Interview with Rakaa “Iriscience” Taylor

“Moms born in Seoul, Pops born with soul …” – Rakaa Iriscience from Drunken Tiger “Monster”

Rakaa “Iriscience” Taylor is 1/3rd of the hip hop group Dilated Peoples, one of the most respected hip hop groups since entering the scene in the early to mid 1990s. Along with their music, they are considered one of the hardest working groups who truly know how to rock a crowd at their live shows.

A true hip hop veteran, who was a graffiti artist before becoming an MC, Rakaa has been a proponent of keeping the elements of hip hop culture alive and is a member of both the Rock Steady Crew and the Universal Zulu Nation.

“I got worldwide family all over the earth and I worry about them all for whatever it’s worth …” – Rakaa Iriscience from Dilated Peoples “Worst Comes to Worst”

His Korean heritage comes from his mother who is a half Korean adoptee who was born in Korea during the Korean War and came to the United States at an early age.

In his first trip to Korea last year he made some important bridge building collaborations with Korean hip hop artists Drunken Tiger & Epik High.

HalfKorean.com was able to connect with Rakaa while he is currently hard at work on his first solo album. We’re excited to share this intriguing interview as we discuss his background, hip hop, Dilated Peoples and the solo album, Crown of Thorns.

Please note that HalfKorean.com comments/questions are in BOLD.

Background: The Basics on Rakaa

Where and when were you born and raised?
I’m a Gemini and was born and raised primarily in LA but we also spent a lot of time in Waimanalo, Hawaii & Arizona. So, over the years, I have friends and family in both. I’m an LA kid but I definitely have roots in other places as well.

I understand your mother was a Korean adoptee. When was she adopted and did she live in Korea for some time before being adopted?
She is an half Korean adoptee and what you would call a “Korean war child” and was adopted at age 5. She came over at a young age with basically a new name, new language, new culture; a new everything. It was a different time back then and for people that were products of the Korean War from mixed relationships, especially during that time, there weren’t really any opportunities for them. So she ended up at the adoption agency and was adopted by a family in California.

Have you been able to find or get in touch with your family in Korea?
We did get in touch with the adoption agency that she was from in Ilsan and were able to get a little bit of information. I’m actually planning on going back to Korea later this year, maybe in the next few months, and block out some time to go and speak to the agency in person. We’re talking about 50 years and the records were not kept that well from the time of the Korean War and it wasn’t a general adoption agency. There are some people we can talk to that are out there and hopefully, when I get out there, I’ll be able to make some more inroads. I was able to find out a few things that were helpful so that when I get out there I will talk with some people. When I get a little more time I’m going to sit down with my mom and go through some of her paperwork. She still has a few things from back then that she was able to find so we will see how it goes. My brother-in-law actually ended up moving to Korea years ago and married a Korean lady and she was able to get on the phone and talk with the adoption agency. So being able to speak the language fluently she was able to ask me what we were looking for and able to navigate some things. She was able to find out more from some phone calls than my mom and I have been able to find out in a long time from years of looking off and on. Hopefully we are on a good trail. We’ll see. It’ll be nice. It’s obviously a long time ago and, unfortunately, she wasn’t raised through her life around the Korean culture as she was adopted by a family that wasn’t Korean. As a result, it’s something that she has searched for later on in life. It’s one of those things that she knew where she came from so she raised us with the understanding that it was part of our bloodline and our culture and encouraged us to look into it.

How did your parents meet?
My mom was adopted here in Los Angeles and grew up in South Central. I’m sure she was probably the only person that looked like herself in the neighborhood. It was probably a unique experience growing up. Her adopted family was involved in the church with one being the choir director and the other a deacon. My dad was the preacher’s son in that church and I guess she was like the “cute choir director’s daughter” and he was the “handsome preacher’s son.” One of those things.

Do you have any brothers and/or sisters?
Yes, I have an older brother and sister and younger brothers and sisters. From my mom and dad, I have one brother.

Do you speak any Korean?
It’s horrible. I only know some bad words. That’s pretty much it. My Korean comes down to literally elementary school bad words. I can get around in a restaurant. I definitely don’t claim to be able to speak Korean. But, actually, before I get back out there I do plan to at least try to get some real basic conversational Korean down for my own personal curiosity and out of respect for local areas. I plan to pick up a few things, and I think that is only right.

What is your favorite Korean food?
I’m pretty basic. I eat Dak Gui, Dak Galbi, and most Banchan. I don’t eat beef or pork so basically I’m limited. To be honest, it’s funny; I was talking with someone about this. In Korea they have these fried chicken and beer spots. You know how Ludacris had that album Chicken & Beer and fried chicken is so Southern? In Korea you have this specialty fried chicken and it’s all over in the city. It was actually some really good fried chicken and it goes really well together whether you are in Atlanta or Seoul. Koreans are doing it in LA. When I was growing up, Ktown was like a few restaurants in a little cluster in the middle of the city. Now it goes on for square miles and is like a chunk of the middle of LA. And it is growing. It’s not getting any smaller. I love to see it. I love to see the expansion.

So do you head into Ktown LA a lot?
I do like it. There are a lot of great restaurants and cool bars. It’s a cool place to be.

Did you ever experience any identity issues while growing up?
No, and it’s kind of weird. I spent a lot of time in Hawaii while growing up and as a result my family in Hawaii doesn’t really stand out in any way. People thought that my mom was Hawaiian and they thought I was Samoan and that my brother was Hawaiian or something. We just blended in with the multicultural because everyone is so mixed there. As a kid, it was more of a curiosity thing like “Let me touch your hair” and “What are you and where do you come from?” I would respond “Well, I’m mixed Korean, Black, White. and it wasn’t that a big of a deal until maybe in junior high school or high school when it became more of a racial divide. Such as we would start seeing the “Oh, that’s the Black area and that’s where the Mexicans hang out, the Salvadorians, the Filipino kids hang out over there.” And, I would just float.

Also, one thing I can say is that I didn’t start out rapping. I was a graffiti artist first and the graffiti scene is very diverse. When I was growing up it wasn’t about being known. It was always about the art. So you would meet somebody at a graffiti convention or writer’s corner and you would be like “That’s you?!” and it would be some punk rock kid with a mohawk and some Doc Martens talking to a Crip.

