But I was thinking. As much as Asian Americans support Asian American entertainers aka Jin, Lyrics Born, are there really any others? They're never going to be "ours" in the same way as other rappers are African Americans.
Actually it always kind of annoyed me that on a certain track where Lyrics Born and Lateef are rapping, Lateef can refer to his ethnicity as black and Puerto Rican (I think) whereas Lyrics Born largely remains silent about his ethnicity, at least in his music. It's sort of hard to in public because he looks so Asian. But at the same time, why can't Lyrics Born talk about being Asian? Because it lacks some sort of requisite realness? Because being Asian isn't very cool? None of the above? When an African American rapper announces solidarity with his ethnicity, that's considered fairly ordinary? Why does saying you're proud of your Asian ethnicity then become kind of embarrassing? Possibly because your own community doesn't really at least in theory support your choice of profession? Perhaps it once again, as Nien says, all comes down to marketing.
However both him and Jin, and less famous people when asked about their ethnicity usually try to elide the issue by just saying that they write for everyone and want everyone to listen to them. Somehow, I feel like things should be different.
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3 comments:
do you think asians are accepted in the wider culture as Americans?
-Michelle
Sometimes writers say they don't want to be described by ethnicity or gender (e.g., why not just “writer,” instead of “Asian American woman writer”?). The idea seems to be that you want to reach lots of readers on multiple levels, so it’s better to universalize than to specialize. I’m thinking, too, about that old film “Chan Is Missing.” So many small, delicious elbow-in-the-ribs moments. With commercial success came bigger budgets, well-known actors, big-studio distribution, and after a while, the director had gotten national attention but those sharp, Asian-specific bits were gone.
When it comes to music, tho, it might be different, more about marketing and who's cool and who's not.
Also, Michelle has a good point. Plus Asians are fragmented - there’s no pan-Asia yet – so it’s harder to get an audience of significant size that feels it can connect 100 percent with you.
Two ideas why, and I'm not sure which way to lean.
1. Hip hop doesn't respect Asians. That simple. Remember that Jay Chou marketing plan I sent you? Remember that bit about how they're hypocritical racists? Remember how they treated Jin during those freestyle battles? It's like they won't even sit down and listen to the words. They just automatically assume things because this rapper is Asian. On a CD, racist hip hop people can't tell that who they're listening is Asian, so they don't get the opportunity to judge.
2. It's not like the Asian community gave them much love to begin with so why bother right? In Jin's old album he mentioned that his biggest critics were his own people. I mean, seriously, Asian Americans are a pretty sorry bunch (and I'm being nice here)and to associate with them is like carrying dead weight.
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