G Pope from Dek Thai Town

G Pope story on growing up with multiple identity and tapping into this Thai side and forming Dek Thai Town and collaborating with Thai rappers in Thailand

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Somebody called. So today I'm here with J Po from like Thai Town. You know, we had met through mutual friends and stuff like that. He's a Thai American rapper, make a lot of like uh bilingual rap songs, and he have ties both in Thai Town and in Bangkok, Thailand. And today we'll hear some of his stories, you know.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Yeah, yeah. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Welcome to another episode of the city. And then um, this is actually my first time really getting to know him. So first and foremost, can you tell us about like um yeah, let me just a little bit about yourself, how you came around to be like on deck tie town, and I see the tattoo, you know, you got the deck tie town.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

You got the uh, you know, Buddha right there, you know, representing Thailand a lot too in Hanuman and I'm a quarter tie, so like people always think I'm like half-tai or something, or they think I'm like um a lot of Thai people they think we're like Mexican or Hispanic or something like that. So like people don't think I'm Thai, but I'm a quarter Thai, you know, and my dad is half Thai, but he was born in Bangkok and stuff, and I grew up going to like not the you know, it's not a real Thai temple to real Thai people, but I grew up going to Wa Thai in North Hollywood, you know, since I was like young, young and going to like Song Ka and out here and stuff since I was a kid. So like that was my first like introduction to Thai culture as a kid, but where I where I'm from, like, you know, there's not a lot of Thai people, so I didn't really think much of it until later in life when I started rapping and stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

How does that make you feel though? To like to be like, okay, I know I'm Thai, but people don't perceive me as Thai.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

I mean that they call people like me Wasion. That's like okay, that's like the term going online right now. But I mean I grew up in in like San Fernando and Santa Clarita and bounce back and forth between those two cities. It's in the in the valley up there. Um I saw you're from the valley, yeah, yeah, yeah. And um I don't know, just there's not a lot of Thai people there, you know, like unless if you go by the temple and stuff on the weekends, things like that, but there's not a lot of Thai people there, so I didn't really think much of it because I being mixed, I kind of look like people don't know like they could tell I'm white for sure, you know. Just looking at me is like probably seeing my nose and shit like that, you know. But like you know, people can't really tell, like, is he part Hispanic, is he part Asian, you know? So I just blended in enough my whole life that that's just what I got used to. I'm like, I I thought I was just a homie that just blends in wherever I go, and that's that's my role, you know.

SPEAKER_03 3:19

Right, no, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

I kind of look like I could be like a little bit of this, a little bit of that sometimes, you know.

SPEAKER_03 3:25

Right. So you can kind of just like you're very adaptable and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Yeah, yeah. And and a lot of people just assume I was Hispanic too. And that's kinda like the way I would dress in high school and when I was younger, you know.

SPEAKER_03 3:38

But you're still from the valley, yeah. It's very Hispanic influence.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Yeah, it's like Chicano culture, you know, like I I really respect that shit, you know.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

Yeah, I uh uh go ahead, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Okay, I feel like Chicano culture that represents like uh the real like Hispanic American influence, you know, it's like 50-50, you know.

SPEAKER_04 3:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Like we still are true to our homeland culture, but we still like embrace the lowriders and the cars and the stuff out here in the US, you know. So I always found Chicano style and culture like the best to me, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

But no, I agree. I feel like I definitely like influence and grew up with that too, and they do a great job of even showcasing like a dual identity in America, you know, like paying homage to where you're from, but also like growing up here, and this is like I tell people it's different too. It's different to be like because I have like Hispanic friends, like it's different for somebody to be like maybe Mexican, Mexican American and Chicano, and I'm pretty sure we can say the same about Thailand too, you know, like you know, there's like Thai people from Thailand that they immigrate here at older age, there's like Thai American born, and then there's like you know, in between and how people choose to embrace it is is interesting.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yeah, I've there's not an enough Thai people in California or the US for us to like have enough of our own like slang is like Thai American people, people and I see you do and I see you did that with Dick Thai Town, but before we even go into that, like you know, um even me growing up, right?

SPEAKER_03 5:08

Like I definitely look Asian, but a lot of people don't think I'm Thai because I I'm like I have Chinese in me too. Yeah, so even when I go to Thai restaurants in the US, they'll talk to me in English, and I used to get offended. I used to be like, damn, man, you know like I go to Guam Thai, it's like everybody's talking to me in English, and I was like, damn, or like even when I link with Oak first time, right? It's like he might not even know I'm Thai, you know, like they're gonna be like, oh no, no, no, he's Thai. Oh no, no, he understands Thai. And even for me, like I'm from Thailand and I still feel some type of way. That's why I asked you, like, have you ever felt like never?

