Far East Movement

Generally speaking, Asian American rappers are sparse in the mainstream music industry in the U.S., but Far East Movement is attempting to break that notion. Until in 2004 when Jin debuted, there had been no Asian American rapper who released a major label album.

Far East Movement is a group comprised of the members Kev Nish, Prohgress, J-Spliff, and DJ Virman. Each member of the group resides in downtown Los Angeles, but their origins are in Koreatown where they held freestyle sessions in the parking lots and coffee shops.

Far East Movement has worked its way up, playing at local shows, creating a hometown fan base, passing out demo tapes and fliers, and their diligence has paid off.

Justin Lin, the director of the 2006 film “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” used their track “Round Round,” and also featured it on the soundtrack and video game. Far East Movement used the money and invested it into a music video, which garnered over a million views.

When “Round Round” became a hit, they realized that they could make music a full-time career. Prohgress even dropped out of law school.

Their popular hit single “Girls on the Dance Floor” rose to number one on the Power 106 playlist the past summer.

The world of hip hop is a difficult genre to break into, because the reality is, the genre is largely dominated by male African Americans. There have been Asian American artists in the mainstream music industry, such as Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and apl.de.ap of Black Eyed Peas, but they are generally part of a larger multiracial group. Other Asian Americans who have gained success are also typically DJs. Breaking into the music industry is a tough task in itself, and in order to impress the record labels, you must capture the attention of the masses.

Another issue is that Asian parents typically want their children to become doctors, lawyers, or engineers, but are adamantly against the idea of their children’s desires to become singers, actors, or comedians. Successful careers in the entertainment industry are realistically difficult to attain (though not impossible), but the members of Far East Movement, even against the wishes of some of their families, strived for success and are an example of a success story, and prove that Asian Americans can break into the industry successfully.