Music
Find out how Sean Miyashiro's 88Rising collective are changing the perception of Asian hip-hop around the world, with rappers like Keith Ape, Rich Brian and Higher Brothers hitting the mainstream.
Deafening applause and the intense popping of camera phone flashes meet Chinese rap outfit Higher Brothers as they egg on a rowdy mosh pit of fans in Los Angeles wildly chanting the lyrics to one of their tracks: “my chains, new gold watch, made in China”. The first-ever festival featuring an all Asian line-up, Head In The Clouds, is in full swing.
Hip-hop might have been born on the streets of Compton, Watts, Brooklyn and Queens in the US, but it's moments like the Heads In The Clouds festival, which took place in LA in September 2018, that display the genre’s massive global reach, far beyond its birthplace.
Listen to the best of Asian hip-hop in the playlist below
In 2019, hip-hop is the most widely consumed music in the US (if not the world), with fans chomping up beats and bars faster than rappers can spit them out. What started out as a musical medium for black voices to express themselves and combat social injustice has evolved into a lucrative cultural export. Right across the globe, hip-hop artists are selling out tours, inking million-dollar deals and holding down chart-topping positions, bringing big business and a diverse crowd of rappers to the genre.
“Hip-hop is now more than just US hip-hop, and the whole world is getting closer. Koreans, Chinese – everyone is doing rap,” say Higher Brothers, the breakout Chinese group dubbed the Asian Migos.
“We are trailblazing in a new way,” agrees Sean Miyashiro, who's had a lot to do with that change. Over the last four years, Miyashiro’s multimedia collective 88Rising have not only stormed the music industry with their strong roster of talent, but also given Asian hip-hop artists the jumping-off point they need.
“Our mission at 88rising is to change the game for how Asian culture is perceived in the West," he adds. "We do that by giving these incredible artists a platform to express themselves through their music.”
Miyashiro's 88Rising have launched a seemingly endless list of hyped artists and records. From Indonesia's Rich Brian, with his incendiary debut Dat $tick notching up 113m (and counting) YouTube views, to South Korean rapper Keith Ape’s track It G Ma, the first Asian rap record to achieve mainstream success. Not to mention outspoken female rappers like Japan's Awich and Vietnam's Suboi, and trilingual wordsmith Jin Dogg.
Those impressive stats haven't come without a fight. The scene’s leading artists might come from different parts of Asia, but they’ve all battled on common ground. They’ve stood up against cultural dogma and ostracism, flipping it into the vitriol behind their lyrics, and shown hip-hop purists that theirs is a valid voice.
“I think that people of this generation, like me, are given a tool: the internet. The internet is my tool. Music is my tool. If I have a voice, and I don’t use it, then shame. Shame on me,” says Vietnamese rapper Suboi.
Despite the global recognition, some listeners continue to pigeonhole Asian hip-hop as a novelty and accuse 88Rising’s rappers of cribbing an aesthetic and appropriating a genre that’s not theirs to take. “We’re not a novelty," Miyashiro says. "We create bodies of work and we put our heart and soul into this. Asian or not, people are really excited about what we’re doing. They can feel the energy.”
Indeed, this isn't the first time that Asian artists have been involved in or influenced hip-hop culture. The use of synthesisers like the Roland 808 by Ryuichi Sakamoto's '80s Japanese trio Yellow Magic Orchestra influenced the early sound of hip-hop. Fresh Kid Ice, from 2 Live Crew, pioneered Miami Bass and paved the way for other Asian American rappers, like MC Jin, Dumbfoundead, Awkwafina and, of course, Anderson .Paak. And iconic hip-hop heavyweights Wu-Tang Clan’s entire aesthetic was inspired by the martial arts film Shaolin and Wu-Tang, and Eastern philosophy. More recently, big-name rappers including Ghostface Killah, Travis Scott, ScHoolboy Q and Denzel Curry have all jumped on verses with 88Rising's top artists.
Sean Miyashiro and 88Rising are determined to continue making the presence of Asian hip-hop known worldwide. Regardless of the scene's tremendous achievements so far, Miyashiro remains passionate about challenging the music industry to rethink the geopolitics of hip-hop in 2019. A second Head In The Clouds festival is set to take place in August this year.
Giving props to 88Rising's increasing influence, Japanese rapper Awich says: “I felt like, before, who cares about Japanese rap? What Asian people felt, what we experience, or what we have to say? No one really… until 88 showed up. I feel like their presence is really important, and I'm really appreciative of that. If people can relate to our stories, and see that we feel the same thing, and we have a lot to say, then you can broaden the understanding of who we are as human beings. That’s a real game-changer – for us and for the world.”
“We are not copies," says Osaka, Japan's Jin Dogg. "We formed our own style by absorbing what’s good in different cultures. I want everyone to watch this movie so they know that Asia has more and more people like us."
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