SPEAKER_01 5:39

You know, like some like once in a while, but not too often, you know. Like, I'm just used to having to explain myself, I guess. Yeah, you know, but um So you don't take no more. I could s I thought that you kind of look like young um a little bit, you know. Like in my grandma's part Chinese a little bit too, like a quarter or something like that. My Thai grandma. I see, I see. And uh now I can see the Thai in you, you know, but a lot of a lot of Thai people are part Chinese, same with Vietnamese, Lao, you know, Indonesian.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

Right, nah, I appreciate that. So tell me, man, so how do you go from like, oh, I need to always explain myself, I need to like I could kind of like be flexible and be in any like identity to like you know what I'm gonna represent Thailand fully, I'm gonna go make that Thai Town, like tell me about that journey, man.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

So uh it's kinda like I remember like I was rapping with people fools in the valley right there, you know, and like I always thought I was I you know I was in my mind I thought I was just Hispanic too, you know. I thought I was just one of the homies too, which like I s I am in a way looking back at it, you know, because like in in the hood and stuff like that, fools are actually like accepting of other races if you're like showing love to them, you know what I mean. But I just saw the uh was it communion and unity and support that like uh a lot of rasa had for each other, especially in music and business and everything else, you know. And I'm like I always knew in the back of my mind I was Thai, you know, but I just never thought I would meet Thai people in my life like that, you know, because the only Thai people I met were like at restaurants or older s or things like that, especially in Santa Clarita too.

SPEAKER_04 7:36

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Like in San Fernando there's hardly any, you know. Right, right so I d I didn't really think that I would run into Thai people or be around Thai people my whole life until I uh you know, my d my dad passed away, you know, and then my dad was half Thai, half white, born in Bangkok, you know, moved here when he was eight, but he m lived in Santa Clarita his whole life. And he never embraced the Thai side of him his whole life, you know. He always listened to like Nirvana and hip hop. He's the one who put me on hip hop and stuff when I was young, but he never really like he forgot all his Thai when he moved here and he just never embraced it because in Santa Clarita, especially in like the 80s, 90s, you know, that's when LA was still expanding and that was like a suburb. So he's around a lot of white boys and like a lot of white people and stuff, absorbing their culture, thinking like it's not cool to be uh Thai or Asian or something at the time. And my dad uh, you know, later in life he ended up being in and out of prison too, and he ran with um the woods and the white guys, and he never, you know, that's a f fine example of like he never embraces Thai siders, Asian side because that's not what he felt like, or maybe he was ashamed of it, whatever the case was. So I was like, when he passed, I'm like, you know, I'm gonna do the opposite. I'm gonna go embrace it and see what's up. I saw there was a Thai town, you know, just like a Korea town, Chinatown. I started just you know, I was already rapping and I started looking online, like hashtag Thai Town, Thai Town Rapper, Thai LA rapper, you know. And I f I found some young kids who were like, you know, three years ago, and hit them up on IG. I'm like, yo, you know, what you guys are doing, you know, like it wasn't even anything too big at the time, but it they were doing some small videos and songs and stuff, and I was like, you know, what you're doing's dope, let's meet up, you know. I'm Thai and I rap too, you know, like I'm trying to meet other Thai people. And they embrace me, you know. I remember meeting up with them at like the Thai Plaza with Bon Cannome Thai, pair and all that. And that was that's a hangout sp that was a hangout spot for a while, you know. We'd meet up in the back there, park our cars, smoke, do whatever.

SPEAKER_04 10:12

That's fine.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

And um, but that's where we first met, and then since then we'd started hitting the studio and saying, you know, let's do like a cipher song. Let's get like everyone who wants to rap from Titown and make like a cipher and see if it you know blows up or whatever. And it got like fifteen thousand views and which isn't like too much, but for our first song, you know, it was it was seven of us, you know.

SPEAKER_03 10:40

Um was that on YouTube, Instagram?

SPEAKER_01 10:42

It's on YouTube, it's on our deck Titown YouTube. That's fire, man.

SPEAKER_03 10:46

Fifteen thousand on YouTube is a lot.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Yeah, yeah. You just look up Titown Cipher and then it'll come up, and that's that song when it came out, like, you know, fixed reposted it, you know, fixed and young um and one mil.

