ABOUT

Originally born out of the African American urban youth during the 1970’s, hip-hop has since branched out to other ethnic groups, including Asian Americans. The emergence of Asian American performers in hip-hop began in the early 1990s, especially at college and community events. Asian Americans have been a vital part of hip-hop culture, which consists of four distinct elements: rap music, turntablism, breaking, and graffiti art. The strictness of black and white binary racialization of hip-hop leads to certain difficulties for Asian Americans to negotiate their place within hip-hop culture. Asian American artists continue to establish their hip-hop legitimacy to break the silence and marginalization of their voices.

Our goal in creating this blog, is to introduce to YOU that there are Asian American hip-hop artists. Often overlooked in this category, Asian American hip-hop artists are a strong vocal minority in hip-hop culture. Some have broken into mainstream America, while others look to Korea,Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, and many other Asian countries to make a name for themselves there. On this blog, you will find a variety of Asian American hip-hop artists (some well-known and others not so much) that will hopefully inspire you to chase after your own dreams and break Asian American stereotypes, as these artists have done themselves. We encourage you to comment or leave feedback on our blogs!