CNN x AAM Present ‘Five rising Asian-American Stars to Watch’

Check out this blog on CNN asking AAM who he considers as the top 5 Asian American acts to be on the lookout for. The Far East Movement, David Choi & WongFu, all made the list! It’s incredible considering they have all worked together in the past on videos and events such as ISA. I guess talent rolls w/ like company!

“I think that most people who know me know that I’m pretty reasonable, chill… and a not so angry a guy.” That sounds funny coming from a guy who calls his blog angryasianman.com. “I adopted the name Angry Asian Man for the website because it’s very provocative, and it’s very in your face,” he says.

And although he writes with anger when Hollywood stereotypes Asian-Americans, he also writes with joy about the up-and-coming entertainers from that community who could breakthrough to big time success someday. We asked him to pick five who may do just that.

If they do, remember, you heard it here first!

1. Far East Movement “I can’t stop listening to the single, “Girls On The Dance Floor” by FarEast Movement, otherwise known as FM. It’s just the greatest, coolest dance track and everytime it’s on, I just turn it up. So, FarEast Movement are definitely guys to watch in hip hop.”

2. David Choi “A guy I really like is a guy named David Choi on YouTube who is just creating really fun, creative, quirky songs. It’s funny because he started off as a songwriter and he hasn’t really done much live performing and now that his music is sort of taking off and he’s gotten fans through YouTube, he’s become much more of like a legit musician, playing, and actual shows and stuff like that.”

3. Brenda Song “For the Disney generation, there’s certainly Brenda Song, who started on the show “The Suite Life of Zach and Cody.” I think in a place like Disney, which has such a huge impact on popular culture, especially among the younger generation that’s just coming up, someone like Brenda Song, who is just being a really cute, funny, and engaging actress in TV shows and movies is going to really show that Asian Americans have a a place in mainstream media and kids are going to be able to see “Oh, look, there’s a really appealing, normal Asian-American person on TV.”

4. Aaron Yoo “I really like an actor named Aaron Yoo. He was in ‘Friday the 13th,’ ‘Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist’ and a bunch of other stuff. He’s just like a regular dude, who’s in these, smaller roles up ’til now, but I think audiences really like him. He was in the movie ‘Disturbia’, which opened a couple years ago at number one at the box office. But I remember the week after that movie came out, I got all these hits on my website from people searching for Aaron Yoo, and people wanting to know who this guy was and what he was all about and searching for photos of him. I think he’s definitely a guy to watch in Hollywood.”

5. Wong Fu Productions [The trio of 20-something film-makers creates short movies that have developed a sizable cult following on YouTube.] “The really cool thing about their story is they are just friends who started making videos for fun, and then it caught on. I think a lot of people see themselves reflected in the Wong Fu guys. You know, it’s like, ‘Hey! these guys are just having fun and doing their thing” and so, I think it really relates to that young, energetic, hip sensibility where they’re having fun and they’re showing everybody what they’re doing.”

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