SPEAKER_03 10:59

Oh, that's fire.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

So like fixed, reposted it.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

I should just know Young Um. I gotta you gotta put me on. You gotta you know I I know a couple like Thai rapper for sure, but like off top, like name wise, you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Oh yeah, but I mean they'll be out here, so that's you'll meet them and you gotta you gotta know I'll put you on. I'll put you on the phone.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

Yeah, no, definitely I would love to.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Um like Fix reposted it, which is uh he's like the Drake of Thailand almost, you know. He's that's like his type of influence, basically. Oh, that's fine, you know, and he reposted it, and a lot of people uh saw us from that, and then a lot of the big rap blogs in Thailand started posting it, and then you know, rap is now TV show, the Thai rap battle show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They they posted our our cipher too when it came out. So a lot of people were like tapping in and showing love and um and there's there's even like uh the first Thai rap group, there's only been one other Thai like collective from LA ever before us, and they were called Tycoon. They were like around like 2010-ish, that you know, around that time. And even they were like, you know, showing us love and stuff and but we always looked up to them, you know, always from the beginning and wanted to like one of our goals was to work with them, and you know, we made that happen. But uh I don't know, it's a lot of blogs, pages, like rappers were co-signing us a lot of stuff off our first cipher, and then things just started taking taking off from there and we're like let's take it serious. And what was it? And then we they weren't it wasn't just a rap group though, like we were friends too. We would go camping together, we would they would show me how Thai people like have cookouts and stuff, you know, just like throwing everything on the grill and you know, even like how Thai people party. Um 'cause there's a Thai bar in Thai Town, you know, the people party there till like 3 a.m. sometime.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

And I see I see you're on your social media too. You'd be like, you know, you'll be in there, you'll be performing in there until the time.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Yeah, we we did our f our first like big show that we hosted ourselves there 'cause we thought it was right, you know. Yeah that's like the only nightlife in Thai Town for Thai people, you know. So like if you wanna especially if you're here from Thailand or something like that. Yeah, you know, because they want to hear Thai music and then have Thai food and you know have Singha everything like it's um it's like a safe place for Thai people, I feel like, you know. Yeah, so Thai music and everything, but they always play old traditional cultural Thai songs, like old stuff. Oh like 90s, 2000s where they do like a single. Like Loso and stuff, and they're always like Loso though. Yeah, I love him too. I do, I do, I'd be playing him, you know, on like when I'm on the freeway and stuff. But you know, it's always just rinse, wash, and repeat. You know, they gotta mix it up with some new stuff. So we're like, we're gonna bring Thai hip hop and rap to KT for the first time. And we flew fixed out here.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

Oh wow, you were the coordinate, you really was a visionary, man. I and I appreciate you as a Thai person pushing the culture like that too.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Yeah, yeah. And and uh we we try our our hardest, bro, because we have to be resourceful.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

Right, right. You know. So you flew him out and then tell me the story.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

And then we, you know, we had a show with him, and uh we had a lot of our other Asian artist homies from LA come perform, like Pac Joko, Jakarta Slim. Um there was oh man.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Just a bunch of people. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

If if I forget one, I I feel bad, but it's okay. Pac Joko, Jakarta Slim, and some of the DJs, and then us and and Fixed, you know. But um yeah, we rocked the house, you know, it was packed in there and everyone turned up, had a good time like all night. And uh you know, Fix was like the headliner, you know, but we like came out right before him and built up the hype and but the hype was you know popping for us too when we went up. So it was just like one thing led to another, you know, and it was just like a perfect night type type shit, you know?

SPEAKER_03 15:25

Yeah, that's fine. And how do you feel? Like, so I would assume you say you grew up not really being around Thai people, but once you decide to tap in, it's just like they all just show you love. Do you feel like that was the reception for you? Uh huh. Or you feel like you kinda like had like a foot into like a Thai community before, or you feel like you just jump in and you just like dive in it?

SPEAKER_01 15:46

I think the um the people who are already in the hip hop world or Thai rap world, even in Thailand, you know, like just Thai rap fans who are a fan of like, you know, the new Thai rap culture that's really been booming since like 2017. Right, right. That's what they say. You know, and if you really like those are the people who really supported us from the beginning, you know. But there's a lot of people who like, you know, they they support, you know, and and they're like all on board with what we're doing, you know. But we have to still like prove ourselves to them, you know, because they like the idea of what we're doing. But once they hear that we're doing like rap or hip hop, you know, some older type people aren't aren't ready for all that. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

I feel it's like a cultural aspect too.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Yeah, so it's like a lot of people who already listen to rap and are familiar with it, they've kind of stuck with us the whole journey.