But, for me, I didn’t really have any real personal turmoil or issue with it. If anything, it made me much more open minded and appreciative because I have such diverse cultures running through me and I couldn’t take any of them for granted. I have African culture running through me but how much do I really know about Africa the continent, much less whatever particular tribe that I may have in me. I have Korean blood in me but how much do I know about Korea other than the food, cute girls and I like the writing. It’s something I couldn’t take for granted and made me not only want to learn about my cultures but cultures in general and has made me a student and fan of the world culture. So it all has worked out in my favor.

What do people who meet you think your ethnicity is?
Depending on where I’m at will kind of dictate what people think that I am. I’m in LA so, for the most part in LA, I’m Black. Maybe if I’m in a certain part of LA I’m Samoan, Tongan or something along those lines. But, for the most part, in LA or California I’m Black. When I get to New York I’m probably Puerto Rican, Dominican or something like that. I get down to Miami and automatically I’m Cuban. I’ve trained Jiu-Jitsu with the Gracie family for many, many years and I hang out with a lot of Brazilians so they just assume I’m Brazilian. In Europe they ask me “Are you from Morocco or Egypt?” It’s just one of those things that make it pretty much wherever I’m at. Some people just stand out more than others for whatever reason. But, I kind of just blend in with those naturally mixed groups that exist.

Do people catch your Asian ancestry?
I have been getting the “Are you part Asian?” recently more often a lot of times to maybe clarify a line from a track. I have gotten the “Are you part Chinese?” before sometimes and I tell them “No, I’m part Korean.” But, basically, people don’t normally ask that as much as “What are mixed with?” and “Are you mixed?” It’s sometimes weird but it’s something that I’m happy to tell them. It’s interesting to be in a place like LA where I’m pretty much considered Black. I mean, there will be people who ask me what I’m mixed with but, at first glance, the first thing when people see me is not Korean. It’s not going to be the first thing that crosses your mind.

It’s weird because when I was in South Africa or Jamaica and was around a lot of Black people they would look at me and ask me “What are you?” They were more curious than anybody. It was cool and nothing disrespectful but they were very inquisitive and curious. They would see that I was Black but were a little confused. In South Africa, they have a whole separate racial group called “Coloured” and that’s not really something we have anywhere else in the world that is like that officially. They have Black, White and Coloured. So there is this whole group of people that I looked at and I was thinking that they all could literally be my family reunion. They all looked and are mixed and their families are historically from places like North Africa, parts of Asia, India and mixed with the people in South Africa and have something like Creole but in that region.

It’s kind of a weird thing but ultimately I am what I am and have been blessed to be around people and to grow up with the arts where it was always one of those things where maybe because I didn’t get into music until later that my personal self image was not something I needed to project. Like I didn’t care as my art itself was more important and I was always around people that were the same way. I was always comfortable and, other than joking, I’ve never had anybody have any issue with me about being mixed. I’ve never been challenged on my Blackness or anything else. I’m not trying to claim that “I’m the new Korean rapper.” That doesn’t make sense. But I am Korean so I want to make sure that I share what I do with Koreans directly now that the bridge is built and now I can do so. It is a market and area, geographically, that I plan to travel and explore more of on a business level and is something I plan to focus on. Because I have the friends like JK and the whole Drunken Tiger team and Epik High and Map the Soul team. Those are people who made me feel like that when the time is right that I have family there and a base to come do it. Hopefully, I can extend the favor. That’s kind of what me doing those two records were for. They both asked me to do the records but it was as much an honor to be able to be exposed to their fans and their people and people paying attention to them as well. Just from being introduced to people through “Monster” it opened up a tremendous amount of doors of interest and you know is indirectly probably one of the reasons we are having this conversation right now.

Hip Hop: Dilated Peoples, Korea, Crown of Thorns

How did you initially get involved in hip hop culture?
I got into graffiti first and then messed around with DJ’ing for a minute. I then got into MC’ing and focused on that from there.

How did you come up with your MC name, “Iriscience”, and what is the meaning behind it?
Basically it came from a graffiti name which was just Iris. Iris is just part of the eye and we were trying to find names that we could bomb with. It became a side name and in some way just kind of stuck. People started calling me Iristyle and then I ended up doing a song called “Iriscience” and it kind of just flipped to that. People call me Irie-science and all types of things but it’s just Iriscience.

Who are some of your musical influences?
BDP (KRS-One), Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, Rakim, Kool G Rap, NWA, Freestyle Fellowship, Soul Assassins, Cypress Hill, Native Tongues, Big Daddy Kane; there is a lot of hip hop influence and too many to mention. At the same time, I’m a huge Jimi Hendrix freak and I love Dub so Augustus Pablo, King Tubby. Reggae, Dancehall is all good. I can listen to Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, Coltrane, Miles; I love Jazz. I’m a fan of music. Something a little different for reggae heads to check out is Fat Freddy’s Drop from New Zealand. That’s incredible. Portishead, I’m a big Portishead fan and I like how they get down. I’m just a fan of music.

Is there any artist out there that fans would be surprised that you listen to or enjoy?
Probably not so much in hip hop but sometimes just a certain song by Panic in the Disco or some crazy shit like that. Just some random song that gets stuck in my head and I end up singing it all day. I try to look at what everyone does and appreciate it for what it is and, generally speaking, I let it be that. I don’t really have too much time to listen to a lot. Nothing comes to mind right now but I do have all kinds of little guilty pleasures that pop up.

As a fan of yourself and Dilated, I’ve always admired how well connected you guys are with many different groups and crews like Soul Assassins, Alkaholiks and Likwit Crew, etc.
Oh yeah, shout out to the Alkaholiks, Likwit Crew family. I should have definitely mentioned the Alkaholiks for being Boom Bap kids that party and are from LA. And, I also should have mentioned Gangstarr. Those are two very important groups. But, shout out to the Liks. That’s family right there and Likwit Crew.

