“We’re Asian as fuck,” laughs Sean Miyashiro. As the founder of 88rising, the ex-Thump head and Bay Area native of Japanese and Korean descent has set his aim on promoting Asian cultures worldwide, primarily through music. The management and media production company’s core artists are hard-hitting rappers out to obliterate expectations set by hyper-polished K-pop stars.
There’s fast-rising Indonesian trap teen Rich Chigga, whose viral “Dat $tick” video used his unassuming appearance to subvert Asian nerd stereotypes and reveal a menacing flow in the process; Keith Ape, whose Korean-Japanese posse cut “It G Ma” garnered millions more views on its own than the A$AP Ferg-featuring remix used on “Atlanta”; and Higher Brothers, the Chinese rap group whose tough-talking bars are impossible to lose in translation. 88rising also recently started moving outside of hip-hop, teaming up with laid-back, lo-fi dance acts like singer joji and GODMODE-signed producer Yaeji for various projects, mostly highly stylized videos.
“A lot of people are wondering, ‘What is 88rising, exactly? Is it a YouTube channel? Is it a management company? Is it a record label?’’ Miyashiro says from behind large mirrored sunglasses. “It’s actually everything. Our general ethos is that we want to push this shit forward. It’s not like, ‘Hey, we’re trying to change people’s perceptions of Asians.’ We’re just doing it by being alive.”
Their approach seems to be working, too, with mainstream success starting to come. Over the past few months, Rich Chigga has scored features with Skrillex and Diplo, who just this week used Chigga to replace Justin Bieber on a new version of “Bankroll.” The 88rising crew also recently linked up with the esteemed party broadcasters Boiler Room, with more cross-genre collabs to come.
“There’s some fly Asian shit out there, but no one can tangibly give you an example,” Miyashiro says. “That’s insane, when you’re talking about fucking two billion people, and people in the West can’t be like, ‘That’s fucking dope.’”
Lounging in the dripping-with-marble multipurpose room of his Upper East Side apartment building, Miyashiro recently spoke to Pitchfork about Asian representation in hip-hop and beyond.
Sean Miyashiro, 88rising founder. (Photo by Isha Walla)
Pitchfork: How did you come to start 88rising?
Sean Miyashiro: I was in the Bay Area my whole life, and I was going to SXSW every year. One year, I just went with my luggage and never came back. I just went straight to New York from Austin. I didn’t know shit here, I was living rough, it was pretty wild. Basically, electronic music was really popping at the time, and I started this company [Recreation], which managed a bunch of electronic artists. From there, I launched this content platform with VICE called Thump, working there for like two and a half years. The electronic music shit is cool, but it wasn’t my passion. I was like, “Dude, I’m going to do the same thing I did with VICE for Asian culture.” I think this is our time now. Not just Asian people, but cross-cultural appreciation generally and recognizing what each ethnicity has to offer in terms of inspiration distinctive to its culture.
In terms of Asian artists, obviously that includes a ton of different identities. How do you decide what fits into 88rising’s purview?
We never want to be preachy, like “Yo, Asian shit is tight.” A lot of people are like, “Yo, where’s the Filipino shit?” and all that stuff. Real talk, from a music perspective, if I don’t fuck with it, just ‘cause it’s from the Philippines, I’m not gonna put it up. I think that 1000 percent of the time, the music needs to be good. There needs to be something there, or it becomes more of a marketing gimmick. The Higher Brothers came to us, and I was like, this is the first time I’ve ever heard Chinese rap sound good in my life. At the end of the day, we have to put out shit that we love.
Are you ever concerned about marketing your artists, when there haven’t been many precedents in the American mainstream?
I think that’s a good thing. Not having precedents in history is the opportunity—that’s what excites me. If this had happened before, I wouldn’t be as excited, because we’re not the ones doing it. I think we’re the ones the world had been waiting for—a wavy group of Asians combining like we’re Voltron or some shit. There’s a lot of people who don’t get it. Right now, there’s a certain POV for our shit, but as we grow, hopefully we can make something appeals to people who might not really be feeling it right now.
After someone like Rich Chigga or Keith Ape has a viral hit, how do you keep the momentum going?
If everybody had that answer, then everybody would be fucking living like Puff Daddy, right? Our creative process, especially with Rich, is that we all work together. He comes up with the song ideas, sonically what he’s looking for, and we get the right producers—it’s a rolling thing. I think the next step with these guys, versus just having one song, is that there needs to be a cohesive body of work they’re actively working towards. I manage all these artists, but I don’t look at myself as a manager—I look at myself as a creative collaborator.
What’s next?
People in Asia are starting to really take notice of what we’re doing, in China and Korea and Japan, and they’re really appreciative of us bridging both continents. Now a lot of American artists that we grew up liking are collaborating with us to learn how to get over there. They don’t know how to get fans in the market or go there physically for a tour. I was just with Migos, and I was showing them some of the collaborations we put together, and they were like, “Why the fuck are you showing us what you’ve done for everyone else? When are we going to get to do that?” I’m like, “Dude, let’s do it. The first thing you should do is create a song with someone who’s creatively of the same mind, but will also make an impact over there.”
We brought Skrillex to Korea—he hit us up and was like, “Yo, I want to fucking create for four days.” We have a whole documentary of us creating in Korea [a preview of which can be seen below]. He’s working with underground motherfuckers to the biggest pop stars. That’s a good testament to where we play into this whole creative kingdom—we help facilitate, as well as create ourselves. That’s why I think in the past, no Asian company or crew has been successful globally unless it was part of a large corporate company, like Psy or some shit like that—some gimmick. It didn’t last, and it was obviously because it was funny. In terms of real culture, there’s been no crew doing what we’re doing, period. Now we have a responsibility to make this something that is tangible and long-lasting.