Category Archives: Worst Ever

Worst Ever: The Slants Denied Trademark to Own Bandname

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Rock band The Slants have just been dealt an unnecessary setback. They’ve been denied the trademark to their own name because the US Patents & Trademark Office thought it was “was disparaging to Asian Americans”. It’s nice that Big Brother and Uncle Sam are looking out for us “yeller fellers” but really? The Slants is too offensive? Keep in mind this is a band active in the Asian American community, comprised of several AA members. Documentation and evidence of the fact was even submitted along with the application but it was still deemed too controversial.

Yes, it’s true. The Slants can be a racial slur but not in this context. If anything it’s a self imposed commentary on the group and it’s members and their identity in society. It’s a talking point, a tool used to start conversation about the band and the stereotypes they are trying to break. But regardless, the folks at the USPTO, in their infinite wisdom want to protect us. Perhaps the Slants should change their name to “The Asians and/or Pacific Islanders” to be safe.

Fine. So be it. But before they take away The Slants from us, someone tell the USPTO that they need to have a little chat with Uncle Kracker too.

You can read more about the topic over at 8Asians.

Worst Ever: Wonder Girls = Hyori? Amazon Thinks We All Look Alike

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Wow. OK. So allow me to preface this post with the disclaimer that I’m a huge fan of AmazonMP3. I purchase most of my digital music through there and since I’m not really plugged into the Apple Universe of products and services, Amazon remains the most viable option for me.

Click to Enlarge

With that said I was browsing the site when I happened to peek at the suggestions they had for me. Lo and behold I see a Hyori’s face and I chuckle, because for one I didn’t expect her to be on AmazonMP3 and two it’s a humorous suggestion to begin with. I click the image and quickly realized this is the page for the Wonder Girls’ album Triology. For those of you not well versed in KPOP culture, those are two very different acts. Hyori is a women in her early 30′s that has made a career out of strategically capitalizing on her sex appeal while the Wonder Girls are a group of teens & young adults who symbolize the epitome of bubble gum pop. I’m a casual fan of both but there really is no mistaking the two.

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Worst Ever: Peter Chao Does Blackface

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Youtube comedian/”musician”/personality Peter Chao has the tendency to both crack me up and make me shake my head in disdain. One of his latest videos, entitled “Chinese Guy WHIPS His D!CK (Back and Forth)!”, made me do the latter and potentially turned me off from his comedy completely.

His self-deprecating humor is already too much for many, as he puts on a crazy chinese accent and generally acts a fool. I for one found him to be humorous, occasionally hilarious, all the while acknowledging that it is in fact racist. But his latest video crossed a line. He went from making jokes about his and others cultures, to actually visually mocking African-Americans via blackface. For those of you that aren’t familiar with blackface… read up. But in general it’s a very degrading representation.

There may be some of you who think I’m being too uptight and that I’m just missing the point of his humor. Maybe so, but I still stand by the fact that there’s a fine line between funny and distasteful, and Peter Chao completely jumped into the latter side head first. I couldn’t even finish the clip, I was so disgusted.

And that is why I’ve chosen to unsubscribe.  I’m not telling any of you who are fans to do the same. But I am at least asking yourself, is this a justifiable cost for some cheap laughs? If someone did yellowface, I doubt you’d be laughing.

Worst Ever: Rush Limbaugh

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I know this isn’t music related, but I felt it was worth sharing. So I was making my evening twitter rounds when I came across the following tweet by musician Taiyo Na.

And I was thinking, what the deuce did Rush say to get him all heated like that? Considering the person, I should have known. Now I’m all for free speech. And I’ll admit that it is Limbaugh’s American right to say what he says in the following video. But that doesn’t make it right or remotely appropriate.

At the end of the day, the dude is a fool that says things because it more or less keeps him relevant. It just shows a great deal of ignorance and lack of character… but it is what it is. Rush is just one voice – albeit a very loud, bigoted, and sadly influential one. But it’s times like these we just gotta shake our head, don’t bother crying about it, and instead do something about it. Truth is, this guy will likely end up suffering from some type of terminal baby boomer ailment in the next 15-20 years but douche’s like him will continue to exist. Perhaps we don’t need to shut them up, but rather change their hearts.

Idealist? Perhaps. Preachy? If so, I apologize. But let’s at least all agree that Limbaugh was extremely disrespectful, and that people of Asian descent deserve more than that.

Worst Ever: Tila Tequila Attacked at Concert

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Any “news” pertaining to Tila Tequila needs to be taken with a grain of salt since the model/actress/reality show star/musician/socialite tends to do a lot of things in the name of attention and she does seem to be in the tabloids often for no reason. But TMZ has gotten wind that she has been allegedly attacked at a show in Illinois, when the crowd got out of hand and turned their angst against her. Now, the key words in the TMZ post are “According to Tila”, so until an official statement is made by the police we likely won’t know the whole story but regardless she does seem to have been badly injured somehow.

And if the details and facts are in any way true… that’s just wrong. I don’t consider her the most pleasant “celebrity” but in no way does she deserve to be physically assaulted and battered in this manner. There are contusions and bruises all over her face and body and it’s just frightening to imagine what have happened.