Dilated Peoples

How was Dilated Peoples created?
I met Evidence through graffiti art originally and I was working at a spot, Hip Hop Shop, on Melrose back in the days. I was working there and he’d come in and freestyle with some graffiti cats I knew. So we ended up hooking up originally doing a song, a posse cut, with QD3 (Quincy Jones’ son) producing and there was supposed to be a bunch of people on it. Some kind of way when I got to the studio session I was the only one that got there on time so it turned out to be just the two of us on the song. We liked the vibe so we did a couple more songs and then formed the group. That’s kind of how the group started with Evidence and I. And, at the time, we were using a lot of different DJs like my man DJ Homicide, DJ Numark, Ralph M, Rhettmatic or whoever was around at any given time. I wanted a solid DJ of our own and I remember I got this tape called Comprehension that Babu did. I was already connected with the Beat Junkies so I just told Evidence about it. Evidence & Babu had a meeting at Fat Beats and they had cool vibes. I invited Babu into the group and he’s been in the group ever since.

As a group, Dilated Peoples has had two record deals (Capitol & Immortal/Epic) that both ended pretty sour. Would you guys sign with another “major” label down the road or would you stay away and stick with the independent labels?
As far as the deals were concerned, the Epic deal was more of a waste of time and an educational situation where we learned a lot. I personally got us out of that deal. The Capitol situation was something that started out really good but they made a lot of changes at the label which basically continuously disrupted the initial plan that we had. So it went from us being able to do what we needed to do and having the support of the label and building up our success to having enough success for the label so that they felt like they could start calling the shots. It became a constant bickering back and forth. Suddenly there was a new label president and a new label staff and they merged with Priority and Virgin. All these things happened at the time. It wasn’t that the deal we set out with what went bad. It was more the players changed on their side so that everyone had their own agenda and that what we wanted to do didn’t always fit into what the agenda was, regardless what the previous label president told us. There wasn’t even a head of the rap department when we got there but suddenly there was one. It was more of a ridiculous set of circumstances that we had to spend a lot of time and money to get out of.

But that said, to answer the question, nowadays record labels aren’t really signing artists to record deals. They are signing artists to 360 deals. Basically record labels are losing all their money because of downloads, garbage product and not developing their artists which combined means less and less people are going to spend the money on full albums at retail prices because they’d rather just download and file share. A 360 deal is where they come after everything that they can that you are making money off of. They want some of your publishing, concerts, merchandising, if you do TV shows; whatever you get they want a piece of it now. And they still don’t want to give up any more than they’ve been giving up. That’s why they are dinosaurs. And, to be honest, we’ll probably be finding fossils of record labels for many, many years. They are just stuck in the mud and stuck in their own nonsense. I wouldn’t sign with a record label as I’m not trying to be the record label’s employee. If I’m going to get a job and work for somebody I would work for something more stable than a record label. But, if a record company approached me with the right business proposition and I was in a ironclad situation where I was covered with parachute clauses, reinforcement security clauses so that I was going to get paid and taken care of regardless and where all of our stuff is protected and if it was a business deal and not me signing a 360 deal I might take the meeting. Or, if they want to do a 360 deal, cool, let’s talk about how many zeroes are going to go on the number. If you want a piece of everything I do, make my family wealthy. But, I’m not going to do all that I’m doing and then take 10-15% of the cut and do 80% of the work; that can’t happen. That’s not allowed to happen.

You know it is a business and at the end of the day it’s “get out there and make us some money.” That’s what it comes down to. It doesn’t really bother me because I know that is what it is. It’s not like I actually believe the “brochure.” If that is what you are looking for you are going to be disappointed every time. They sell you this and give you that. At the end of the day you have to know it is just fuel. So, for us, it was a great promotional machine and we were able to use the record label to brand ourselves around the planet. Now we still have the same work ethic but because of the advancements in technology, the social networking, media sharing technologies we are allowed to basically do it the way we want to do it and get directly to the people and, unlike in the past, it is actually practical and a profitable way to do what it is that you want to do. We are blue-collar cats and don’t mind rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty. We just need to make sure that we are getting properly compensated for our time and energy. Not dealing with a major record label as a signed artist is the best way to make sure you are properly compensated for your time and energy.

So, what’s your take on the file sharing, bootlegging, etc.?
It’s a two edged sword. You’re not going to stop it so to sit in the way and scream at all the people who are doing it is not really going to do anything except make you a target or make it look like you are fighting the flow of information and energy. You will be looked at as a problem even though it is your music they want. For me, I look at it like the modern day advanced version of the twin tape deck. I taped songs off the radio when I was a kid. I did all the things that kids do today. We just didn’t have the technology or I would have been doing that. I’m sure. I would have loved to have everything at my fingertips. I can’t imagine that. Why not take advantage of that? In that respect, I don’t mind the file sharing.

I would just say this to anyone who really wants to know how I feel about file sharing; we’re artists and we do this for a living and we sign deals. We’re not able to do what it is basically we want to do as artists if we are signed to a record label. When the record sales aren’t there, the record labels are quick to drop an artist. So that might be your favorite artist and you wonder where your favorite artist went. Did you buy the record? Or did you get it for free? This person might be the most popular artist in the world but nobody bought the record. So it came out the first week and sold brick and the record label is like “This isn’t working.” If you are going to download a record understand the ramifications of it. You are taking a sale off of the charts. That is a sale that won’t be counted and that is money that will not be going into the artist’s pocket. They still have to create and they are going in debt to the record label to pay for this album that they’ll now never be able to recoup because nobody paid for the album. So now they are a million in to the record label and they are not selling records and they’ll never be able to pay the record label back. It creates a bad circle of information and now the artist might be tempted to make a more marketable record to try to recoup the money to try to make some bread, blah blah blah.

So, I’ll say this. If you are going to download the record, understand and respect that. If you are still going to download the record at least support the artist. Go to the concert. Request a song on the radio so they are getting spins and getting their BMI and ASCAP publishing. Buy a t-shirt. Support the artist in some kind of way. Don’t just take and feel like it is your right since you have access to it. Technically it is not right but at the same time it is what it is. So enjoy the music and support the artist. But, buy records!

