![]() From Tibetan sounds to Japanese sounds to monastery sounds and Malaysia. You call your music “oriental trap” music. I guess it wasn’t really one thing, except when I started to switch over, it felt right and I knew it was something that if I went for it, I could built off that. They are hanging out with my grandfather, my cousins. I thought this was the best way for them to understand who I am. I really wanted to show them where I was from. ![]() The more I tried to tap into the other side-the Chinese side-this last two years, I’ve been back to China like five times. It is also a part of my journey to today. The more comfortable I felt about it, and the more I started thinking about this identity thing, the more I started accepting this other side of me without neglecting this Western side of me. I took a lot of pride in that, and I built off that. It just made me feel like I was achieving something-whether I was getting paid or getting more recognition, I’m doing something that’s unique. What made you comfortable to rap in Chinese? You took X Years off the internet because you felt it wasn’t the best representation of you. He was the one at the time-even though I ended up sounding like him for a bit-he was the one that kept me interested and kept me going. After coming into New York and realizing, ‘Wow, I’m going to be a small fish in a huge pond right now,’ that was so discouraging. I bet if I met him today, he will still recognize me, because I still have the same haircut. I still have a picture of me dapping him up, and he was looking at me. Cole or Die Tryin’.” I showed up to his first album signing with the shirt, Rap With J. When I got to New York, it was very much about English rhymes for me. Why do you embrace your ethnicity in your music? You’ve become the rapper who will rap in English and Mandarin and that’s very unique. Pre-order buy pre-order buy you own this wishlist in wishlist go to album go to track go to album go to track We spoke with him about embracing his ethnicity in his music, the making of Jala, and how he plans to be vocal during Donald Trump’s presidency. He’s ready to connect with his heritage again, this time as an adult, delving deeper into China’s musical history for inspiration. Phoenix plans on moving back to China this June to be closer to his family. There’s nothing I can do to change his mind.’ So let’s just be harmonious.” “The more I kept persisting, just realized, ‘Oh, maybe he’s so serious about this. But despite this success, his parents were initially skeptical of his decision to pursue music. His journey to full-fledged rapper is well-begun he works amateur nights at the Apollo, and has released a steady stream of EPs online. Now 24, Phoenix’s music has moved from lyrically dense records to more experimental territory, adding both modern trap beats and Asian instruments for an international flair. He’s also wearing a gold Death Row Records chain, which matches a gold earring his aunt gave him. He later got into 2Pac’s work after hearing Eminem was a fan-so much so that later, in his LoveLove Studios downstairs, he pulls up his shirt to reveal a rework of ‘Pac’s AK-47 tattoo with “LoveLove” written over it. Very unaware, but very obsessed,” he says. He memorized the rapper’s catalogue up until Encore, imitating him word for word. He became infatuated with Eminem-the source of his love of hip-hop-after watching 8 Mile. “I was doing martial arts in Chinatown for six years, because my stepfather wanted me to have a community of my own,” Phoenix tells us on a snowy afternoon in February.Īs a child, Phoenix honed his English watching Western television. ![]() His stepfather, who is Swedish, eased him into his new environment by enrolling him in an ESL program at Bigelow Middle School, but he also wanted him to stay involved in activities that connected him to his homeland. It’s a theme that appears throughout his new EP, Jala (加辣), where he interweaves English and Mandarin flows over Eastern-tinged instrumentals by Jachary, Howie Lee, and others.īorn Bohan Leng and raised in Hubei (湖北), Phoenix immigrated to America when he was 11 years old to live with his mother, who left her job working real estate in Shenzhen (深圳) for an assistant job in bioengineering in Newton, Massachusetts, in 2003. Indeed, the duality of Phoenix’s Chinese-American upbringing is the centerpiece of both his life and music. It’s a friend’s drawing of the Chinese and American flags, split horizontally, with the colors of the stars switched: China’s five golden stars are replaced with white, and the 50 white stars on the American flag are colored in yellow. The living room in Bohan Phoenix’s Bushwick apartment, which he shares with a number of creatives including his longtime producer Zachary Levine-Caleb (better known as Jachary), features a piece of art that unites Chinese and American culture.
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