SPEAKER_03 16:49

Right, because it it's a niche tool, and you just kinda pop in.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Yeah, you know, so it's like but we're trying to find a way to expand, and you know, I think we do a lot of different genres already, so we're trying to find a way to get better at each of those and make things more marketable, and even do new styles, genres, work with different producers, rap on different beats, you know. Cause our album we tried to keep it like half LA producers, half Thailand producers.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Wow, oh that's fire. Yeah, so like that way it didn't sound too much one way or the other, but um we're always open to like experimenting Well what we should say is a Thai sound, like when you were with Thai LA producer no, no like when you work with Thai producer, like how is that sound differ?

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Back when we first came out, there was a lot of Jersey Club and drill music.

unknown 17:42

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

They were inspired by a lot of Central Sea and New York and this was Thai producer? Uh yeah, like a good a big portion of the rap game, they were doing a lot of drill, Jersey Club, and it's like 2023. And then even like Jersey Club's still popping, like one of the biggest Thai songs called like She Me She Me She Me by Young Goo. That um it came out like last year, that's like a Jersey Club song. So I think just the boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom people like that party club. Right. Um but a lot of the mainstream like Thai rap is still built to be consumable by mainstream audiences, so it's still kind of pop ish, some of it, you know. Um or you have a lot of trap still like fixed and a lot of canists, a lot of other uh a lot of like king crazy, you know, like a lot of people putting on for the trap scene in Thailand too. I think the drill wave is kind of dying down a little bit. So now it's a lot of either kind of RB mainstream melodic or um trap. But some of it's some of it like has Playboy Cardi influence. You know, I feel like Playboy Cardi influences everywhere around the world. Right. Any country you go to, you know. That's fine.

SPEAKER_03 19:14

What uh what is like um like a the Thai rap sound that that like how you how do you even discover like Thai rap scene like for you? Was it like you just Google one day, like when was that, you know?

SPEAKER_01 19:27

I don't know if I'm just good at you using YouTube or the search bar or something, but I know how to like see one video and be like, alright, this is who this is, and then look up other songs, it's like alright, that song's featuring that other guy. Who's this guy, you know? And then it leads to a whole rabbit hole that I just do my research and and learn the game and scene. Oh, that's fine. You know, but I just got so interested in Thai rap and like I realized how big it was. Like I didn't know they was doing billions and millions of views on YouTube, you know. So like that was just that it made me happy, honestly. At the time to see that shit, you know. So I saw it and then I just was obsessed with it and just wanted to know who every producer, every rapper was, like Nino, Sprite, OG Bobby, you know, um already dead. They're like a whole collective of young Om and all his a whole bunch of big artists in Thailand, and there's like so many levels and layers to like the Thai hip hop scene. That's fire. They're all doing millions of views and they're all selling out shows in Thailand, you know.

SPEAKER_03 20:36

That's fire. Cause um the way how I discovered Young Om is I went to Wa Thai. And then you know the the vendor that they sell uh Mu Ping, they was playing it, and I was like, I was like, Damn, this shit hit. I was like, what is this? I know this Danny Thomas, they always play music the one in the corner, the people and they're they're younger, they're like art, you know, so like and then know one of them, yeah, and they kind of like hip, you know. So I'm kinda like, I was like, all right, you know, like you can tell they're like cultured in terms of like you know the music. So I just zam it and now I went home and I was like, damn, this shit fire. And then I kind of went down a little rabbit hole too.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:13

Because I left Thailand when I was 13, so like back then, like the only Thai hip hop that I know back then is like Koha Yok Mu Kun. I know you heard that song, it's like I forgot what his name F Hero P90. It's like 90s, it's like 90s rap. It's like it's like he makes like Koha Yok Mukun. I don't know. I probably don't know it. Yeah, you gotta send that to me. But but like I the other guy is probably not yeah, but I grew up in like the generation where it's like it's like I was just like, I didn't know, like it's almost like when I first heard Young Omen, all that I'm like, damn, bro, this is some SoundCloud rapper shit, and it's going crazy in Thailand, you know?

