Thursday, June 27, 2013

More Than Just K-Pop - Part I - Drunken Tiger


Part I – Drunken Tiger

 

A long time ago, a young Korean boy moved from Seoul to Florida, then quickly to LA. He was witness to the LA Riots in 1992 and saw a great divide that emerged between the Korean American community and the African American community. He sought to bridge that gap by educating both sides with his music. That boy’s name was Seo Jung-kwon, later to be redubbed, Tiger JK.

He entered underground Hip Hop competitions and concerts. At first, people didn’t take the little Asian kid on stage too seriously, and he soon got frustrated. He flipped his language switch and started raging at the crowd in his native tongue and THAT they got. Trying out rapping in Korean paid off and he was soon signed along with east-coast Korean American, DJ Shine, forming the duo Drunken Tiger.

 

They had several hits, with “Because I’m a Man”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_3QTqBmUic&noredirect=1 and the VERY old-school “I Want You” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiAiw8hrKLI (sorry no subs).

Shine left in 2005 for personal reasons. The following year, JK was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis, effectively halting his career. He was given a death sentence, but fought back, against all odds, to take his life and career back and credits in part to the support of his now-wife, Tasha “Baby-T” Reid, also known as Yoon Mirae, a fellow Hip Hop artist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pq5C1LA9Xk.

He has since had great influence throughout the Korean music industry. He really began what is now the non-k-pop movement and supported numerous others and their careers, include LeeSsang, Epik High, Dynamic Duo, Eun JiWon, and YDG.

 

Here are a few more links to his work, post-DJ Shine:

                                                          


Liquor Shots - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBKQgAXQBOw (Real song starts just before halfway; it’s a shout out to Nowon residents too…)



 

Enjoy!



For links to all the articles in the series so far, check out the list in the original post: http://sunnysmartshoppingkorea.blogspot.kr/2013/06/more-than-just-k-pop.html
 
 

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