a-Tunes

It’s been a couple month’s since our last Spotlight feature, but we are back with a brand new interview with MUzO Entertainment and Philly native Decipher. We got to talk about a lot of different topics including how De teamed up with Johnnyphlo, working with other artists such as Chan, the dramatic story behind his family, battling and the possibility of Grind Time, what’s in store for Decipher in 2010 and more! Lastly, watch till the end for an exclusive preview of some never heard before material.

Major thanks to MUzO Entertainment. Be on the lookout for Decipher, one of the sickest MC’s reppin it for all of us!

Check out Decipher at the following:
http://www.deciphermusic.com
http://twitter.com/deciphermusic
http://www.youtube.com/deciphermusic
http://www.facebook.com/deciphermusic
http://www.myspace.com/decipher

Carlos Galvan has a new interview out with HalfKorean.com, as they go indepth about what he’s been up to and what has happened since the last time they spoke. It’s a thorough read but explains how so much has happened in the past year including his linking of with the Jiggy Fellaz crew and his thoughts on the new Uptown. He also talks about his recently released effort South Cide. Check out the full read after the break or head on over to HK!

(more…)

Jin, arguably the most well-known Asian-American MC, decided to drop a track in tribute of all the Asian MC’s he respects that are doing their thing right now. This song is in response to a list that was published by a blogger on their top 10 Greatest Asian MC’s list, where Jin made the cut at #1. It’s encouraging to see Jin give a nod to his fellow colleagues, or as his once famously said in a Freestyle battle “cause Game recognize game”. He spits over the instrumental to Drake’s “It’s Over”.

Here’s the complete list of rapper’s he shouted out on the track. Ill.

1. Dumbfoundead
2. Southstar
3. Bambu
4. Roscoe Umali
5. Geologic (of Blue Scholars)
6. apl.de.ap
7. Far East Movement
8. Snacky Chan
9. Mountain Brothers
10. Young Mac
11. LS
12. Reign
13. Flowsik
14. Shogunna
15. Rook
16. Lyrics Born
17. Chuckie Akenz
18. Kamikaze Grey
19. Lil’ Crazed
20. Lyricks
21. Manifest
22. Thai
23. Decipher
24. J. Reyez
25. D-Pryde
26. Johnnyphlo
27. Demo (of D-League)
28. Tantrum
29. Traphik

Welcome to another edition of Weekly Thursday Freebie!

Back in 2004 the hip-hop group Organic Thoughts released the album The Purest Form and helped become one of the first Asian rap groups to get major distribution (I picked up my copy from the local Best Buy). The group has gone through some member changes and seem to be on an indefinite hiatus. At the time of this album, the members were Diwrekt, Fraze, Onpoynt, Reason, and El Gambina (an ill femcee), but also heavily featured Illmind and Tonio.

I wouldn’t consider the album a “classic” but I will say it’s pretty strong. But more than anything it’s influential and something of a trailblazer for AA hip-hop. The album has some great features including the legendary Large Professor. Organized Konfusion, Uniq, Chan, Eyesoulated Mindz, the Mountain Brothers, and Andrew Choi were also present and representing.

It’s a pretty jam packed release, and I recommend you check out this piece of AA music history. It may still be available on iTunes, and if it is and you’re feeling it, I encourage you to purchase it, or at least the tracks you’re digging.

Anyway, track list and link are after the break!

(more…)

Image Credit: mtv IGGY

2009 is quickling coming to an end and as part of my guest blogging gig at mtv IGGY I was asked to compile a list highlighting what I considered the top 10 tracks of the past decade by Asian Amercan artists. It took a lot of debate and even now I’m not 100% satisfied with my list by regardless I stand by it. This is just a repost of the mtv IGGY article with some minor edits but without further ado I present to you my Top 10 Asian American Tracks From The Decade.

Let me start off this list by saying it was nearly impossible to try and pick my top 10 favorite songs by Asian American artists from the past 10 years. One reason being, I didn’t really follow the scene heavily until a couple years into the decade and even then the pickings were a bit slim at the time. Also, I’ve opted to go for my personal favorite songs that have stood the test of time, and not just the most influential. Keep in mind this is a list of top 10 songs, not artists. That would have been a similar but still different list altogether. Lastly, I’ve decided to stick strictly with Asian-American artists meaning UK import Jay Sean didn’t make the cut despite how much I love ‘Down’. All I can say is, it’s been really exciting to see more and more Asian American artists make a name for themselves in the industry and I can only imagine next decade’s top 10 will be exponentially more difficult to sort out. As with any list there’s going to be some consensus and some disagreement but without further ado I present to you my top 10 from 2000 to 2009.

Read on for the list!

(more…)

So some of you may remember earlier this year when we reported Chan had joined the new reincarnation of the Korean group Uptown. They’ve dropped a couple singles and released some MV’s but a new fact was recently revealed last week about the MV for their debut single Black Knight.

