Heein

Reflection #2: Rap Record
11:30 PM 9/29/14

Quick update on the rap record that Jon and I are thinking of doing.

At first, I viewed the concept of the song as just claiming our Asian American identity. However, last night at 3:22 AM, I set Jonathon this text:

"Heein: Yo. So I was thinking and how do you like this concept. We narrate the day Vincent chin died in his perspective or a third person perspective"

Basically, I hoped to frame the song like this:

Verse 1: Provide the back story of Vincent Chin. How he was preparing for his bachelorette party, how his mother didn't want him to go, and how he had no care in the world for Asian American issues.

Verse 2: Story of his death and the "punishment" of the murderers.

Verse 3: The meaning for Asian Americans now.

Just some late-night thoughts.

Also, last night, I reached out to G Yamazawa, the spoken word artist from over the weekend, and he asked if he could post my email on to his Facebook page. I was definitely honored to hear him respond back like this, and he and I arranged to meet over Thanksgiving break.

Hopefully, ASI can bring him back to Williamsburg and listen to his story of the only Asian American kid growing up in the South and how that upbringing shapes his career today.

Excited for the future.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection #1: Thoughts in the Shower
1:15 AM 9/29/14

What a day. I apologize for the informality of this post, but I just hopped out the shower and too many thoughts are going through my mind right now.

1. The first thought that came to my mind was with my talk with Jonathon Hsu today. I asked him for advice on what kind of projects I can do for the future for ASI. We bounced ideas back and forth and this is what he came up with:

Capture the artwork/way of expression/moment/random things you do that best conveys your Asian identity.

This weekend, I went to the spoken word event hosted by AMP, and the special performer was G Yamazawa. His resume is too long for me to write, but the thing that struck me was how similar we were. He grew up in the South in a predominately African-American community and his spoken words just struck a special cord with me. With every single story he told, I could relate to every single syllable flying out his mouth.

I even performed spoken word. Never in a million years would I ever think that I would do something like that in front of a crowd, but I felt like that this moment was too perfect to pass--I had to assert my Asian American identity in front of this predominately white crowd. Hopefully I'll perfect that and post that spoken word as part of this project.

I'm just really excited to work with a project in mind. Pallavi already agreed to be part of this project by showing off her traditional dances.

2. These are my texts to Jonathon Hsu..

"Heein: Yo
Heein: This is heein
Heein: Want to make a rap record
Heein: No this is not a joke"

Thankfully, Jonathon really matched my excitement. Jonathon and I are starting a rap group... Hopefully we can keep it low-key for a bit and receive advice from Professor Thulwell and G Yamazawa, who is also a rapper, and perfect a record. Music has always been a huge part of my life, and I want to contribute back to this art form by adding our wrinkle to the mix. Even though it'll sound ridiculously amateur and the first record might be weak, I'm just excited to show my true colors in my passion.

Of course in the shower I thought of the perfect hook. During the spoken word, one of the dopest lines by G Yamazawa was "Don't worry if I eat dogs, 'cause I eat cats like you." Hopefully we can sample his voice and have that looping over some scratches of the record.

Needless to say.... I'm fucking excited.