Hip hop saved my life

                                                                     INTRO

Catchy headline, right? You hope to hear a story you've heard 1000s of time but feel good story of ghetto. Kid grew up in projects, surrounded by environment filled with drugs and sex that only way to survive is to walk away from small time drug dealing and grabbed the mic that discovered his real talent.

Well, this is not THAT story.

This is about a person, an immigrant, who fell in love with music and culture. As of reading of story you love and realizing, it's still going...

Born on August, 1986 in Seoul, Korea. Lived in apartment complex, wasn't rich, but not poor. Growing up in Korea is of course different then growing up in U.S. Childhood filled with Cartoons, Video games, hiking, going out to the lakes, tutors, comic books; yeah childhood was great.
1992, family and I moved to new area, which means new friends. I was pretty athletic, so I never had too much problem making friends, plus I like music, so I stayed in athletic side who like music. In korea, during that time,  tv shows with live bands/musicians would get on the stage, perform their new music. Think Americas Got Talent, but top 20 artist would come on and dance or sing and it's on weekly basis. We would watch, imitate, go to school and talk about it and wait until next week and see what they got.
My music choice was whatever my sisters listened, whatever my parents listened, and whatever that music show was giving us. But in 1992, singer name Hyun Jin-Young (https://youtu.be/E77enVTZOJg), came out, wearing sweatshirt looking like Cross Coluors brand, doing dance move in this new rhyme was fascinating, and soon enough, I had that same sweatshirt doing same dance move trying to be like him. I have 2 older sisters; one 5 years older, other, 3. So at least, I had advantages of listening what high school student, junior high and my friends were listening to. My second sister tends to be more in to music and dance then my oldest sister was, who was more academically promising. So my second sister taught me alot about hip hop music.

After Hyun Jin-Young, my ears are now aware of what hip hop music should sound like and they searched for more. By this time,  k pop songs contained snippets of rap verse for bridging purpose; think Ariana Grande's song "Problem". But, a group call Taiji Boys, really brought rap to Korea. Their first song had rap but, during that time,  I probably didn't even recognized what rap was and just thought they spoke really fast and it was cool(https://youtu.be/y8em1w3KIFA).
It was rap mixed with punk rock ish. It was new, it was edgy and it was great. 

By 1997, rap started to get the spotlight and the songs weren't all about love but it also discussed political corruption and sounded a bit more real. Many rappers started to take the stage like DEUX, Unity, Jinusean, and many more.  By 1997, Korea was aware of the what rap was but most of the songs still contained the lyrics about love. 

                                                            FIRST IMPRESSION

1997, my family and I moved to U.S. I was still a kid back then; watching Ghost busters on UPN, playing with Power Rangers, and still enjoyed pop music. 1998, my family settled down in Orange County, CA and I was enrolled into new school. This was the first time in my life I was classmate with many different ethnicity. I started to listen to local radio station, which at that time, Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop" was topping the charts(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6QKqFPRZSA). Also, we had cable and I had BET. I remember Nas's "Hate Me Now" was new single off his new album I AM... the video was extravagant. Nas was depicted as Jesus being crucified, Puff Daddy in white fur coat, white tiger in the cage with Cristal being poured out. As an Asian, growing up Presbyterian/ Christian, I didn't think Jesus was Asian; He was Jew lived in middle East. So seeing Nas as being Jesus was a cultural shock to me. And many things from that video, I couldn't wrap my head around. 

I was still a kid; watching Doug, Rugrats, Lion King and listening to most pop music, I wasn't aware of what this "HIP HOP" was. I remember I went to Target with my mom and asked her to get me my first CD. If you want to know what it was, it was Will Smith's "Big Willie Style". The album had singles like "Getting Jiggy With it", "Miami", and "Just the two of us"(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Willie_Style). I liked these songs. But I started to learn that music wasn't just about love songs or fun tunes to dance to. My sister came to rescue and told me to listen to Tupac(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Hits_(Tupac_Shakur_album)). I didn't understand English well that time but I heard the sadness and anger in those words. 

Late 90's wore golden time for rap. I may not understand what they were saying but I listened. Jay-Z's "Can I get a" was in the movie Rush Hour, Big Pun dropped "Still not a player", DMX started barking at the microphone, Method Man just needed Mary J. Blige to get by, Puffy was missing Biggie, Master P made them say "UHHHHH Na NA NA", Biggie hypnotized people with his flashy ways, Tupac try to start a revolution while screaming "THUG LIFE", and many more. Rap become the POP Music. But many of these songs went over my head due to language barrier. But I listened. Then in 2000, I bought my first CD, "Marshall Mathers LP" by Eminem. 

