ISSUE: SUMMER 2010
DEPT: Feature Story
STORY: Paul Nakayama
Hip-Hop Groundswell
Far East Moment is tirelessly trying to bring their brand of hip-hop and electronic music to the masses from the group up — and it’s working.
Far East Movement. Photo by Paul Sun/The Social Trust.
It was a fortunate coincidence that brought me to Tokyo the same week that Far East Movement (FM) was opening for Lady Gaga during the Japan leg of her world tour. The group members were kind enough to offer tickets to the show. As they hit the stage in LED-illuminated astronaut helmets, the crowd went from warm to wild for FM’s unique and infectious dance blend of hip-hop and electronica. I stood up and looked around the enormous Yokohama Arena. It was a proud moment to see these Los Angeles natives performing to a sold-out show on the other side of the world. Just last year, I danced whenever I heard their single in a club. “This is my jam,” I told my friends. Never mind that my song was “Girls on the Dance Floor.”
It’s 2 a.m. in a back-alley bar in Shibuya, Tokyo. I’m sipping on cheap whisky as a permanent cloud of cigarette smoke looms over us. I’m with FM and their producers, the Stereotypes, as we celebrate the last night of the tour. There’s a lot of chatter, because just an hour earlier, they had to evacuate their hotel due to a ruptured gas line. In the corner, a woman is passed out with a dog in her lap. Our bartender spontaneously decides to take off his clothes and spin on a stripper pole that magically appears. This interview starts rolling against the chaotic backdrop of Tokyo by night. Witnessing FM’s old-fashioned hard work inspired me to dig deeper with Kev Nish, Prohgress, J-Splif and DJ Virman. You see, just four hours earlier, I saw them hustling outside the Arena, converting a sea of Lady Gaga lookalikes into new fans, and I needed to hear their story.
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The original group began as friends in high school practicing rhymes in the parking lot after school and work. I mention under my breath that I once learned all the words to “Ice Ice Baby,” but that’s like telling Mariah Carey that you can sing in the shower, so I shut the hell up. Unlike me, they’ve all had a strong connection to music since childhood.
Kev Nish, born Kevin Nishimura, taught himself how to play the guitar by ear. But lacking a singing voice, he turned his attention to rap. Later, he worked as a valet, parking cars in Seattle, and used the long downtimes to listen to the radio and write rhymes against those beats. James “Prohgress” Roh grew up with parents who were both musicians. He hated classical piano in his youth, vowing never to be involved in music. Ironically, he dropped out of law school to pursue a music career against his parents’ initial wishes, later returning for his degree. Jae “J-Splif” Choung also didn’t enjoy the prerequisite Asian piano lessons, but he did love rap and recalls spending time in high school freestyling with Prohgress, using the beats from songs like “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” by Puff Daddy and Mase. DJ Virman, who joined the group in 2007 and was previously a deejay for L.A. radio station Power 106, also grew up with musician parents.
I used to practice hip-hop dance moves in the parking lot with my high school friends, but you don’t see me on “So You Think You Can Dance.” The difference being, of course, that FM has talent whereas I was banned from doing the “Kid ‘n Play” for all the shin injuries I caused.
They made a clear choice to dedicate themselves to a life of music when they had an opportunity to present a mixtape to an A&R manager at Arista. Nish dropped a class the day before the final exam, despite having an “A,” to make time for an all-night recording session. The result was their first album. “Our demo CD was so terrible, but we thought it was the truth,” Nish recalls. Arista never signed them, but they decided it was time to form an official group.
The Far East Movement initially started out as Emcee’s Anonymous, which was an effort to divert focus on to their talent rather than their race. “We wanted that mysterious effect where you couldn’t tell what race we were. You just listened to the music, and you can’t tell,” says Nish.
Talent wasn’t enough, and they felt the pressure of the Asian community. “The community at the time wanted us to say something in our music, talk about Asian issues,” says Nish, a fourth-generation American of Japanese and Chinese descent. “But we’re American, like McDonald’s. We listened to Tupac and Power 106, and that’s the kind of music we wanted to make, stuff about partying or ‘going back to Cali.’ But we still felt the need to represent. So we figured why not call ourselves the Far East Movement and f—k the haters. Now that we were representing with a name so strong, we were free to write about whatever we wanted. No pressure to have to say anything.”
The name itself came from one of the group’s original demo tracks. “‘The Far East Movement’ was a song about a new school mentality, an international lifestyle, street wear, hip-hop, racing. Everything we were into, we put into that song,” Nish explains.
Splif quickly adds: “The song was terrible though.” And everyone nods and laughs. “One of the biggest things we set out to do was put another dimension to the Asian American face in the industry,” Splif continues. “And maybe be the first Asian American group to win a Grammy.” He smiles with a slight wink.
They began their career as most artists do, by passing out demo CDs and flyers to shows. (“You know how effective that is,” Nish interjects.) But in 2005, they made a bold move to organize and produce Movementality, a charity hip-hop show benefiting a Koreatown drug rehab center, which sold out. By 2006, they released their first album, and gained the attention of filmmaker Justin Lin. Their first single “Round Round” was featured in Lin’s 2006 The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. In 2007, they had their first radio hit with “You’ve Got a Friend” featuring Baby Bash and Lil’ Rob.
Despite these successes, they hit a wall. “We didn’t know how to link that radio hit to other songs or our branding,” says Nish. “We met with all the labels, ’cause they wanted to know who had this hit song, but they wouldn’t sign us.”