This is what probably leads some artists to compromise their art and do what the record label wants rather than what they want then, right?
They might want to go that route and be pressured by the label who tells them “Listen, yeah, everyone loves you but millions of people downloaded your album for free and didn’t buy the record so we are not going to do what we said we were going to do. You just cost us $1,000,000 on this. Because, if people bought your album you’d be double-platinum but nobody bought it so you sold 100,000 records and we just lost a million dollars on you, so goodbye.” It’s kind of crazy. A lot of the people in the position don’t really understand it unless they get signed and put on like that. Then all of a sudden they sit around wondering where the sales are that they realize what they are talking about.

But, I’m not mad. Dilated’s blessed, we sell records. We understood very early on that this record game is flakey and records are selling less and less and there are a few people who are going to sell. Generally speaking record sales as a whole are less and less. We knew we had to concentrate on our live shows, our reputation and our ability to get down and bring it to the people. That is what has carried us for years; our ability to rock festivals and clubs all over the planet. And that is not necessarily from being on MTV or anyplace else. That’s just off of our reputation. We’ve been blessed to be able to pick and choose what we want to do that will work with our schedules. Talking to Evidence the other day, this year is the “push year.” This year we’ll get my album out and then we can refocus on Dilated and give it the attention as our main focus since it’s been a few years.

The last full Dilated Peoples studio album was 20/20 in 2006, right?
Yeah. We did the Release Party EP and we’ve done music since then. But, as far as a full Dilated release, that was the last thing we did. Since then, Evidence has put out two projects. Babu has had two projects. And I’m about to put out my first. Then we can talk about the next Dilated project from there.

Ah, so is that a hint that we will see a new Dilated album in 2011?
I would say you can consider that a hint. That’s a good way of putting it. A safe bet. It’s looking good. Evidence is putting out his third project, Cats and Dogs, in late July. In late June I’m putting out mine, Crown of Thorns. Babu will have his beat tape instrumentals coming out in late February and he has his Duck Season 3.5 coming out soon too. We’re really trying to clear the plate of the solo projects and get those in play right now. Probably after we do the summer tours we’ll be back in the studio breaking ground on some new Dilated material so we can get something out for 2011, to drop that hint. So that’s the plan for right now, stay tuned.

Now, let’s take a quick step back to the time you guys were on Immortal/Epic. Do you think that the Imagery, Battle Hymns & Political Poetry album will ever get a proper release?
I guess anything is possible. Technically when we left the record label, sometimes you have to chew your foot off to escape the trap. We had to leave that piece behind in order to get away from the deal. Unless something dramatic happens where the group blew up or something crazy happened where they would want to capitalize on that, I doubt that they would want to put anything out that we wouldn’t really support.

Korean Hip Hop

How did you get down with the Korean hip hop artists like Drunken Tiger & Epik High? Did they reach out to you to connect?
I’ve been a fan of JK for some time and he spent some time growing up in Cali. There is a known situation where Ice Cube came out with a record that JK didn’t agree with [referencing “Black Korea” from Ice Cube’s Death Certificate album] and he came back with a response to it. JK stood up and wasn’t rolling with it and that was how I first heard the name but I didn’t really know as this was kind of before the Internet and stuff was really common. I was like “Cool, Korean rapper stands up to Ice Cube.” At this time, Ice Cube was like a super hero. He was super gangster supreme and it was a serious thing and for someone to stand up to him was kind of crazy. I thought it was dope of the idea that he wasn’t scared to make a response. Fast forward to a few years later and I’m hanging with man, Roscoe Umali, who has been part of the DT team for many years and lives in LA. Basically I was telling him that how I know he’s down with JK and I’m a fan of his and I’m ready to get JK on my album and how I’d like him to do something on my project. He said “Cool, we’ll keep you in mind and I’ll get back to you.” A couple days later I hear back and he said “I talked to JK and he wants you to be on his album.” I was like alright, cool, send the beat. Techbeatz did the beat and sent it over and Roscoe’s verse was already on there and I liked it and it was sent out to everyone else. So that’s kind of how it went down. Through Roscoe I was able to connect with JK direct and now it’s all registered dope.

Epik High I actually met differently. We met through a mutual friend, Alice Han, who’s out in Los Angeles. She works with Map the Soul and also works with Cartel Creative that is based in Seoul, which is my man Johnjay and my man Charlie Shin. Alice actually invited me to a LA show and she was like “There are some Korean rappers in town. This group called Epik High and they are playing at the House of Blues” and I’m thinking “Korean rappers at House of Blues?!” I told her I’m cool and I don’t really go out that much other than the studio and she was telling me to come and have a drink. So I said I’ll come and have a drink. No disrespect to Epik High, but I had never heard of them at the time so I wasn’t really expecting much. I thought it was going to be some Kpop type rap and I wasn’t really looking forward to it in particular. When I got in the building there was some guy singing and I was like this is really not my scene. I went upstairs and had a drink and met Allen, Epik High’s manager, and was chilling with some of the guys from Far-East Movement up in the balcony. All of a sudden the singer stops singing and they move the keyboard out the way. Tukutz gets on the wheels and it turned into a straight boom bap show. They were rocking the show. I turned to Alice and told her that they reminded me of Dilated in the way they were doing it to a point with two MCs rocking the crowd, crowd going crazy with Tukutz on the wheels and Tablo and Mithra Jin are killing it. I was like “I like these guys.” I had never heard their music before but I’m looking at their live show and they are killing it. As a MC I respect that. I go backstage with them and I go to introduce myself and have my hat down low. They come into the dressing room and look at me and are like “Who the fuck is this dude?” I pull my hat up and they were like “Oh shit, Rakaa!” We do our photo op and tell me to come to the after party. We all caravan and jump in our cars and end up partying at the after party until the early morning doing it real big. We just stayed in touch ever since.

JK, that’s family. That’s my brother right there. Epik High, that’s family. These are people, this is true and serious, that look out for me. I plan to do a lot more over there. That’s how I linked up with both of them and that’s how I got down on the “Monster” and “Rocksteady” tracks.