I won’t lie though… a part of me is skeptical that this is some kind of hoax or cry for attention but I’m gonna put that aside, give her the benefit of the doubt and just say that I hope she has a quick recovery and that the people involved are head accountable by law.

According to Tila, she took the stage at the Gathering of the Juggalos in Illinois — a concert featuring such acts as Insane Clown Posse and Kottonmouth Kings.

Tila gave TMZ a very detailed account of what happened, saying: “I went onstage and immediately, before I even got on stage, DUDES were throwing HUGE STONE ROCKS in my face, beer bottles that slit my eye open, almost burnt my hair on fire cuz they threw fire crackers on stage, and they even took the sh*t out of the port-0-potty and threw sh*t and piss at me when I was onstage.”

She went on to say: “These people were trying to kill me.  So then after the last blow to my head with the firecracker they threw at me exploded, my bodygaurd and the other security grabbed me and ran as fast as they could to the shitty trailor.  Since their security SUCKS, the 2 thousand people ran after us, trying to kill me.  They almost got me so they finally reach the trailor, blood all over myself, cant stop bleeding, then all of a sudden, all 2 thousand people surround the trailor and busts the windows!!!  Even the guys INSIDE with me were shaking!  Their hands were shaking cuz they were so scared!  So 3 guys inside the trailor had to grab a table and push it over the broken windows and grabbed all the chairs they could find so hold the people from outside back.  It was scary as hell!”

Police confirm they responded to the scene, but couldn’t go into detail, citing HIPAA laws.

Worst Ever: Music Major Labels vs David Choi

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[EDIT 5-31-2010] David Choi’s Youtube Acct Has Been Suspended [/EDIT]

Before we get into it, I recommend you first watch the following two clips for some context. Long story short, David Choi is in danger of losing his Youtube channel.

Now after seeing the lengthy explanation of events from Mr Choi himself, you should have a pretty good idea of what’s going on. Now let me be clear from the very start so there is no confusion… I’m on David’s side on this one, as I imagine many of you reading will be too. Not to say there isn’t any bias but I pride myself on being as objective as possible and I believe I’ve logically come to my conclusion.

You see, companies such as WMG has beef with Youtube. They have a history of conflict, just Google the words “WMG” and “Youtube” and you get a bunch of results on the issue. In an over-simplified summary, WMG doesn’t believe they are getting their fair shair in the online-streaming business and as a result, they heavily police the internet, taking down all copyright infringement material. OK, that in itself is their prerogative… let’s be honest, they deserve to be paid for the music they own/protect on “behalf” of their artists. As much as I love social media, and the mass availability to new music, whether legally or illegally, I understand that there are copyright laws for a reason and that these are businesses trying to stay afloat.

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Worst Ever: “I wanna..” what?!

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So this may not exactly be Asian American music related but Korean rapper G-Masta released “Memoir Of G-ma$ta” a few days ago and his track 투망 (Cast) is lyrically appalling. The track opens up with girl(s) singing, “I wanna f— you” on auto-tune and the song just drags down from there. From the horrible rap verses to the blinding music video, this is without a doubt hitting the top of our “worst ever” category.

Worst Ever: Myspace Ads & Ramiele Malubay

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In a huge SMH moment, some targeted ads have been running on Myspace with the typical “Chat with Asian Girls” spiel only this time the ad company in question used images of someone you may be familiar with. A photo of singer Ramiele Malubay, best known for run on American Idol a few years back, was used without her permission for this seedy online chat/dating service!

As you can expect, Ramiele is furious stating the following on twitter:

http://twitter.com/Joey21XL/status/11449253349 Now I am going to give whoever has power to remove this 24 hrs. Or else…

If the ad isn’t removed I hope Ms Malubay will take legal action against this shameless company. This reminds me of the time an escort service used a photo of actress Brenda Song in their ad in the paper. Idiots.

Worst Ever: Rocking Out to Ke$ha

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So this video has been making it’s rounds on the internet… and I’ll be completely honest with you, it’s fascinating in a train wreck type of way. Apparently some kid named Brian thought it’d be fun to “rock out to this new jam” by Ke$ha (“Blah Blah Blah”). It looks like he had a good time, and I can only hope he did this in the spirit of self deprecating humor. Either way… this is not the way to become a bonafide youtube star.

You know what I take that back. The dude’s got 30K+ views and counting. Maybe there’s a method to the madness.

Source: KoreAm

Worst Ever: The Game, Twitter, and 2PM

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Bet you never thought you’d see US rapper The Game, Twitter, and KPOP group 2PM in the same headline did you?

I saw this over at AngryAsianMan earlier today. Although it doesn’t really piss me off the incident makes me shake my head and sigh. Check out what he recently said on twitter when he decided to retweet a trending topic regarding 2PM and Jaebeom:

“#RT기 다릴게 박재범 기다릴게 2PM dont kno what dis trendin topic is or means but I like shrimp fried rice alot & smokin makes my eyes tight so I RT’d it”

I’m a fan of Game’s music but this was such a poor attempt at humor, especially on a public forum. I don’t believe the guy had any ill intent, rather he just isn’t aware of the insensitivity of his statement. At the end of the day it boils down to ignorance. Either way he inadvertendly helped support the cause for Jaebeom to a ton of his followers haha.