The Rising of Asain Rapper and Identity
Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I am keen on music, especially popular music and rap music. I like to see what’s trending on Music charts (YouTube, Billboard) when I have free time. In recent years, I truly amazed by the growing number of Asian Music and Asian artists in the charts. As an Asian student studying in Australia, I feel a sense of belonging and pride arising spontaneously. These Asian representations let me feel like “maybe these artists are an opportunity to dispel all the boring stereotypes” and “Asians also can make good music”. That was the feeling of being approved and affirmed.
In recent years, Asian music gradually got into the mainstream. Asians are increasingly enjoying success in mainstream hip hop and R&B such as MC Jin,half- Filipino- Bruno Mars. For the Korean boy band, BTS became the first Asian singer to win the “ Billboard Music Award”. There is no doubt that Asian power becomes more and more be noticed by Australia ‘s and America’s mainstream. With the rise of Asian culture, this success totally presents the global influence as Asian identity in the media industry.
With the development of the Internet in the 21st century, the structure and channels of music industry are becoming more and more diversified. Artists are no longer need to wait for the discovery of management companies and labels. Artists can take advantage of social media to publish and promote their music and interact with fans.
At the earliest time, Rich Brian registered the video blogger of YouTube and Vine with his real name. He focused on posting short funny videos. Although most of the videos were shot in Jakarta, the language he used in all videos in English. Correspondingly, many punchlines seem to be more understandable to those English native speaker. The turning point was in 2016; Rich Brian released a viral Hip-Hop music MV “Dat $tick” on YouTube. In the MV, he wore a pink polo shirt, a fanny pack with “stupid” dance. The reason that the video has gone viral is not only because of his funky style, but also the promotion of his record label 88rising. It went more viral when his management released a video of rap artists such as 21 Savage and Wu Tang’s Goshface Killah reacting positively to his music video. He uses social media to show his growth process completely and instantly in the eyes of the world.
Indeed, the success of Rich Brian and 88 Rising can never be separated from the media’s blessing. They portray as a breakthrough force to expand the influence of Asian music. Despite the growing diversity of cultures in hip-hop, the mainstream focus is still on the African American. Even with Post Malone, such a talented American white rapper. His music careers have to face controversial issues about race, not to mention Rich Brian, who is not a native of English. In his latest song “Yellow” showed meditation on his identity as an abroad Asian after his great success in the United States. Many Asian Americans can not find their individuality when standing within America’s Black-white binary. Some may even have been educated become white is better than a “Fresh off the boat”. 88 Rising provides Asians and Asian-American a platform to showcase talents and break the world’s stereotype. This not only allows people to find their identity but also represent not to be ashamed of their own culture.
Don’t fight the feeling cause I’m yellow
Will I make it, who the hell knows
You want my soul, but we don’t sell those
-Rich Brian’s “Yellow” lyrics
In the era of digitalization, social media has become an important tool for people’s socialization. As a platform for building social relations, social media affects people’s self-awareness and identity. Asian musicians stand on the stage of social media and share their view of the world which makes people feel connected with their own identity. The group boundaries of Asian American are also gradually blurred, and the internal groups tend to fall into the anxiety of their own identity and group identity. 88 Rising as an Asian rooted company represent the Asian minority while finding identity, it also conveys its own cultural content and cultural self-confidence.