Prohgress remembers going through some tough times as a result. “We had a lot of highs and lows over the last seven years. We would all go full-time at this music thing with nothing materializing, go flat broke and have to end up working jobs or going back to school,” he says.
Realizing they needed to find their true radio sound, they began to hit the clubs hard and performed at every venue they could find. With Virman mixing high-energy dance tracks for them, they began to find their groove. This led to meeting the Stereotypes at a show, and at their first recording session, they created “Girls on the Dance Floor,” which would become their breakout hit and lead-in to their deal with Interscope subsdiary, Cherrytree Records. They’re now recognized as one of the 25 best new bands by MTV Iggy and one of the 25 must-see acts at Bamboozle.
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If anyone knows what’s happening on the Internet, it’s the guys of FM. Sifting through the stream of activity on their website, Facebook and Twitter, you can tell they’re bigger proponents of the Internet than the porn industry. In fact, the adult industry could learn a thing or two about viral marketing from these guys. At their Gaga show, they blogged live and hosted a chatroom from backstage immediately after their set. Splif admits, “We wouldn’t be here if not for the Internet, or it would have taken us a lot longer to get where we are. When Myspace launched, it all changed. It opened our eyes to what was out there. Before that, we were just bedroom MCs.”
The natural question that comes to mind when talking about the Internet and music is the fear of piracy. But FM isn’t concerned. “Anybody that we can get to hear our songs, we’re for it. We’ve been giving out free mixtapes for years. If you want a CD, please, go ahead and take it. Upload it to your computer and give it to your homie,” says Prohgress. “A lot of our fans were born in the ’90s and they’ve never paid for music in their life, so you have to accept it and figure out how to adapt. On the other hand, too, you can find all kinds of new music easier now. Just go on YouTube and browse for hours.”
It’s clearly all about networking and reaching out to the audience at large. “Kev’s always been in customer service for a long time, so back when Myspace started he was all about making sure that we talked directly to everyone that added us as a friend or sent a message,” says Prohgress “Splif would go through hundreds of requests a day personally and write back. And you know, we got shows like that.”
It’s amazing the pace they keep. They’re not just hyperactively networking on the Net, but they maintain the same stride with performing at clubs, label meetings, meet-and-greets, and the list goes on. They slept maybe two hours every night in Tokyo. I found myself poking Prohgress in the arm at one club just to make sure he wasn’t a cyborg from the future disguised as a rapper. I was sure that he was secretly hunting John Connor. My skepticism was rewarded with a tequila shot. But I had to know their secret. If we could harness their energy, I’m convinced nations could be saved. No one can work this much, I thought. How do they unwind or recharge? I asked. I was met with confusion.
“Unwind? What does that mean?” Prohgress asks. “I mean, we sleep. That’s about it. But, every moment you’re not working, someone else is working.”
Splif jumps in, “We just gotta keep going, man. Outta sight, outta mind. New acts are always catching up, and we still haven’t finished our own catching up.” Splif is amped up, like a boxer before a fight.
Prohgress pounds his fists on the table and continues. “Besides, this sh—t is fun. Why wouldn’t I want to spend the next minute editing a video or writing a new song? People tell us, ‘You’re too intense. Let go.’ And I’m like, ‘Why? This is what we love to do.’”
I’m glad by this point that these guys have never met my mother. I’m absolutely certain that she would ask me why I couldn’t be more like them and have their work ethic. When asked what advice they can give to upcoming artists, they unanimously agreed that hard work and being humble were the two most important things. But as I listened to them talk and joke with each other, another thought came to mind. You need your friends.
Prohgress agrees. “We met a lot of people that have supported us and helped us,” he says. “Others lost faith and disappeared on us. And at the end you kind of see who’s left after all the wars and the rubble. And that’s when you know you have the people around you that are right. We’re still gonna see a lot of rough patches, but one thing’s for sure, we’re still gonna see the same faces around us.”
Asking more about industry friends, it surprised me to hear that there are a lot of unselfish givers in music, and that’s something FM is hoping to give back. Radio favorites LMFAO brought FM, the only unsigned act, to the Party Rock Tour, even offering mentoring. LMFAO, in turn, was mentored by the Black Eyed Peas. It’s all about paying it forward, they say.
This sense of brotherhood is a strong internal motivator in FM. “Growing up as an only child, these are my brothers. So, I can’t get lazy one day and watch TV, ’cause I know these guys are still busting their asses. I gotta get up and pull my weight,” says Prohgress.
What else motivates you? I ask. Splif jumps in with a characteristic response, “The fear of going broke.” Everyone laughs, but he gets serious. “No, but that’s some real sh—t. We’ve been there, and this is all we got. If not this, what else am I gonna do?”
Nish agrees but adds, “Being big fans of music motivates us, too. This is a job we love more than anything.”
Asking what the Far East Movement is up to next is like looking at the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue: they’ve both got everything going on. The group is hard at work on their next album, which is slated for a fall release. They’re once again collaborating with the Stereotypes, as well as Snoop Dogg, Lil Jon and Bruno Mars. Far East Movement also has numerous tour dates through the year, including their own International Secret Agents Show. You can catch their weekly radio show, the Cherry Bomb, on their website. In fact, just check out fareastmovement.com or follow them on Twitter @fareastmovement, because you’ll want to keep this FM on your dial.