In an interview, Christina Chung (who has worked with Chan in the past) revealed that she had an uncredited, impromptu cameo in the video. She stated that while visiting Korea, Chan asked her to come through the video set and hang out, but when she arrived she was immediately cast into one of the scenes of the video. Of course we had to watch the video back and look for her and guess what? Here she is:

It’s a humerous story but great to see friends helping each other out!

So for this Week’s Thursday Freebie we present you with the music video for download. Link is after the jump!

(more…)

Yo a-Tunes readers! I know I’ve missed the past couple weeks of WTF due to my vacation but I’m back with a new one for you today courtesy of Asian Rap Worldwide. ARW has posted up their first release, ‘The LS Mixtape’. This compilation album is dedicated to none other than LS, a veteran asian american MC who was part of the early movement but has since left the music scene a few yrs back.

Read what ARW posted about the mixtape including the dialogue w/ LS himself:

I’m very proud to announce that Asian Rap Worldwide has just released its very first mixtape called The LS Mixtape!! The LS mixtape features 12 songs from LS, a Chinese-American rapper from New York that rapped about his life experiences in the streets of New York’s Chinatown. He was coming up in the rap game around the same time when Asian-American rappers such as Jin, Chan and Shogunna were also coming up. That was in the early millenium which marked the beginning stages of an Asian-American hip hop movement, which LS was a part of. If you haven’t heard any new songs from LS lately, that is because LS is not rapping anymore (or at least is putting his rapping on hold for a while). LS explains it all in this the email he sent to me:

Wuts good Royal? Sorry bout the delay, after i got out the hospital n all i had to catch up on mad shit but i didn’t forget about you… i appreciate the luv fam… i juss wanna let you kno that, i haven’t been in the game for a minute now… it seems my time has come and gone… it’s funny because when i was younger i had dreams of making it big but i never thought it could ever happen… then when it really did start happening n things started to take off it kinda took me by surprise because it was happening so fast and i didn’t really kno what to do with it, all the visions i was having was coming tru but i wasn’t really taking it that seriously when i should of been… but thats how life is sumtimes… whether i decide to pursue music again or not i could say say that i’ve definitely made my mark… even with the limited amount of songs that i put out there, i’m still arguably one of the best asian american artist that did it… it was definitely fun while it lasted and who knows, maybe i’ll pick up the mic again n show these niggas wuts up lol… HOLLA AT THE KID!

-LS

Well… you heard it straight from LS. Now about the mixtape. The LS Mixtape is a mix of some originals, some covers over instrumental beats and some collaborations with other Asian rappers.

The mixtape also features Jin, Jay Chou, Shogunna, Chan, Rook, Young Mac, Thai Streets, South Star, FM, & Ailee. You can check out the back cover, tracklisting & download link after the jump. Thanks to ARW for putting this one together!

(more…)

Waddup world. It’s another Weekly Thursday Freebie and this time we’re bringing you a classic Chan track… arguably his most famous – Lonely Road. The video was shot by Todd Angkasuwan and the track produced by illmind so you know everything came together nicely. If this isn’t Asian American collaboration at it’s best then I dunno what is. Also look for the cameo in the video from Miss Info.

No matter what your opinion may be on Chan’s move to the Korean industry, you gotta give him his props for this one.

Feelin it? You can grab it, as always, after the jump.

(more…)

Wow, time flies… it’s another Weekly Thursday Freebie (It’s already the 18th one!).

But all the credit for this one goes to the good fellas over at Urban Azn. They are the ones that compiled this hip-hop mixtape together for your listening pleasure.

A compilation album of the most prominent Asian rappers in hip hop, War For Respect focuses on the street life that many of us are dealing with today. The album is free for download and promotional uses, hit the jump for details on the album.

The mixtape features Jin, Decipher, Mondega, Shogunna, Rookadamus, Flowsik, Reign Era, Roscoe Umali, Thai, Chan, LS, Yung Mac, & Chuckie Akenz. Some of the songs are pretty dated but the project gives a fair representation on the numerous street singles by Asian-American/Candian Hip-Hop artists over the past few years. The cover art borders between a stylized cool and excessive to the point of cheesy but that doesn’t detract from the fact it’s a pretty good collection of tracks.

You can find the back cover w/ the tracklisting and link for DL after the jump!

(more…)

Chan (most recently of Uptown fame) recently gave a quick video update featuring m-flo‘s frontman Verbal. Verbal launched a new clothing line called Ambush and they set the record straight on who’s really behind the fashion trends (were those subliminal shots at Big Bang I was hearing?).

Chan & Verbal have been cool since their days in Boston way back so it’s cool to see they are still tight after all these years.

Credit: SRC