Peace, Unity, and Hope Through Hip Hop:
The 2nd Annual Asian Hip Hop Summit

By: Anna Mai

Are those Asian rappers?! Yup, you betcha. Both on stage and in the audience, Asian Americans were vastly represented. This past weekend, over 900 people gathered in Los Angeles for a two-day hip-hop celebration to raise money for North Korean famine relief. Over 50 acts including musical lyricists, rappers, poets, DJs, and bands pumped up audiences both nights with bumpin’ beats and rockin’ rhymes.

Held at Boba Delight in Koreatown, the 2nd Annual Asian Hip Hop Summit provided a forum for Asian American artists to express their minds through the arts. Not just for the hip-hop emcees, spoken word poets, turntablists, break dancers, and grafitti artists arrived to represent all the elements of hip-hop culture both on the main stage and the lounge area. Even Asian-American rock bands came out to support the cause.

Among some of the talented Asian American acts gracing the stage at Hip Hop Summit this year were the groups such as the Visionaries, Jupitersciples, South Asian rap group Karmacy, DJ group Top Rawmen Crew, rock band Nemo, Vietnamese rapper Chosen 1, Cambodian rapper/writer Prach, and poet Ishle Park. The event also included a freestyle dance battle and freestyle MC battle for all audience members who wanted to get involved and join the movement of self-expression through hip-hop.

The term ‘Asian’ encompasses many different cultures of the Asia-Pacific region and Asian Hip Hop Summit is a place where all artists of any Asian descent can come together and share their experiences through hip-hop. When asked why hip-hop was his medium of choice, Cambodian rapper/writer Prach said, “Everybody’s trying to tell their side of the story. I’m just trying to tell my side.”

Along with the individual stories, the event also sought political advocacy and change. The first Asian Hip Hop Summit took place on April 20th of last year, exactly one week before the 10th anniversary of the Los Angeles Rebellion of 1992 that led Koreatown to burn to the ground. Asian Hip Hop Summit started as a commemoration of the riots and a celebration of “pan-Aziatik” unity through the arts, a slang term that means the inclusion of all different types of Asians.

“I believe in the power of words to convey a message that can uplift and empower young people -- young Asians. Music is really the way we have to go because the poetry of hip-hop can reach the masses of Asian youth right now,” said event founder, Kublai Kwon.

Aside from the encouraging words on stage, the event also reminded young people about empowerment through their vote with Rock the Vote sponsoring the event and setting up a booth registering more youths to participate in the voting process.

The general message of this year’s Asian Hip Hop Summit was North Korean famine relief. Working in collaboration with Young Koreans United and the United Nations World Food Program, 100% of the funds raised at Asian Hip Hop Summit went directly toward feeding those who need it most in North Korea.

But there was another message underlying the event. Post-911, the event was also a protest against a potential U.S. led war on North Korea. According to event organizers, “a second Korean war would be a catastrophe.” Instead of needless deaths and suffering, the event advocated, “food, not bombs” as one of its mottos.

Spoken word artist, Ishle Park, who has been featured on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam twice says, “I think it’s really great that we can use our art as a platform to speak our political views and raise awareness to our community who might not be familiar with these issues.”

When asked where he got the idea for Asian Hip Hop Summit, Kublai refers to the lack of an all-Asian event with all-Asian performers and audience members:

“A lot of it came out of the fact that there’s not much going on as far as Asian arts. White people can go to a country music concert where everyone in the crowd is white and every performer is white. A black person can go to see some funk where everyone is the audience is black and everyone on the stage is black. A Latino can go to a salsa event. Asians can’t go anywhere where there’s all Asian concert-goers and all Asians on stage. That’s what struck me. Why are we the only people who don’t have the opportunity to do that?”

Well, that opportunity is here. Despite a tirade of technical difficulties, Asian Hip Hop Summit 2003 still proved to be a successful event and Asian Americans now have an event to call their own. Only in its second year, the event’s foundation and message are strong, showing that when all Aziatiks get together, pan-Aziatik unity can be channeled into a loud and unwavering voice of protest.

Event organizers want to make it clear: “We are powerful, as a people, and can never be silenced or made invisible again.”

April 25, 2003