                                                                     FIRST DIP

In Mid 1999, my family moved from California to Washington. I was in middle of 7th grade. I still wasn't good at English, However, like I said, I was athletic, so many people picked me of their team even tho communication was hard. I wasn't sure of the culture either. When I first came to Seattle, my sister took me shopping and said, you need to wear this. The brand had red rhino as the label. If you do not know what that is, it's Ecko. The reason I pointed that out is because prior to that, I didn't care how I looked because I was such an active kid that, the clothes will most likely get destroyed and girls weren't too much of my concern. The new school I moved to in Seattle had different people then people in L.A; more diverse crowd. New school had preppy kids wearing Abercrombie & Fitch, skater kids wearing Spit Fire, Punk kids, who dressed like skater kids, Gothic kids who had different color hair styles and many piercings, normal kids wearing clothes from Target/ Wal Mart. Even though I didnt' speak good English, they welcome me with open arm. I was sitting with preppy/ popular kids during lunch, had breakfast with skater kids, and hung with Gothic kids; I had no barrier or set group. I picked up English as well. 

One day, one of the skater kid asked if I like Limp Bizkit and played "Break Stuff" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpUYjpKg9KY) and I told him that Rock wasn't really my style. He then played "N 2 Gether now" featuring Limp Bizkit; I loved it.  He also told me to check out Dr. Dre. This was when Dr. Dre's Chronic 2001 came out with single "Forgot about Dre" featuring Eminem and this was my first introduction to Eminem (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_(Dr._Dre_album)). During this time, lot of new music were coming out with music videos. In 2018, there really isn't a need for Music Videos because we can get music any where, but not in early 2000. Music videos were very important. Dr. Dre had "Still Dre", which is still one of my favorite Dre record, and "Next Episode" where everyone waited until the end to say "SMOKE WEED EVERYDAY". I didn't know what they were talking about but it was great. 

At this point, I started to speak ok English. I started to sing along with rap songs, try to perfect what Eminem was saying on "Forgot about Dre". And I got into hip hop really into that point. Reading The Source magazine and watching Rap City Basement hosted by Big Tigger became my learning tools to learn more about Hip Hop. 

                                                                

                                                                 STUDY TIME

In 2001, we moved from Lynnwood, WA to Redmond, WA. I like to think Redmond is where Im from because so many moves in my young days, Redmond became the place I graduated Junior and High school. In Redmond, I met most of my friends that I call 'Life time' friends. I experienced alot with these friends and learned alot as well. 

2001, I still wasn't good at speaking English, but I picked up quickly. I met my friend D.J who taught me new raps that aren't always mainstream. He taught me about hip hop fashion styles from Karl Kani, Sean John, and Pure Playas. Luckily for me, my friend was passionate about rap as well, he gave me a who to listen to from Bone- Thugs, Ludacris, Outcast and other rappers that I wasn't listening to before. By this time, I was able to understand the lyrics and I started to dive into learning about rap. First it was mainstream, then my other friends who started to suggested other things as well. My good friend P.G also had huge influence. He is the one who taught me about Nas, the movie Belly and other hip hop related things. Even now, I think P.G is definition of hip hop, he taught me how the streets were and what was trendy. He taught me the styles and what to look for. My other friend had older brothers who grew up with rap which got me researching. I personally enjoy East Coast rap (Jay, Nas, DMX, Wu-Tang, Fabo, etc..) but most of my friends were into West Coast rap. 

My close friend A.M had older brother who taught me to listen to rappers like X-Rated, Brother Lynch Hung, Bloods and Crips, Cube, Kurupt, Warren G, and other famous west coast rappers. If you know any of these rappers, you can tell what influence might started, it was gangster rap. Me and my buddies started to act like Crips and called ourselves LOC, stand for Local Crips. It was silly as Redmond is a suburban area and we probably looked like some poser with blue rag hanging out on the left side. I didn't understand the gang culture, but I just wanted to belong and do what my friends were doing. However, we were really the last group of minorities in white neighborhood and we were pretty much the "Bad Kids" from the area. We smoked and drank and try to mimic the lifestyles that we saw on TV. 