Funny thing about Epik High is that I was telling them how they kind of reminded me of Dilated with one crazy DJ ill on the cut, two MCs both spitting crazy different styles and making the crowd go wild. They told me that they basically based their group after Dilated. Mithra was very clear to tell me that Dilated was one of their favorite groups and that when they met that it was the other one’s favorite group. It was one of those things where they were like “Let’s do it.” They kind of based their group on our formula, which we based on EPMD’s formula and which they based off of Run DMC’s formula. It’s all part of the lineage. Just worldwide and the tree grows, branches grow and it’s a beautiful thing.

Will we see more collaboration in the future?
Well, I’m working on my album, Crown of Thorns, on Decon Records to be out in May. So be on the lookout for Crown of Thorns. On that, I’m doing a song that is my Asian/Pacific Islander anthem. It will have some definite heavy hitters on there. Since we are speaking on them, I have already talked to JK and Epik High and they will both be on my record. There is going to be some big things and I don’t want to give away too much. I want to be able to come back with the follow-up interview after the record drops. But, yeah, they will both be on my album along with my man Dumbfounded, who is one of the illest mc’s in the game right now representing Swimteam/Project Blowed out of LA. Definitely check out for Dumbfounded. He is one of the illest battle cats and he can write songs. There is going to be so many cats that I got to rep for that part of my life, you know? It’s funny that this particular song might make people scratch their heads in LA but might be a number one song at 3 or 4 spots on the planet. A lot of people just make records for their block, for their city, for their state or even for their country. I make records that can work for the block or the city. But, at the same time, I know the world is listening so I’m not going to pretend that I’m not speaking to the world. Unless I’m talking to someone in particular I feel like I’m speaking to the world.

Music has become so globalized with the Internet. Your collaborations with artists overseas are a great thing and I personally hope that it continues!
Yeah, that’s the plan. Continue to build these bridges and I’ve been telling people that the bridge should work both ways too. It should, at least. It shouldn’t just have one person get to that side as it should connect two sides. Hopefully we can make more inroads and get artists circulating around the world and inspire each other. Just like American artists can go all over the world, other artists should be able to go around the world and bring what they do to the table and, at least, give people an opportunity to be exposed. We’re going to continue to do that. Shout out to the whole Drunken Tiger Camp. Shout out to Epik High.

It’s a movement going on right now and it is kind of crazy how we are talking about Korea so heavily in hip hop. From what I understand, the government is involved with the R16 being promoted by the Ministers of Tourism and the Korean government is supporting hip hop. It is something that is almost unheard of anyplace else in the world with the supporting of b-boys and not just the music. It’s one thing to support the music; like in France the radio has to play a certain percentage of French language for French language preservation and they are using hip hop music as a vehicle to help preserve the French language. I love that. That’s dope! But when you have the government supporting b-boying; that is one of the most slept on, disrespected, under-appreciated elements of hip hop. So when the government supports b-boying and the scene in Korea, I feel that there is going to be a real strong lineage of hip hop culture in Korea and not just the rap music. That is something that will hopefully be good for future generations. The Korean government supporting it is a source of national pride as the Korean kids are winning the championships. To me, that encourages more exploration and appreciation of a culture that itself encourages diversity of thought, diversity of appreciation, and diversity of experience. It’s like you could still be Korea but still expose yourself to the world and be able to learn and pick up on things that can contribute to Korea’s growth. At this point I can’t imagine, except for some untapped tribes in very few places, there aren’t many cultures that aren’t influenced by other cultures.

Do you think there is some reason why we haven’t seen a critically and commercially successful Asian/Asian-American hip hop artist in the US yet? There have been many artists who’ve done well critically but it seems that the commercial part (i.e. big sales figures) of it is not there yet.
We are not too far away from people being totally shocked that an Asian person wouldn’t have a particularly heavy Asian accent when they see them on TV. How many leading Asian characters just in general media and pop culture are there? There has been very few if any at least with male ones. I mean you have some female ones. Such as you have a Lucy Liu and, aside from her talent, she’s a great actress with a diverse set of skills and very attractive. Sex is universal and that is different than appreciation of talent.

In music, especially in hip hop, there hasn’t been anyone to really challenge the people’s misconceptions and prejudices. Someone like Dumbfounded could actually do that because he is so funny and disarming. At the same time he is straight Ktown LA, all day. That’s where he lives, that’s where he was raised and where he chills every day. But, at the same time, he’s a straight battle rapper and will go battle anybody, any race, anytime and no matter what their reputation is and serves people. He’s a class clown and a decapitator. Historically, there hasn’t been anybody or a precedent that’s been set. Most of the Asian presence has come down to stuff behind the scenes, the DJ’ing, production, dance and other things. As far as the music is concerned it’s still a Black male thing as far as what people expect to see. It is opening up and more and more people are able to do it and it is going to continue to open up and become more and more diverse especially with these battle circuits that are happening. But that is the image of what a rapper is supposed to be that is still emblazed in the majority of people’s minds. If you are going to erase that image you have to do something totally disarming in order to be able to do that and it’s going to take a Dumbfounded or someone like that to really breakthrough. It doesn’t matter what race you are and whether if you are female, White, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, whatever it is if you are not fitting the mold you will have to basically create your own mold and create your own lane and that is what the successful people are going to do. Besides the fact that the whole record industry is changing anyway and everybody has to do that.

I was talking with my DJ, Babu, who is Filipino. He was like “Remember when the Filipinos were cool, man” and I was like “What do you mean?” And he said “When I was growing up some of the cool kids in school were Filipino.” I remembered that at my elementary school our class president was Filipino and was also the best dressed and best break dancer. Cats like Lou Diamond Philips came out and he was Chavez y Chavez or Ritchie Valens but he didn’t rep for the Filipinos. So I guess there hadn’t really been anyone until Qbert. Qbert, Mike & Apollo came out and served everybody. They’re Filipino and they can serve the best DJs on the planet regardless what the race was. Basically, overnight, you had a pilgrimage of Filipino kids migrating to their local record stores to get turntables. You had a whole generation of Filipino kids who were DJs because of Qbert, Mike & Apollo. I think that you have to have someone to breakthrough and you will see a lot of people get behind that and basically open up that lane.

