What's So Holy About Hip Hop

King Cyz and T-Wyse
From Baker-Fletcher's article, King Cyz and T-Wyse talk about Hip Hop as an Art form.




Da' Truth on Why Hip Hop
One of Holy Hip Hop's most famous artists talks about the importance of being relevant to a hip hop generation.




Kanye West at the 2005 Grammys, feat. John Legend and the 5 Blind Boys of Alabama
Fusion of Sacred Profane Ideology, where artist particiapte in fusion of the sacred as profane- rap artists mold this system to suit their own needs





DMX "The Prayer" off of his CD: It's Dark and Hell is Hot.
“Entertainers spend more time confusing their audiences about their core beliefs than any other people (except possibly some ministers)” (4).





D'Angelo "Brown Sugar"
An example of D’Angelo sexual transcendence to a divine rapture in the body.




Lil' Mama "Lip Gloss"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCvXzjGRnKc

This paritcular song has a keen likenss to Kirk Franklin's, " I Like Me." The beats are very much alike, the messages are very different.

An Interview with Brian Le

Meet the Artist:

Brian Le Nguyen
"Ginubrian"
www.myspace.com/ginubrian

Written and Posted by Charlene Brown
Updated Sunday, August 5, 2007

Introduction
On July 31, 2007, I had the opportunity to meet with Brian Le, who goes by the name "Ginubrian." Brian has emerged as an upcoming R&B and Pop artists as well as a choreographer and dancer. He's talented in dancing, singing, song writing, and producing, however, what makes him unique is the fact that he's Asian American. He's breaking boundaries and stereotypes daily, and desires to change all of that and encourage Asian kids to chase "their dreams that lie outside the Spartan Perimeter of pragmatism."


How would describe yourself, ethnicity wise?
Asian American, I guess Vietnamese American to be more specific

How do you think you’ve dealt with obstacles in the United States as an Asian American?
Uhh, everyone deals with a lot, whatever race you are. Even white people do as well, whether you are black, Asian, white, Spanish, whatever else, you have obstacles. So I just call it life, you know what I mean. I don’t see it as racism; it’s just a little part of life. You deal with it, and you go on with it, and it makes you stronger. Not everyone is like that; I try not to stereotype too much. But with the human mind, everyone prejudges, it’s there to protect you.

And you’re trying to get into the into the music business and you dance and all that, how have you been met by the public there. Are people welcoming with open arms? I mean, you’re Asian American and that’s different.
I will say that my most important audience was actually African American. When I came on stage for the first instance, it was at VCU, Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, and I went to the open mic night. No one had ever danced there before, you know, it was something that I wanted to do differently. I had on my suit, the Michael Jackson hat, people were looking at the stage like “what is he doing? What is this Asian cat doing?” I did my thing; I did every single Ginuwine routine, period, to date. And everybody was rushing the stage, security had to come. It was a wild experience. It’s one of those things where you hear Ginuwine, you know reading his biography, and you hear him doing the Michael Jackson thing and routines. It’s kind of like that; except for I grew up doing Ginuwine. So everybody went crazy, and it was a great performance.


(Check Ginuwine out in "So Anxious" at 3:00)

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One of my weaker performances was actually at a white club, and everybody was just hating on me. I mean it’s all good though, there’s an audience for everything. I’m sure not all white people are like that. But you know that’s my best and worst experience as a performer.

I remember in class you said you wanted to market towards the Asian American community first. I’m curious, why?
A lot of people say race doesn’t matter, that’s the way I believe that people would like for it to be, but race does matter. We live in a world where you know, you have to have a white president, a male, and I know we have Hillary is running right now, but who knows her chance of winning. The world is racial. It’s gotten way better than its been in the past, but we haven’t gotten to the point where everyone is equal to everybody.

Asians I know for a fact, because I’m Asian myself, I know they are going to support me. They are going to love, maybe because I think they can relate to me. Even with African-Americans, they are going to turn to African-American’s first. Same for white people, they are going to turn to white people first. It’s who they’re most comfortable with; it’s who they understand the most, because that’s what we are. You know, I grew up in America, I’m more Americanized than most Asians are period, but at the same time, I still understand my culture.




And you’re a dancer. Are other people surprised when they see that you have rhythm and that you can do what you do?
They are actually. The fact that I’m Asian kind of tops it off. They respect it I don’t blame them, because you don’t see a lot of us on TV. They’re surprised, but it’s cool. It’s cool, because it’s good attention.



What’s your background in music? How did you get started? I’m curious; everyone has a story, what’s your story?
I mean I have always listed to music religiously, but I would just not get into it because what my parents trained me to think. Until now, of course, I’m going to be quite honest, I listen to a lot of music, but I’m quite new at making it. I work hard, and I’ve got a lot of accomplishments done. I mean, I’m learning quickly. And it’s a big possibility that I could actually do it, in my opinion.

So you started out with dancing and now you’ve added singing and performance. And what are your thoughts and songs mostly about. We’ve looked at artists in our class, like Jin whose songs are mostly about breaking stereotypes of what it means to be an Asian American male in the rap game. What are your songs about?

My songs aren’t exactly about having anything to do with Jin has to do with. I’m trying to do something I enjoy, which is R&B music, from Boyz II Men, Brian McKnight, my sound has a lot to do with the 90’s, and how R&B was big back then, like ballads and all that. Don’t get me wrong, Im’ll still do quick joints because I love to dance. You know, I have a style of Usher, Ginuwine, and Michael Jackson. You need quick joints to dance. Primarily, I love slow jams. That’s what it’s going to be about. Relationships, everyday problems, and so forth, I’m not going to do, well I might do uplifting songs here and there, but I’m not really going to do anything with racial issues or anything like that. It’s going to be normal pop music you hear on pop radio stations.