SPEAKER_01 21:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

I gotta look into it. I heard the name though. I heard the name.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

His his rap name is literally like fucking hero.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

That's fire. But yeah, I know music like in the 90s and 2000.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

You know Tycoon? Uh uh. Tycoon. You know um Titanium?

SPEAKER_03 22:22

I know Titan I heard a titanium.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

They were like the first the first first like Thai US like rap group, but they're from New York. Oh they are from like uh they got a little Thailand out there. They don't call it Titan.

SPEAKER_03 22:35

They know, huh? They call it little Thailand in New York?

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Something like that. Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Oh, that's cool. So so where do you feel like you are now? You had say that you have taken some break from music to Yeah Can can we even say that?

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Oh maybe, maybe not, but you know, like it's it was a little like just um just recently I've been dealing with like a lot, you know, ever since I moved to LA. So it's just been like adjusting, you know, because I moved from the valley to Titown now is where I live. And it's uh you know, even though I'm from the valley and from LA, like moving to Hollywood was kinda like a culture shock, you know, so it took like a few months to adjust, you know. Maybe longer than that, like three, four, five months to adjust and get used to it. Getting used to living on my own, everything, you know, paying bills, all that, you know. And um one of our main members, Boom, also moved away to Arizona. Oh wow, you know, and after that, like the whole the whole group's basically been taking like a a break or pause. So I um you know, I was kinda down about it for a little bit and now I'm like back up, you know, working out every day, you know, going on TV and shape, man. Working on music again, you know, working on uh going out and networking and being back on the scene, you know. Like I've been going out a lot with um he's a big RB singer from Koreatown. His name's Justin Park.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

I don't know if you've seen, but he's he's been uh he does like a lot of big shows in LA and he's been you know bringing me around and keeping me on the scene and you know, letting me like study and observe how the scene works out here too, you know. Because he performs at shows like Los Globos all over the place, you know. That's why. So me and him just went to Vegas and came back and um I've been just I I went up north too with um to work with like a big Laos artist, one of the biggest Laos artists from California. Uh is it Laos or Lao?

SPEAKER_03 24:52

Not sure. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

We're gonna get in trouble for this.

SPEAKER_03 24:57

No, no, no, we good. I think I think it's Lao. I don't know. In Thai it would be Lao, like Lao. Like we would there's no S in there. If if I would just say it, but English my second language, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

You good, but we we went up to work with uh the homie Dana Marr. Have you heard of him? No, he's um I'll send you his stuff. He's a really good singer, he's Lao from uh up north in the bay originally from SD, you know. I've been working with him, um Justin Park from Korea Town, and he's a really big Korean singer in his own right. And uh there's also Jakarta Slim and Pak Joko, you know, they're really good like Indonesian artists. Well he performed at our show in Thai town, you know, and he um he's like one of my best friends, basically. Uh you know, he's been busy with his podcast with Duna. So I've been we still link up and kick it, you know, here and there. But I just gotta start dropping, you know. I got this EP I'm working on, I gotta drop that, and it's gonna feature like all my best artist homies I've met along the way out here.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

So how do you navigate between this like artist life and just regular life? You know, like making ends meet because you're also like an independent artist, right? And then it seems like you're really good at networking and just kind of like tapping into this, like you know, the Thai rap scene, the Asian artist scene, you know, like you just been doing all this through DMs, you just been studying the game, networking, like um, like uh I know that's a louder question.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Like in terms of how how I balance the yeah, how do you balance it all the time? Yeah. Well, that's the hardest thing when like especially living on my own is learning balance, you know, like cause you gotta take time to clean your whole crib, you gotta take time to do certain daily life, you know. And also, you know, I'm a waiter at a sushi restaurant still, you know, so I still gotta work and pay bills like everyone else, you know, 'cause um rap is like it it brings in money, but it's still like unless, you know, anyone in really in the industry will tell you unless you're like doing shows every weekend, you know, or doing like a lot of streams, you know, it's it's um it's hard to s hit a certain margin. So I have to work like everyone else, you know. I work at a sushi restaurant and I've been working at I've worked at Thai restaurants too, um Chinese, you know, like anything. Yeah, I've I've worked at a lot of Asian restaurants for some reason, you know. But that's what I take that and I invested in the music, invested in myself, you know. So the anything you've seen from like Deck Tai Town, anything like that, that's just me and the Tai Town homies, you know, just all putting our money together and and making stuff happen, you know what I mean? So we gotta work to make money to invest in something else that we're praying is gonna go big, but we can't afford to prey on it, so like we had to learn how to get a system going, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:09

Or build a machine is and and that that's that's a great that's a great point to point out though for a lot of like artists and people pursuing things. You know, I think a lot of people either just like say like, oh I'm gonna quit it all and just do art.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Yeah. Cause I've done that and went broke, so that's how I'm you know, so even here you I mean it's kinda like Yeah, I mean I've I've I'm not gonna say who, but I've like other artist homies who that's where they've been at recently. They're like, you know, I might get a job here or there just to like help pay with like basic stuff.

