Asian ID in Hip Hop

Blog Assignment #3

The identity of the Asian ethnicity in Hip Hop may seem rare to most people.  However asian culture has been a big part in all aspects in the Hip Hop community.  From Breakers such as Taisuke, Wing, and Hong10; to the MCs and DJs such as Jin, Bambu, Nujabes, and DJ Symphony.  Even in the Graffiti scene, it included artist such as Tsang Tsou Choi.  To most Asians in the Hip Hop scene are seen as a minority.  However I feel that there is more than meets the eye with the the Asian community in terms of Hip Hop, especially in Hawaii.

From Oliver Wangʻs reading “Rapping and Repping Asians: Race, Authenticity, and the Asian American MC”, Wang explains that the possibility of forging a “uniform Asian American” identify by number of contrast, hostile differences in history, language, culture, class, etc. (Wang, pg. 203).  Wang also explains that the “Asianness” as Asian Americans have contend with racialized identity that is placed on them with external force (pg. 203).  What I feel this means is that because most Asian Americans come from passive, middle class backgrounds people feel they do not deserve a place in the Hip Hop community.  Counter example of this includes Hong10, a Korean B-boy from the Drifterz/7 Commandoz crew.  In 2006, Hong10 became the first of Asian decent to win the Red Bull BC One B-boy competition.  Since then Hong10 has recently won the 2013 BC One competition.

Another example of this would be through Rapper Jin.  In Wangʻs article, he goes on to explain that Jin displays the “keener awareness” of race (pg. 213).  Wang then gives an example of how he deals with race in Hip Hop:

“Iʻm no Eminem

But Iʻm not wack either

The only reason you compare me to him

Is because Iʻm not black either” (pg. 213)

I feel this is a perfect example of how difficult it was for Rapping Asian Americans. Not only did they have to fight the whole “you didnʻt come from the struggle” stereotype because of middle class classification, they also had to deal with the fact that people seen the Hip Hop community as “pro African American”.

One of the biggest Identities for the Asian community in the Hip Hop community (for myself) would be DJ Symphony, a female filipino decent DJ.  Two things about DJ Symphony that people didnʻt take about her was the fact that she was 1) a female and 2) Asian decent.  What DJ Symphony did was she broke down the barrier for both female DJs and Asian DJs and gain respect from her peers in the DJ community from her handy work on the turntables.

(http://beatjunkies.com/site/rare-footage-of-dj-babu-rhettmatic-dj-icy-ice-dj-symphony/)

-R.C.