Tell us a little more about your experience at the R16 festival in Korea.
Well, I had hosted the Red Bull BC One in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2007 and the Red Bull BC One in Paris in 2008. While I was out there on both trips I was in touch with the guys at Cartel Creative, Charlie Shin and Johnjay. Those guys basically are responsible for throwing the R16 in Korea. So while I was out there hosting the BC Ones we were hanging out chilling, having dinner and we ended up staying in touch. As time went on, they told me about the R16. They knew I wanted to get out to Korea and that I had already hosted a couple major b-boy events and had a strong connection with b-boys. Plus I’m with Rocksteady Crew and Zulu Nation as well. So they invited me out and hopefully I’ll be back out there this year as well.

Had you been to Korea beforehand?
That was my first time to Korea. I had been to Asia before but actually only to Japan 3 times. But that was the first time ever going anywhere else in Asia.

So, I take it, you had a good time?
Oh man, I had a great, great time. Strangely people look at me stranger walking through Ktown, LA than when I was in Seoul or Incheon. It was a very comfortable and familiar place. You drive down the Wilshire corridor right now, drive down Olympic, drive down Western and certain parts of LA and right now you would swear you were in Korea with all Korean writing except broken up by the occasional 7-Eleven, McDonald’s or something like that. But, I felt very comfortable and very at home with no issues. I don’t know if I should say this here, but they had a very strong anti-smoking policy that I didn’t personally find too alluring and attractive. Other than that it was one of the best places I have ever been.

Crown of Thorns

You are known as an MC; do you get or plan to get involved with any production, etc.?
I like to mess around and tool around with instruments and play drums. Historically I haven’t had the patience for the repetition of making beats on the drum machine. I believe I taught Babu the MPC, at least initially. I know how to use the machines. Even early on, before I was even in the group with Evidence, I used to make beats and do the other stuff. If I make some music it’s not going to be just to make beats. If I make some music and production it will be for a focused project. I definitely plan to get more involved in the music but as far as me having beat tapes out and really trying to produce people; that is not really me. I don’t really see that or me doing it seriously. It could happen naturally if I tool around and make something dope and somebody might like it or I might record it myself. But as far as spending the time to stockpile beats and get out there and sell them is not really a passion of mine like it is for Evidence & Babu.

Are there any producers and artists you can share that you are working with on Crown of Thorns?
I still have another month of recording to do but so far I have Evidence, Babu, Alchemist, El-P (Company Flow/Def Jux), Illmind and Sid Roams (Joey Chavez & Bravo). I have a bunch of stuff I haven’t recorded that I’m still sorting through. And for artists, on that particular track I mentioned, I have Epik High, Tiger JK, my man King Kapisi from New Zealand, Roscoe Umali and a bunch of people on this one big particular crazy track. In fact, I don’t want to talk about the track too much anymore because I want to make sure I get it done right before I give away too many names. But, it is going to be a crazy track with a bunch of people on it. There is definitely going to be some things happening and even some curveballs. We’ll see how it happens.

You’ve named your solo album Crown of Thorns. Is there any particular meaning or significance to that title?
Crown of Thorns represents the rays of the sun, and also represents the sacrifice and cost of standing up to lead.

You briefly mentioned touring earlier. Will you be touring later this year?
For Dilated, the European summer festivals are coming up and we already got some calls for those so we’ll probably go out there this summer. Me, personally, I’m going to try to get out to Korea this Spring/Summer to tour and do set up for the album. I’m going to Europe later this month and I should have some US tour stops this spring and more after the album drops. For Dilated in the US, we’ll see how it goes and there should be some stops later in the year.

Which one out of all tracks that you have appeared on would you say that you are most proud of?
Not any one in particular because all the songs and records are like my kids. I like to see the response of songs. “Worst Comes to Worst” is a song that always gets a great response no matter where in the world we are. The song “Pay Attention” I did with Babu is one of my favorite songs for some reason and I don’t really know why. Just something about it I enjoy. If I had to pick one song I guess it would be “Worst Comes to Worst” as it was one of those things that was very natural and the song is not supposed to work. It sounds like a hit now but if you really think about it, the song is not in the traditional rap sign, the verses are not traditional verse length, there’s a one bar scratch chorus and no real hook. It is the opposite of what a rap hit record should sound like and for some reason it worked and is one of the biggest songs we have done. So, I would just say because it was very natural and what we did felt right and it just happened to work with no problem and almost universally was loved and accepted and caught on in NY even before LA.

Yeah, “Worst Comes to Worst” is one of my favorite Dilated tracks and it’s also a plus that Guru, another of my favorites, was on it!
Those are like our big brothers right there, Guru and Premier. Gangstarr has always looked out for us and showed us love. I got a lot of love for the whole Foundation.

What are your thoughts on the current state of hip hop music?
I mean, it’s all good. Everything is always doing its thing; it just matters where the spotlight shines at any particular time. Whatever you love about hip hop, whatever you hate about hip hop, whatever subject matter you are into, whatever fashion statement you are feeling at the time; almost all of these things have always existed and will continue to exist, it’s just a matter of where the spotlight shines. So, as far as the modern scene, you have a lot of talented kids doing their thing. A lot of them came into the game and really did their homework and understood the signs of rap and signs of MC’ing. There are a lot of other kids that are just following the train like anybody else and can’t play an instrument or sing but want to be a star so they’ll rap. Everybody wants to be a celebrity and speak what is on their mind. But there is definitely more nonsense than ever out there and the scene is definitely diluted and polluted. At the same time there is more good than ever before as well. So, if you take the time to search and do a little research and keep an open mind and ears then you’ll definitely hear more flavor and diversity. There is more talent than ever in the world right now.

What is your take on auto-tune in hip hop music?
You know, I’ve never used auto-tune but I loved it when Roger Troutman used it and it was original. It’s not really my thing personally and not something I see myself ever using. That is the brilliance of a free society. You can always just press skip or change the station. It’s not my thing but if you like it, do what you got to do. I think after Jay-Z came out [with D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)], everything that is out now sounds dated and was probably recorded before he made that song. I don’t really see too many people other than maybe T-Pain himself or one or two other people that make their living with that going in and having a reason to do it at this point. Anybody that’s doing it as a hot gimmick, it is probably already passed that at this point. You know, obviously, it can be done right. But it’s just not my thing. It makes a cat feel like they can sing so he wants to get his auto-tune on. I prefer that if you can sing, sing! And, if you can’t, sing anyway and just be you.