SPEAKER_04 28:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

You know what I mean? Because music is like I said, it brings in money, but it goes with the seasons right now. Right. Especially um nightlife and like I feel like nightlife in LA and Hollywood hasn't fully bounced back since COVID yet, you know? So like there'll be shows and events and there's starting to be more. But um it's not frequent enough, you know, to where like a bunch of artists are getting booked a bunch of places all the time. You go to Thailand or Bangkok, it's still active, you know. People are still doing shows every weekend, people are going out to rap shows every weekend, you know, in one city, you know, like or just in Bangkok alone, you know. But Bangkok's kind of like reminds me of Vegas, because Vegas always has shows all day, every weekend, you know. But I don't know, I just feel like uh there's not enough unless if like rappers as a whole find a way to uh work with like other genres that are becoming more popular right now. Like EDM or like even pop or you know just K pop even, you know, like hip hop is kinda dying right now, I feel like You think so? Yeah, in the US, you know, not in Thailand, you know, but so it's kinda hard for me from my perspective, you know, like where to go with it, you know. But I think um sorry, what was the original question?

SPEAKER_03 30:24

No, it's cool. It don't really even matter.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Yeah, you know, I'm just trying to it's it's hard to know like exactly where to go with it because like like a lot of people have been talking this year, this is like the first year and since like in 25 years that not one hip hop song is charted on the top 40.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

Damn, is that real?

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Yeah, it happened just one week out of this year, but still it happened though. So people are talking about it and worried about like you know, is hip hop falling off, dying? Is there too many artists, too many independent artists now that the internet is going on in social media? Or is there like um not or is it something with the record labels or the record labels lost control of like cultivation of new artists, you know? So like the the big artists of the world like Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, you know, or like even the bigger rap artists like Taiga and Shoreline Mafia and artists like that, they're still always gonna be making money and they got their own um economy or like they got their own cycle of money and fans, you know. But for the connection between independent artists and labels right now, it's like you don't see a people giving out record uh record deals or record contracts like that a lot. So a lot of it's just on the artist to find a way to do everything yourself right now. Right. So espe like um in Thailand, you know, there's it's a lot of that too, you know, there's some like distributions and bigger like companies that distribute stuff, you know. They're still like controlled by like Sony or UMG or something. But there's not a lot of um you know, you're not gonna get a record deal or record contract unless you already are bringing in like like five million streams or listeners already, something like that, for them to even notice you. You know what I mean? So it's like you can't it's hard to be get discovered because there's so many people on the internet now trying to be discovered. So you have to within your own niche build your own market and everything. So that's kind of like what I'm trying to learn how to do, you know, with Deku Thaitown.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Tell me about your experience going to Thailand, man. Was that your first time going to Thailand? Like, you know?

SPEAKER_01 33:04

Uh I went there once when I was like young, young, so I don't remember anything. And then um when I went after my dad after my dad passed, then um that was like my first time like absorbing everything, you know, taking everything in, like seeing my family's hometown and where they have um what's the thing where you have like all your ancestors, like your great grandma, your great great grandma all like buried together. It's like your whole family tree.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw like that whole thing of my family and stuff. I saw my grandpa and grandma, they actually built like a temple in uh Campang Pet. That's like our hometown.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Uh it's like two, three hours above Bangkok, you know. But they built like a temple out there, you know. It's a small village town, but like they built a temple out there though. The people go there and stuff. So that was kind of crazy to me to see, you know. Yeah. And then my ex was also out there at the time and she was staying in Lampang.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

So she was staying in like the middle of the fucking jungle too, you know. So I stayed with her out there. There was like geckos and all kinds of crazy stuff. Oh yeah, I forgot about geckos, yeah. I f I forgot this is how everyone lives, like every day, you know. And she's like, I'm tripping over these lizards and stuff, and she's like used to it. I'm like, damn. But um, yeah, just going out there is my f it was my first time like experiencing and diving in there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:47

What was your favorite memory over there? Other than like the family aspect and seeing the legacy and seeing what they built.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

Uh I mean I went to Rolling Loud out there. Oh you did? But my best memories just like, you know, meeting up with like that was their their first rolling loud too, no? Yeah, yeah. They did it for like two, three years and then they brought it to India for some reason. I don't know why.

