Posts Tagged ‘Chan

28
Jan
10

WTF: Organic Thoughts – The Purest Form

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Categories: WTF
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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!

Continue reading ‘WTF: Organic Thoughts – The Purest Form’

22
Dec
09

Lookin’ Back: The Top 10 Asian American Tracks From The Decade

By atunes 7 Comments
Categories: Lookin' Back
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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!

Continue reading ‘Lookin’ Back: The Top 10 Asian American Tracks From The Decade’

29
Oct
09

WTF: Uptown – 흑기사 (Black Knight) MV

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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:

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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!

Continue reading ‘WTF: Uptown – 흑기사 (Black Knight) MV’

15
Oct
09

WTF: ARW Presents The LS Mixtape

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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!

Continue reading ‘WTF: ARW Presents The LS Mixtape’

24
Sep
09

WTF: Chan – Lonely Road

By atunes Leave a Comment
Categories: WTF
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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.

Continue reading ‘WTF: Chan – Lonely Road’

20
Aug
09

WTF: Urban Azn Presents War For Respect

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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!

Continue reading ‘WTF: Urban Azn Presents War For Respect’

20
Jul
09

Chan endorses Verbal’s Ambush Clothing

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Categories: Music News
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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

19
Jun
09

Uptown repackages album w/ new single

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Categories: Music News
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New Uptown members, korean american MC’s Chan, Maniac, and Swings, along with veteran member Chris Jung released a repackaged version of their album last month. This went completely under the radar for me but our good friends at ARW posted up the music video today.

The song is entitled ‘Baby Baby’.

Honestly I think it’s just aight. It was kinda interesting to hear Chan on auto-tune a little bit. The two featuring female vocals are kinda forgettable. It’s stuff like this that makes me miss Tasha. She needs to drop another album. Also, I’m not completely hating on their new direction,  cause their album really wasnt that bad… but in a recent article they were quoted as saying the following:

“We are basically different people and different style from the old group,” said Maniac, the 28-year-old rapper from Georgia, adding that the members do not feel like they are being influenced by the previous members’ somewhat negative images. Instead of West Coast hip-hop – which is more about “partying,” represented by artists like Usher and Lil Jon and is usually more popular in Korea – UPT said they aim to “stick to the roots of hip-hop,” explained Chan, 29, from New Jersey.

And based on what they’ve released so far, I’m not really sure they are doing that. What do you think?

16
Mar
09

New Uptown video released for 흑기사

By atunes 1 Comment
Categories: Music News
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The video for Uptown’s latest reincarnation (now featuring Maniac, Chan, and Swings along with long standing member Chris Jung) was released last week.

It’s a pretty standard video really. Although I was somewhat impressed with Chan’s ability to flow in Korea. Although I’ll be 100% honest and say I felt his stateside releases a lot more. This just seems too… polished and commercial. But I know he’s never had such mainstream backing before with a wide-scale launch and video to boot so I dunno if I can blame the guy for just tryna make it out there.

But Maniac and Swings got a nice flow. And why the heck does Chris look like he’s 80 and about to die? I know he’s older but still. Does not look healthy.

The video also features some krump dancers that have been floating around the KPOP industry. I think I’ve seen them in Clazziquai and Masta Wu videos and in some live performances.

And just a random thought, this is an above average sized group. Not number wise, just purely physically. They look like they could murder any other scrawny KPOP group out there HAHA. Put Maniac and Chan next to G-Dragon and TOP and tell me who you think would win in a scrap.

04
Mar
09

Chan joins Uptown in Korea

By atunes 10 Comments
Categories: Music News
Tags: , , , , , ,

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Chan, one of the first Asian-American hip hop artists to get some decent exposure has seemingly did a reverse cross over and is now pursuing a career in Korea. It looks like he has joined the reincarnation of classic hip-hop group Uptown, with their album set to drop March 12th.

I heard it as a rumor a while back but was sworn to secrecy. But big chan himself has announced it on his myspace complete with pictures.

The group includes MCs Swings and Maniac. Both whom I know very little about. All I know about Maniac is he featured in Solbi’s last single “Do it, Do it” and even then he was name dropping UPT. And based on their cover there may be a fourth member. Perhaps one of the old members decided to come back? Carlos? Stevie Gunz?

All I know is Uptown has never quite been the same since Tasha left. They’ve had their ups and downs but this reboot could be a good thing.

For more media on some of the members check after the jump. But remember, you heard it hear at aTunes first (probably)!

Continue reading ‘Chan joins Uptown in Korea’

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