So you would describe your music as more of an R&B, soul, and 90’s kind of feel?
R&B and pop, molded into modern. Music changes all the time. You can’t make a 90’s song, put it out now, and expect it rise, you know what I mean? So I’m trying to bring back a little bit of it with the beats we have today. I’m trying to gain R&B to a point where it was a couple of years ago in the 90’s. Hip Hop was no where close to strong as R&B in the 90’s. Whereas it’s all Hip Hop now. When you turn on the radio now, its Hip Hop rather than R&B. So I’m trying to change that a little bit. My music may be pop, just more pop because I just want more people to enjoy it. Pop R&B I would say. Some of the soul songs that would be on the album would be where slower songs are. But in the 2000’s right now, that would be hard to make that an album.




You talked about “myspace” and “youtube”, do you feel like the internet has been helpful in helping you promote yourself to the public?
That’s for sure, definitely, definitely. I couldn’t reach somebody from way across the world where they could see my stuff without the internet. It’s a very important medium, and it’s free too. I mean that’s how Ryan Leslie is doing his thing on myspace and youtube and Cassidy got discovered. Even big artist understand that they have to use it too. Diddy has updates on their all time. Without it, it would be really hard for those without ridiculous connections to make it big out there.

And this is a general kind of question, but what do you feel is the state of Asian American music today?
Tell you the truth; I don’t think we have an identity with it, honestly. We go as far as maybe William Hung (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwMjpt62Ja4). I mean there’s no identity there. In my opinion, in the pop culture, it ends there. In the classical genre, that’s another story, I mean, you have YoYo Ma and different other people. But in the pop culture, we don’t really have an identity.

Do you think that we have a long way to go before we start seeing more Asian American artists?
I’m not sure to tell you the truth. I think at this point anything can happen. I know in Basketball you had Yao Ming. Then you had Jin who was a heck of a free-styler, but didn’t know how to make an album. I really don’t know, life could surprise you. Next week, there could be a big Asian star. Maybe I could be the next one. You never know what’s going to happen.

What do you feel like your goals are for the next 1 to 3 years? You know, would you be making albums, releasing albums, and performing?
Right now, I’m writing and actually making music for my solo project with some really talented producers. I’m working with some talented producers like Allen Aranas (http://www.nonstopaccess.com/, www.myspace.com/traknfeelmusic), and some of my boys from HU [Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia] and some other people. I have good people behind me who totally believe in me. So I mean my short term goal is to release 2 or 3 solid singles, maybe a fast one and two slow ones, and just go from there. See how the audience likes it, and if they don’t to go back in the studio and start working again. Goal wise, I would like to open for some big shows.

Trak N Feel in NYC with one20 Productions &Forte

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Have you done any big shows?
I’ve done dancing wise, never done it with music. Because I’m totally new to this and working on my album right now. I’m totally totally new to this, I haven’t been doing this all my life, but it’s still something that’s attainable.


Who have you opened for, I’m really curious?
I mean, Lil’ Romeo, Nick Cannon, and I went to the Ciara video shoot and saw how everything was done, connected with a lot of people and a lot of great dancers.


How would you define the word ‘success? When will you be satisfied with what you’ve achieved in the industry?
Success has always been about happiness for me. If I’m happy, I feel like I’m successful. You know, if I have fans on a local level, people loving me, and enjoying my music, that’s when I’m happy. If I’m not happy with millions of fans around me, then I’m not successful. Making music is not about money. If I’m happy not making music, I’m still successful in my opinion. I’m happy but I’m not happy with the facet that I haven’t achieved it yet. Im’ll chase it.

We’ve also been learning about Asian American artists and signing with major record labels. One of the concerns is artists want creative control. Are you looking to get signed with an independent record label or independent label?
Well the beauty of myspace is that you get to create yourself, create free of charge. So I’m trying to create an image an image and invent a product before they can mold me into whatever they want me to be. Im’ll show them whatever I am works. I don’t like being molded. I’m not doing this for money, I’m doing this enjoyment. So, you can threaten me with money, I’m not looking to get molded into anything that I’m not. I understand their job, and hopefully I have a good team so that we can compromise and find the right thing to do.





What would you consider a perfect day?
Man, everyday is a perfect day, ever day that I’m living is perfect. I’m meeting new people everyday, ever day is an adventure. It’s a good day today, I met your class, I have an opportunity to do this interview, and I learned a lot from you guys. I learn from ever person I meet, and I learned something today. Today is a perfect day, and tomorrow will be too.

Is there anything in particular that you would like to tell my class or people that have recently discovered your music?
Well, I’d like to say thank you for your support. You guys listened to me, and put in your input, and that was input that was priceless. You guys gave priceless input, and there’s a lot that you’ve said today that I haven’t really thought about, and Im’ll take that into consideration. And I thank you guys for that. I’m glad that you all enjoyed it, because I did too.


Brian Le's Stats:

Musical Influences- Boyz II Men, Brian McKnight, Justin Timberlake, Brian Michael Cox, Usher, Mario, Ne-Yo

Dance Similarities- Ginuwine, Omarion, usher, Christ Brown, Michael Jackson
(Check out Usher at 2:15 in "U Remind Me" off his 8701 album.)



Target Audience- Asian Americans and Pop America

Goal- To become the first successful Asian American R&B artist.


Conclusion
Brian's passions are evident and tell a lot about where his heart his. He loves to dance, perform, and make music. And when it comes to the industry, passion is all that matters. He doesn't see his ethnicity as an obstacle, but rather a way of breaking down stereotypes and letting people know that Asian American's are capable of breaking into the Music industry. Its rare you meet people like Brian, and we wish him all the best in his endeavors.