How long do you see yourself rapping?
I see myself continuing to make music. My voice is my instrument and my base style is boom bap hip hop rap music. So, I don’t ever see myself making a decision to leave music and creativity but I definitely, 100% without a doubt, see myself not having to do this for a living and getting back to what it was in the very beginning which is I just loved to do this and make records because they are fun and because I want to put this out there and want people to hear this particular message or story, joke or whatever the case may happen to be. Not because I have bills to pay so I got to get this album done and get this deal for this project and it’s a crazy scramble. So, I mean, it’s a blessing to be able to do what I really want to do. But, at this point, I’ve been doing this for a long time and I’m a veteran in the game. What is pressing to me is the options I have at this point to be able to still make music and take my investments and other things and actually let my money work for me while I let my creativity work for my music.

Well, I hope you and Dilated keep putting out good music forever!
We’re good. As far as Dilated, just to put this out there, we joke a lot and sometimes we put stuff out in the press that we hate each other. We sit back and laugh at all this stuff. For some reason, as soon as a group member puts out a solo record the obvious thing is the group broke up. If you study Dilated and look at our old interviews or anything we’ve ever said you’d know that doing solo projects was always part of the thing. I’d say that is one of the keys to our longevity; that there is no jealousy. Like if I put out a record and not sell 100 copies, I still hope Evidence sells 10 million and gets a Diamond plaque. Aside from the fact that I’m going to be on his record and I’d get my publishing, it’s just that I want to see him succeed at the highest level possible and it is mutual. So we not only support each other in doing solo projects spiritually, emotionally and energetically but also we support physically by saying “lets get in the studio, we got to get you in the studio today and pull up this Exile beat.” Oh yeah that’s another person I should mention; I’m working with Exile as well. He’s a producer. We’re pushing each other to make our solo projects the best they can be as well and we encourage each other to go out there, go tour, go work with other people and bring some spices and textiles back to the homeland. Travel the world and bring some unique products to the homeland and show us what else is going on in the world. We support each other and there is no jealousy. It makes it comfortable to go out and have fun and want to get back to the fold. It’s not like, “I want to go do this song but Babu’s going to be pissed.” There is none of that. The more we go and work with other people and do other things makes us want to do more Dilated stuff. So, it’s all good.

Random:

Do you have any hobbies or interests that you do to relax?
Other than music, I read, write, go to school and study advertising in my free time which to me is just propaganda. The study of propaganda as a science is interesting to me. I’m finishing my degree in my free time. Also, I’m a martial arts fan and student and have studied various martial arts off and on for different parts of my life. I’m a long time Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu student. Actually I haven’t trained in a few weeks right now, but that is something I generally do a lot. I travel a lot to host different events around the world. So, in my free time, I don’t really have too much of it but I do fill it up.

I do remember seeing you with the Gracie family in the studio in the Release Party documentary. So you have been doing that for awhile?
Yeah. I’m not really the most disciplined student, to be honest. Most of the students there are either full time martial artists or have a job and this is kind of their release and they come here and train in their free time. For me, unfortunately, I have a list of 10-15 things that I have going on at any given time so I’m not able to give it as much attention as I’d like to in the past couple years. But, I’ve been training with them for a long time and that’s like another family organization for me. As a family group they’ve really come in and changed martial arts and have given a lot of people opportunities that they don’t even really appreciate. Shout out to the whole Gracie Jiu-Jitsu family and that’s definitely my people and family right there.

Is there anybody in particular that you respect/look up to?
Yeah, I look up to my mom. She’s a warrior. She’s still here and obviously coming out of and being a child of war and having the first years of your life being nothing but war and then being sent off to a foreign place and starting over from there has to do a lot to a person’s psyche and really test their self esteem and a lot of things about them. She made it through so I really look up to her for that.

Also, my younger brother at one point was a high school dropout and literally stopped going to school. It wasn’t for very long but enough where he could have easily taken another path and instead went right back to school. He finished high school early, went to junior college got his AA and then transferred and became Sigma Cum Laude, Golden Key Society as an undergraduate and then transferred to USC and got his Masters and is now a lawyer. To me, that is a big inspiration as well.

I’m inspired by how Evidence was strong enough to rebound and pull himself together to support us and our album campaign even after losing his mom. That was something I’ll never forget. Just seeing Babu have to kiss his kids and wife goodbye; I don’t have any kids so I don’t know what that is like to have to leave my kids behind and hit the road and be willing to go through that.

There are a lot of people. I’m inspired everyday. I have another younger brother, Jay, who is going through some things right now. He’s keeping his head up and staying strong and handling his business right now. That is very inspirational. There is a lot happening right now. Shout out to my man JK also from Drunken Tiger. He’s gone through a lot physically and Tasha as she’s gone through a lot emotionally and the fact that they keep it together that is a thing of inspiration as well.

Do you have any preferences towards dating?
To me, being in entertainment you are able to meet a lot of beautiful and physically attractive people but what you find, more often than not, is that that is pretty much it. Everything they are putting out there is purely physical and there is no real depth to it. When looking for somebody I made it my business to look for a situation where depth was involved. I’m blessed to have decent vision and how somebody looks is important to me but, at the same time, that gets old very quickly if there is no depth. I would end up bored immediately. There are more serious problems out there in life so I don’t really trip too much. I think that depth is most important and if you think somebody is cute and you get along with them and they make you feel comfortable and have a good time then that is where you need to be. If you are with somebody and they are like a piece of jewelry; like a fly watch, necklace or accessory, then neither of you are really probably getting all you could be getting out of life. Do what makes you happy has always been my motto on that.

