Soft Lipa - 煙霧瀰漫 (Haziness)

Soft Lipa

Smoking marijuana is not officially a part of hip hop culture but it is something that is often referenced to in many rap songs. Some rappers such as Bone Thugs N Harmony, Cypress Hill and Ludacris have written songs dedicated to marijuana and getting high.

Soft Lipa is an underground rapper in Taiwan. He quite has a big following in the Mandarin-speaking hip hop community in Taiwan and in Mainland China. Here's a song from Soft Lipa called 煙霧瀰漫 (Haziness). Its a song about marijuana and getting high. Soft Lipa can flow very well in Mandarin. Soft Lipa is definitely someone to watch within the emerging Chinese hip hop community. There will be definitely be more posts on him in the future.

Assaji - Brise

Assaji - Brise

Outside the United States, France is home to one of the biggest hip hop scenes in the world. Assaji is a Lao rapper from France from the rap group OGLC. Here's Assaji dropping deep poetic thoughts in his song Brise. The video provided below features the English translated lyrics of Brise.

Flowsik - HUSTLIN'

Flowsik - HUSTLIN'

Korean rapper Flowsik is out with his new street single HUSTLIN' which is about his rap hustle and grind. Flowsik made this song to express his hustling mentality in the current economic recession in the United States. HUSTLIN' is Flowsik's first self-produced song.

Bambu - Crooks & Rooks

What's good folks? I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and happy holidays!! Hope you guys spend time good quality time with your loved ones. It has been a crazy year; let us all hope a better 2009.



Bambu

Filipino rapper Bambu has just released his Crooks & Rooks music video for the holiday season. This song is about giving a positive message to the youth. This song rocks! Crooks & Rooks can be found on Bambu's ...Exact Change... album.

Freestyle Battle - Tantrum VS Dumbfoundead

Someone on the Asian Rap Chat posted a really cool Grind Time freestyle battle between two Korean American rappers: Tantrum vs Dumbfoundead. Tantrum is from Union City, California and Dumbfoundead is from the Koreatown/Los Angeles area. The two emcees have very different rapping styles. Tantrum raps very aggressively and Dumbfoundead raps like a witty nerd from another planet (but it definitely delivers). In the battle you'll hear very funny Asian-related references. Both emcees did very well but at the end of the battle, Dumbfoundead was declared the winner by the judges. A definitely must-see battle!

Part 1



Part 2 (Overtime and Judges decision)

Ryu Black - Chun Li feat. Mega Ran, Masia One and DJ Sarasa

Ryu Black - Chun Li

Ryu Black aka MeccaGodzilla is a producer, emcee and a graphic artist from Staten Island, New York. He has a new single that's out called Chun Li featuring Mega Ran, Masia One and DJ Sarasa, which is dedicated to Chun Li from the Street Fighter series. This song uses nostalgic sound-bytes from Chun Li from Street Fighter II: World Warrior. Chun Li is the first single from Ryu Black's album Perfect 天 which will be released in 2009.

You can find Ryu Black's myspace at myspace.com/meccagodzilla.

Caprice - Fantasy Girls

Caprice

Caprice is a rapper from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His rapping style is largely influenced by Fabolous. Caprice recently released a single called Fantasy Girls featuring Houston rapper, LM. This song was largely inspired and dedicated to the Croatian/Asian model Sofia Legend from Toronto, Canada. The music video of Fantasy Girls features Sofia Legend among other girls from around the world dancing and posing on webcam.



You can find Caprice's myspace at myspace.com/capriceonline

Heartsdales Candy Pop feat. Soul'd Out

Heartsdales - Sugar Shine

Heartsdales is a Japanese hip hop duo consisting of two sisters: Rum and Jewels. Their sound is a mixture of hip hop and Japanese pop. Rum and Jewels are both fluent in both Japanese and English as the two sisters grew up in Yonkers, New York. In 2001, the two sisters were discovered in an audition television program in Japan. Since then they have released 4 albums: Radioactive (2002), Sugar Shine (2003), Super Star (2005), and their last album Ultra Foxy in (2006). After the release of Ultra Foxy, in the summer of 2006, Heartsdales disbanded and the sisters have pursued their own individual endeavours outside the music industry.

