the anti-body to the pity potty mouth gossip is to be the success in something, to be the best at something, and not to stress the dumb shit, 'cause you ain't missing nothing."
- Lyrics from "Release" by Lyrics Born

Entering hip-hop as one of the first Asian Americans in the predominately black art form is not without its complications. This is primarily due to the pre-existing social factors such as stereotypes and racism. The main entrance of Asian Americans into hip-hop culture had been the more subtle positions such as the DJ (among some of the world's highly respected are Filipino American) and break dancing. A more contemporary movement, however, is taking place into the arena of rapping business, but proves to be less as inviting. "You're gonna have to be a lot better than your non-Asian peers to gain the same amount of acceptance, but that's the job of a groundbreaker," said Steve Wei in my interview with his group, the Mountain Brothers. Often called the pioneers of Asian Americans in hip-hop, Mountain Brothers has since enjoyed its success as not only an example of Asian American hip-hop, but extremely well done hip-hop according to reviews of their album released in 1998. Other major factors, as he explains, that aided in the contemporary movement for Asian Americans in the rap industry was the promotional tools provided by the internet, that giving people a chance to hear before quick assumptions were made. "If people dig our music first and then find out that we're Asian, it's like they get blown away by that because it's so unexpected and end up digging us even more. That's some of the kind of phenomenon that we want to create."

Hip-Hop as a medium

"…there's a lot that I can talk about that hasn't been talked about in the rap industry. Like Asian culture. And the thing about it is…Asians will listen to it and be like, "Oh yeah, that's really what it is" and non-Asians can listen to it and be like, "Oh, that's how it is?"
- Jin, Hall of Fame Freestyle Rapper on BET Freestyle Fridays Show

Asian Americans within hip-hop are not only breaking stereotypes set forth by American media, but are also providing insight to the Asian American experience to the world, as previously aforementioned through activism and musical content. This experience shared is an "aesthesis of dislocation," or the unique insight of being a people who search for their place in America. But more contemporary rappers do not feel strong connections to being Asian and often adopt hip-hop as their more appropriate identity. KP of the Filipino rap group called P.A.C.I.F.I.C.S. said in one of my interviews, "Our ethnicity really doesn't have to do with skills. You either got em' or you don't... having skills and perfecting your craft goes beyond one's race… As far as lyrical topics, "Asian" isn't gonna be the only thing your gonna hear out of our mouths. But at the same time, we're not gonna shy away from who we are. Like any dope mc, we seek balance when it comes to lyrical topics. A bit of this and a bit of that." Many would argue since their topics would not be Asian American orientated, that then they would not be considered Asian American artists, but just artists in general. But what is unseen is that in showing their distance in ideals they do service to the Asian American community by showing that not all Asian Americans deal with their ethnic identity the same way. It is often forgotten that the pan-ethnicity concept of Asian America is an inclusive idea, not exclusive. And in the same way, hip-hop is becoming the same. Another value to the participation in the media would be the actual focus, or bring to light, on the issues relevant to being Asian in America such as stereotypes, racism, and hate crimes. Chuck D, of Public Enemy fame, described rap music as the "Black America's CNN." In the same way, rap can be used to showcase "Asian America's CNN."

In the end, it comes down to the individuals whom decide if what this world offers, no matter how small, will be put to any use if at all. Hip-hop's continued growth from "just a fad" to a global movement proves America could be grounds to create a unique culture that does not conform to the idea of the transplanted Englishman. Diversity has proven through its endurance comes advancement, this is true about hip-hop and the Asian American community. When KP of the rap group P.A.C.I.F.I.C.S. was asked what he thought the future of Asian Americans in hip-hop was, he responded "I think hip hop still has a lot to improve on, but has come a long way since it's inception. It's gonna be interesting to see how it evolves, but Mos Def said it best...'you wanna know how hip-hop is doing, how are the people doing?'"