Since you are in the same industry, I’m wondering if you can resolve this long-running rumor; is Redman part Korean? The rumor is mainly due to his track “Blow your Mind” off his first album, Whut? Thee Album, where he has a verse in Korean.
You know that is the funniest thing how that rumor has been going on. I have never ever heard anything other than that song and I’ve never heard of him being involved in anything or him say it in any interview or anywhere that would lead me to believe that he really is other than the fact that “Korean” and “human being” rhymed and he probably thought it’d be a cool way to break it down and Red is one of the craziest people. It’s funny I was just in Australia with him and Method Man for New Years and if I would have had this on my mind I would have definitely asked him direct. If I bump into him soon I’ll ask him myself. But, I don’t think so. I’ve never heard anything other than him kicking that rhyme. I think what I heard is that somebody else wrote it for him and he just copied it for his breakdown of his rhyme.

Now you mentioned sipping soju on the “Monster” track. Do you enjoy soju?
I enjoy soju in the beginning. I enjoy soju as it starts but unfortunately is just gets easier and easier to drink and is very inexpensive so those two things together make it a perfect monster. That’s usually how I feel in the morning, “Why did I do that again?” I do like soju and I was actually able to taste some really good soju when I was in Seoul and had a great time. I’m a big fan of soju. Thumbs up! It goes really well with Korean barbecue too and is a perfect combination. I don’t know what it is but someone really knew what they were doing.

You also mention Hines Ward in your verse on the “Monster” track. What was your take on Korea’s reaction to Hines Ward after he was MVP of Super Bowl XL?
It’d be really easy to be cynical and say you know they are only doing this because he won the Super Bowl and they can say it’s a good story. But, to be honest, it doesn’t matter what prompted it because there is going to be changes in society and shifts of opinion and sometimes it takes a catalyst or spark to ignite the change. I think it was one of those things where he showed that there is diversity to the Korean legacy and that it just doesn’t look one way, do one thing or just happen in one place. I decided I wasn’t going to be cynical about it and I celebrated it and the fact that here is a nation that this would have been unheard of at a certain point and now they are throwing parades for somebody that maybe a few years before would have been looked at differently. It also opened up a lot of dialogue and that ultimately is where the true “win” came. Anything that can open dialogue and get people to communicate and vent their own frustrations and get clarity on misinformation that they may have is a good thing. The Hines Ward thing was good for football, good for cultural exchange in general, Korean growth and Black/Korean relations. At the end of the day, people will be celebrating a new understanding of Korean success in the world.

Do you get on the Internet often and, if so, what are some of your favorite websites?
I recently have been checking out HalfKorean.com. Historically, I like Juxtapoz.com, www.gracieacademy.com, wired.com, a bunch of stuff on YouTube, and the Sherdog forums for mixed martial arts. I like to read and see things for myself. Old school, I know.

What about social networks? I know that you have a MySpace and a Twitter. Do you have a Facebook?
Not really. I do have one set aside but that’ll be coming soon probably in the next month when I start my full campaign. You know, I actually kind of enjoy not having it. Even Twitter was kind of a lot for me and I just started getting into it over the past couple months. But, that whole thing; that 24 hour tracking, 7 day a week of not only me saying where I’m at but being able to link in with me just seemed kind of like a lot of excess. That’s something I’ll have to get more and more comfortable with. Now that I see the benefits of it, it’s something I’ll definitely invest in more especially Facebook for the album. Me, personally, I’m a man of the streets so I tell people if you want to see me come see me, I’m out here. I guess the world is shrinking everyday and that’s in large part to these social networks so I want to make sure I keep my network strong and keep in contact with my family around the world. To be honest, I was very early in it with Dilated being one of the first groups to have a website. I built the early website with my brother and we did the programming ourselves but at a certain point I turned it over to the labels and stopped dealing with the day to day. Technology changed so I just let the people who were running it run it. But, I do plan to be more involved with it.

Since you mentioned MMA earlier; have you heard of Benson Henderson?
Oh, of course! I was looking at him and he looked kind of like he’d be more related to my man, Brent Rollins [a well known artist/designer], who is actually Black & Vietnamese. So, I was looking and I was like “He is one of my people and I know he is one of us.” But I didn’t know what exactly the twist was. So when I saw the post recently that you put up I was like “Oh, okay!” and, to be honest, he is one of my favorite fighters as far as crazy ill styles and being one of the young, new and up and coming cats. I’m hoping that we can even do some stuff down the line and maybe interview him or have him interview me or some crazy telepathy twist up stuff together. That’d be real cool.

Alright we’ll see if we can get something hooked up! It is crazy how we continue to hear about someone new and it is just amazing how we have all of these talented people.
Oh yeah and Denyce Lawton is an extraordinarily talented individual and I just have to put that out there. I must congratulate her on just existing and that’s all I have to say about it. Congratulations to her parents on a job well done too.

How did you find out about HalfKorean.com and what did you think about it when you first saw it?
You know, I don’t even remember how I found it originally. I don’t know if I saw the Twitter page and then saw the website or if I saw the website and then the Twitter. Actually, I think I saw the link to it off a “Monster” post. I think someone was responding to one of the “Monster” posts and then one of their links was to HalfKorean.com. And from there I found it on Twitter. It all happened pretty quickly. I’m not usually someone to reach out like that but it seemed like you guys are doing some really good things. I wanted to lend my support to what you are doing and offer my energy wherever I could. So, it turned into an interview for me right now and is actually a very cool thing.

Any final words that you would like to pass on to the community?
Don’t trip on other people. People will always find a way to critique you, be critical of you, and pull you down. If their only problem with you is that you have a diverse bloodline and part of a lineage of various proud cultures then really that is no problem. They are trying to bring you down with something that should actually be celebrated. You are not any better or worse than anybody because you have diverse bloodlines. You are just different and your own person. Love yourself. Respect yourself. Just know that you are who you are and most of the time the people who have problems with you really have problems with themselves so they try to lash out against what they think is a way to deflect that. Love your diversity and your differences. We’re all pretty much the same it’s just the slight differences that make us who we are.

If you are interested in learning more about and/or staying updated on Rakaa, please be sure to check out his MySpace or Twitter. You can also check out Dilated Peoples at DilatedPeoples.com, MySpace and Twitter.

Interview by: David Lee Sanders

Posted: 2/26/2010