American hip hop band talks music and crossing over
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E-mail CNTV, September 4, 2014
The most popular Asian-American hip-hop band, Far East Movement, is making a lot of noise in Los Angeles. Our cameras catch up with the guys, who share with our Hollywood reporter what it feels like to perform at such an energetic pace and why they love Hip Hop so much.
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When the Far East Movement formed eleven years ago, the notion that four Asian-American rappers could sign a deal with Interscope, achieve widespread airplay on urban radio and share the stage with Rihanna and Justin Bieber seemed unlikely. |
Individually they are Kev Nish, Prohgress, J-Spliff and DJ Virman. Collectively they are known as Far East Movement, an American hip-hop group based in Los Angeles. After their most recent concert at Universal Studios, Hollywood, they couldn't help but praise one of their wildest crowds.
"We love it, you all. It's hot out today. We wore sweatshirts. The crowd was amazing. It just feels good to be home and get the energy from the fans. We used to go on dates here with, like, girlfriends – go watch movies – so it's a trip to actually get to perform here, you know?" Kev Nish said.
Their first claim to fame was their song "Round Round" featured in the Hollywood movie, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Then a huge milestone: Far East Movement reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart with their hit "Like A G6." They are the first Asian American artists to crack the Billboard top 10. Growing up in Southern California in Asian homes certainly had an influence on the group.
"I think – of course it gave us a perspective growing up with multi-cultural – we had the Asian culture at home and, of course, American culture is our – we were all born and raised here, so you get two sides of the world at home. But more than that, we just grew up as regular Los Angelinos. We chilled at all the same spots, grew up on all the same music and I think LA and the diversity of LA is kind of what influenced us the most," Kev Nish said.
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When the Far East Movement formed eleven years ago, the notion that four Asian-American rappers could sign a deal with Interscope, achieve widespread airplay on urban radio and share the stage with Rihanna and Justin Bieber seemed unlikely. |
When the Far East Movement formed eleven years ago, the notion that four Asian-American rappers could sign a deal with Interscope, achieve widespread airplay on urban radio and share the stage with Rihanna and Justin Bieber seemed unlikely. They even toured China in 2012.
"We just came from Changsha and Guangzhou and Shenzhen. We went to a lot of places. And Shanghai. We love it out there. They show a lot of love. We're not going to pick a favorite. They're all so massive. You're going to get a massive amount of people feeling left out. We'll just say China," Kev Nish said.
Far East Movement has been featured on various American television network shows including CSI: Miami, Entourage, and Gossip Girl. They blend elements of hip-hop, pop, electro and dance to create an original sound and lifestyle they call "Free Wired". They describe their fan base this way.
"People that love to enjoy themselves. They enjoy life. They love to party. They like bass. We're all about that bass – just keeping it fun." Kev Nish said.
With four Studio albums under their belts, and a new EP on the way, Asian American hip-hop is finally receiving the praises that it deserves all thanks to Far East Movement. Considering their unusual talent and willingness to break out of the box, Far East Movement is indeed setting themselves up for the long run.
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