SPEAKER_03 35:10

Yeah. Cause Thailand is a great destination though, given it's a lot of people going to Thailand too.

unknown 35:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

And there's already a scene there too.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

Yeah, I mean they should keep it going. I just feel like there was um there was a good amount of Thai people who still went, you know, but it was like I still feel like it was so too expensive to the point where like a lot of Thai people didn't want to go still, you know, because it would like be too much for the US prize, yeah. Yeah, you know, so that kind of like and then they gave like the biggest Thai artists, some of them, like the smaller stage. Oh, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

Compared to like the American artist, huh?

SPEAKER_01 35:52

Yeah, so I I kinda like felt like, you know, some type of way about that. Yeah, you know, because I'm in the middle of like this this Thai shit now, you know, so it's like you know, I look at things different than how I would if I was at Rolling Loud out here, you know.

SPEAKER_02 36:07

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

But that was um still a great memory out there, you know, like seeing everything, but I was more just thinking about like the fact that they're even doing this in Thailand, you know, and I'm here to witness it, yeah. I'm trying to absorb and learn as much as I can, you know, while still have a good time.

SPEAKER_03 36:26

How do you feel like being like a Thai person or an Asian person in hip hop and like the dynamic of that, you know? Or even being a rapper?

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Um there's not a lot.

SPEAKER_03 36:37

There's not a lot of Asian rappers, like like can you think of any let alone like Thai rapper in America?

SPEAKER_01 36:46

Yeah, like like if there's there's stupid young out here, you know, he's he's big, he has song with Blue Face and and Polo G and a lot of artists. But and then there's you know like I like some of my friends, like Justin and them, you know, they're like doing big shows, you know, and they're pushing the culture, you know, but like mainstream compared to like some of the bigger bigger artists, you know, like there's not a lot of just full Asian artists, you know. You'll see people who are like half Asian, like what's his name? Joe G or something, yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn't he like half Asian or something like that?

SPEAKER_03 37:26

I think so.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

And like Bruno Mars and like um Anderson Pack, you know, they're all pretty.

SPEAKER_03 37:31

Bruno Mars is half Asian. I thought he's full Asian. He's his Filipino, no?

SPEAKER_01 37:36

He's Filipino and what? I thought he was mixed with something else, too.

SPEAKER_03 37:40

I don't know, but it's okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

But um I think Anderson Pack is mixed, you know. Like you don't see like a lot of like full Asian. I'm I'm not even full Asian, so I feel like I'm not even the perfect representative sometimes to be doing this, you know.

SPEAKER_03 37:56

But I think that just has to do with representation too, and you know, growing up in America in the valley, like you know, yeah, Asian folks don't always had the representation too.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

Yeah. I think a lot of people like gravitate to my music who like feel like they kind of look like look like me or something, you know. Like that's me too. When I saw rappers growing up, I'm like, oh, he kinda kinda looked like me. I see myself in his life.

SPEAKER_03 38:20

And who do you feel like other people that look like you?

SPEAKER_01 38:22

Like, cause you also look like people say I look like Central C. Oh yeah? Yeah, a lot of Thai people for some reason they're like, oh, you look like Central C I mean Central C is Asian.

SPEAKER_03 38:31

Yeah, I mean I think he's like I think they say he's Guyanese Chinese. Meaning like it's like you know how like have you ever met people from Panama but they're Korean? Like by blood, they're Korean, but they grew up in Panama. Like I think Central C dad is like that, like he's Asian, but he just grew up in I don't know what country Guyana is. I'm being ignorant right now, but you know what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

I thought that was in Africa. It is.

SPEAKER_03 38:58

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

It's I don't know, but it's it's uh it's a country with like Chinese people migrated to Africa.

SPEAKER_03 39:05

Yeah, like that there is Chinese Jamaican. Like, I don't know if you know that. There's Cambodian Jamaican, like I met a couple of them where like they just speak like Patois, I think it's Patois, yeah, but then and then they're just they're Cambodian. I mean, I mean there's a lot of that. I mean, you know, in the Caribbean, it's almost like yeah, it is you can even say the same with South America.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

That's that's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 39:27

But so so yeah, so I think like like a great example is like Sean Paul. Sean Paul is kind of like a central city where it's like I don't think like I think like blood-wise, I don't think his Jamaican that much Jamaican. That's what he looked like the way he looked, you know.