Candy Pop was one of Heartsdales' biggest singles from the Sugar Shine album. Its a boy-meets-girl type of song featuring Japanese rap trio Soul'd Out (consisting of Diggy-MO', Bro. Hi, and Shinnosuke as the DJ). The song is about all the strange and exciting emotions and feelings you get when you meet first meet someone that you are attracted to. The song and music video of Candy Pop might sound cute and innocent but there's quite a bit of sexual innuendo in this song such as "I got too much candy pop in me" and "Hey boy, wanna ride?" and last but definitely not least, "I wanna touch it".

The first time I was introduced to Candy Pop was in 2006. Someone sent me a link to a YouTube video of an Asian girl sucking a highlighter to the background music of Candy Pop. Unfortunately, its no longer available for your viewing pleasure.

Kim Jin Pyo - Complaint feat Drunken Tiger

Kim Jin Pyo - JP Style

Kim Jin Pyo (Korean: 김진표) or more commonly known as "JP", is one of the rappers that helped introduce hip hop to Korea. He was a former member of the groups Novasonic and Panic. He has released 4 albums to date: 列外 (열외) (1998), JP Style (1998), Jp3 (2001), 김진표 Vol 4 (2003) and most recently, Galanty Show in 2008.

Complaint (Korean: 푸념) is a song from Kim Jin Pyo's 1998 album JP Style. It features Drunken Tiger rapping in English and Kim Jin Pyo rapping in Korean. This was one of my favourite songs back in my high school days when I was first introduced to Korean rap. The instrumental beat has a G-funk-esque kind of feel to it and the lyrical flow is just amazing. Back in the day, I used to put this song on repeat. This song brings me to the feeling of nostalgia...

Mountain Brothers - Paperchase

Mountain Brothers
Clockwise from Top Left: Styles, Peril-L and Chops

The world is facing tough economic times ahead. The current headline in the news reports that the United States senate voted against the bailing out of the American auto sector. So right now the big three auto makers: Ford, General Motors and Chrysler might file for bankruptcy anytime soon. Oh my... things are going to get real ugly. Bits and pieces of the US economy are falling one after the other like dominoes. I pray that president-elect Barack Obama has a plan to get out of this financial mess.

*Ahem*...now back to your regular scheduled program on Asian Rap Worldwide :)

The Asian American rap group, Mountain Brothers have a song called Paperchase, which is a hip hop slang for chasing after money. This is a conscious rap song about how paperchasing negatively impacts the quality of hip hop. All the (c)rap you hear in the mainstream nowadays is water-downed hip hop. The way the industry is right now, it forces rappers to "sell-out" to sell records. Paperchase can be found on the Mountain Brothers' Self: Volume 1 album.

I encourage all of you to read the lyrics of Paperchase.

D-Coy - Pambansang Kamao feat. Artstrong, E.S.P, and Nathan J

Manny Pacquiao, the "Pambansang Kamao"
of the Philippines with his national flag


Here's some boxing news... Manny Pacquiao from the Philippines shocked the entire world when he defeated "The Golden Boy" Oscar De La Hoya in an 8th round TKO on Saturday December 6, 2008 at the world famous MGM Grand Garden Arena. Prior to the match, Pacquiao was the seen by many as the underdog as he was physically smaller and weighed less compared to a larger and heavier De La Hoya. However, when the match occurred, it was Pacquiao that dominated De La Hoya in round after round with his speed and De La Hoya forfeited the match after the end of the 8th round, resulting in a TKO. This was a huge victory for Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao is considered a national hero from the Philippines and is currently the world’s No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer.

There is a rap song from the Philipines dedicated to Manny Pacquiao called Pambansang Kamao, which is one of Pacquiao's nick names which means "National Fist" in Tagalog. This song is done by D-Coy, who is one of the more popular rappers in the Philippines from the hip hop group Beatmathics and it features fellow Pinoy rap artists Artstrong, E.S.P, and Nathan J. This song has both Tagalog and English rap.

Clash - Rok Pra Jam Tua

Clash - Smooth Clash

Clash is a popular rock band from Thailand. They have a song called Rok Pra Jam Tua (Thai: โรคประจำตัว) which is about an awkward situation when a man is caught checking out other girls by his jealous significant other. The song tries to explain that its just male biological wiring but his heart is in the right place. (LOL!) For a rocker, the lead singer Bank has a pretty decent flow when raps. The female featured in this song and music video is Thai singer, Zita Zalai. This song is from the Smooth Clash album released in 2006.

If you want to read the English translation of Rok Pra Jam Tua (or if you want to use the same poetic lines to explain about your "wondering eyes") you can get it here.