By this time, I had set crew, we had our music and we had place to hang out. We started to freestyle battle, call each other mean names, made diss records to each other and it was awesome. I started to research on my on. Pretty much watch and listen to any thing and everything I could get a hold of. I learned that Rap started in Bronx. I learned that Hip Hop had 3 main essence; Rap, Break dancing, and Graffiti. I learned that hip hop was born from poverty and that made me look in to Black America. I learned about Eric B & Rakim which Rakim is still one of my top 5 favorite artist as I give respect to originator. I watched documentaries like Backstage(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backstage_(2000_film)), Beef (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef_(film)), and Rhyme and Reason (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyme_%26_Reason_(film)). P.G also told me to watch movies like Belly, Breakin, Menace to Society, Boys in the Hood and also movies like Friday series. I soaked all in and learned like it was my major at University. 

                                                                      PEAK

By 2000 until 2010, rap was my genre. I listened to DMX, Jay-Z, Fabo, Bone thugs, Three 6 Mafia, Dipset, Tupac, Biggie, Nelly, T.I, Lil Flip, Lil Wayne, Eminem, Dre, Fat Joe and Terror Squad, Ludarcis, and many more. Rap was my home and it was where my voices came from. I soaked in everything and listened to any new music like I was an AR for a record company to see if im going to give record deal or not. 

By this time, I was wearing Tall Tee with Baggy jeans that were 4 sizes bigger than my regular size, shoes 2 size bigger and hat to side ways. Oh man, I was hip hop poster boy. I spoke with slang that would throw people off, and my crew smoked and drank, played cards and got in fights. Looking back, no wonder we were targeted by the police. 

High school was the wild days. By Sophomore Year, we had a set crew and the crew was big. We also new the bad kids from school who were seniors, so we had a passes to things that normal sophomores wouldn't. We use to drive out of school during lunch to eat as group, smoke cigarettes and sneak back into school. Hung out in groups and we pretty much ran the school. People knew us and popularity came with a cost; we were known by local cops as well. 

We would get pulled over for no reason, get searched and put in handcuffs. It's like how Tupac said that he never got harassed by cops until he made a record about it; I felt the same. At one point, we had 6 cop car surrounded us with Guns drawn for not being in school during school time. Im sure it was suppose to be scare tactic, but it was more like of Fucked the Police situation. 

I also break danced and got really into hip hop fashion like Air Force Ones, Phat Farm, RocaWear, Ecko, Enyce, Akademiks, School of Hard Knock. Each of our crew member had there specific brand that they wear. I was more into Ecko and Akademiks. Hip Hop had consumed me. 

                                                                     DOWNWARD 

After 2010, I started to hang with other crowd like people from college. That made me listen to other music. Just like rap, I took the same approach and started to research on American music. 

From 2010 -2014, I was listening to classic rock, jazz, blues, classical, oldies, and other recommended music. Rap became something I cared but not too much. My focus became learning more about other style of music. 

Plus, the music was highly surrounding trap music and person who enjoyed rap for lyrical reason, so I wasn't really liking too much of rap. It was definitely good to learn other style of music, but I knew my heart will always be with Hip Hop. 

                                                          WELCOME HOME

Even though I wasn't following up with current trend of rap from 2010-2014, I was still listening and knowing who these rappers were like 2Chainz, Rich Homie Quan, Young Thug, Waka Flocka and etc.. And it's not like I completely stop listening to rap, my favorite artists were still coming out with songs, so I wasn't completely out of the loop.  

During that time, I started to record song as well. I had a microphone I borrowed from my co worker, I had laptop, downloaded beats from youtube. I wrote about 60 songs and recorded about 30. I really got into it. Was I trying to be a rapper? Maybe, but it was more therapeutic for me. I begin just writing songs and by the 20's songs, I started to understand how to write. Knowing you do not have to rhyme and end sentence but to really work with what you have and convey the message. 2014, I came back the full circle and came back listening to rap. Rappers like J.Cole and Kendrick and Macklemore really brought those rap styles that I enjoyed. More professional by this time, I wasn't wearing too much baggy clothes anymore but I was still listening to rap like high school days. At this moment, I have became Rap aficionado. I knew most of rap as long as it's not new rap. I become a scholar in Hip Hop. 

                                                                       Outro

Hip Hop defines me regardless what people would think. People are surprise that I would say Rakim is one of my favorite rapper because they wouldn't expect me to understand the history. I stay listening to rap, but i have knowledge of other music as well now. 

I went through phases of break dancing, rapping, gangster lifestyle, lyrical mindset; rap has given me the voice or my niche. Rap is music and Hip Hop is my culture. Rap is not just voice for me, it's millions of letter from a person, they might speak about themselves, their goal, or political corruption and systematic issue. 

Hip Hop is my passion and in that way, hip hop saved my life.