SPEAKER_01 39:45

Yeah, man. Yeah, you got my mind ready to be. That's crazy. So you can be anybody, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 39:52

So you're also representing for a lot of people, you know, and you you definitely represent the Thai identity too. So it don't really matter sometimes like how you look, but the culture that you embrace and you grew up, and it's not like you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

Is it I mean there's a lot of artists who like they don't want to make their culture, race, or something their identity, because they don't want it to put them in a box necessarily. But me it's like you know, I really want to represent it and do it in a way that's not corny, you know.

SPEAKER_03 40:24

Right, right. No, that's that's an important part, and I feel that.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

You know, and uh like I said, like so that's why I think if I'm don't fully feel like I'm the perfect voice to represent Thai people like that, sometimes, you know, I wanna get to a position one day or something where I could discover other Thai artists, you know, who are straight from Thailand, things like that. Give them a voice and give them like a opportunity to like put keep pushing the culture, you know.

SPEAKER_04 40:52

Right.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

Because I think there's an audience for it back in Thailand. You know. But a lot of like they say to go to the top top, like um you gotta just push them the music first, not the identity, you know, or something. So I'm trying to focus more on just more English music because a lot of our music if you listen to it, it's Thai too. Yeah. Even me, I don't that's not even my Thai is like my second language. And I don't I can't um yeah, I don't have any I can't give you any songs of mine that are like all English, you know, except for like one one I made. I made one song that was a banger with um my homie who's half Swiss, Switzerland, half Swiss, half Thai. Right. His name's Tino, and he's like a big rapper in Thailand too. I made my first like English solo single with him going back and forth, back and forth. Right. But that's the only one. Aside from that, I don't have any English song, just me.

SPEAKER_03 41:58

But who do you feel like is your target audience though? Are you trying to get people in Thailand? You're trying to get people here?

SPEAKER_01 42:03

Um I will I wanna we can't make progress for Thailand if we don't make progress out here.

SPEAKER_03 42:10

Ah, I see.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

You know, like because no one Thai has gone all the way except for like you know, Timothy De la Ghetto. Yeah, yeah, Timothy De la Ghetto. He's a big inspiration of me and what I do, you know, because he still represents the Thai culture. He goes to Wa Thai, everything. Oh, he does, but other cultures know him and respect him, you know.

SPEAKER_04 42:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

That's why I respect what you're doing from the valley too, and with your clothing brand and stuff too. And I thought you would understand more than most Thai friends I have, you know, because like one thing I wish more Thai people would do is like step get out of the especially Thai people in LA. Like I wish they would step out of their comfort zone more and hang out with other cultures more, you know, and just like be on other scenes and show your show face and other um scenarios and different like events and things like that, you know, like because I don't know, I don't know if they're afraid to or if it's something like that, or not uh or they're just more comfortable like with their own. But I'm even my own Thai homies, it's like you know, like let's go to a reggaeton show, you know, like talk to some sp Spanish girls, you know, like let's go like you're weird. Let's step out of you know, let's keep pushing the boundaries, you know. But as long as you're still representing Thai Thai culture, Thailand, who you are, and you're not forgetting who you are, you know, you could step into any room, any place, right, right wherever you go, you know. So I think that's what'll um make progress for like Thai people globally and stuff too, you know. Yeah, representation. And but it's important to like Yeah, to to branch out into others, other scenes and hang with other people, other cultures, other races.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

I feel like with Thai people there's too dynamic. You're either like just around Thai people or you're just by yourself. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, you're kind of like hit the by ourselves, you know. So we're kind of conditioned to like branch out. So then it's also hard to like, like now you're being a bridge, you know, for a lot of things. And I uh you know, and it's like because sometimes when you go to Thai people, they might just be like super Thai, and you're like, damn, you know, I can't I can't relate on everything, and then you go to other people, like they're like not Thai at all, you know. Not you get what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

And and disclaimer too, like I'm a lot of these perspectives I'm speaking on of Thai people in LA, it's like from my experiences with like deck titown and my homies and stuff, you know, and how I see like how the Thai Town people and stuff are, yeah. But yeah, I'm I'm I can't fully speak from their experience too, because like I I'm like you, you know. I'm used to being one of one of one, I guess.