Aside from the Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait (The Whisper
Song),” Asian-Americans have been conspicuously absent from
the hip-hop scene.
Meet fourth-year Asian American studies and economics student
David “FD” Nguyen. He’s made it his life mission
to educate the world about the fact that not all fit in a
cookie-cutter mold.
Nguyen’s main method of getting his word out is the
renowned Aznraps.com ““ which has garnered shout-outs from
rappers, such as Jin during BET’s Freestyle Friday. Aznraps,
which Nguyen started when he was 16, began as a project to expand
on something he loved ““ hip-hop and rap music. Although he
had no real knowledge about how to create Web sites, he taught
himself through online tutorials and books.
But Nguyen was driven by more than just a passion for the
music.
“My father passed away when I was 15 or 16, which pushed
me to run this Web site,” Nguyen said. “These rappers
and hip-hop artists ““ Jay-Z, Kanye West ““ they’re
like my family; I grew up with them. At the time, there were some
Asian rappers that were coming out. I thought, “˜Why
don’t I make a site about Asian hip-hop
artists?'”
The popularity of the site grew over the last few years, until
it reached its current status as an Internet destination.
“At first, it was mostly my friends who visited the site
““ maybe 10 people a day,” Nguyen said. “Now, we
get a massive amount of hits. If there is a serious Asian rap
artist, they’ve come through Aznraps. We’re pretty much
a central spot.”
Danny Nguyen, the co-webmaster, graphic designer and
administrator of the Web site, has seen first-hand the work David
Nguyen has put into the site. Having worked for the site for the
last five years, Danny Nguyen believes that Aznraps.com would not
be where it was if its creator had not had such dedication from the
time of the site’s inception until now.
“When he first started the site, he did it all by
himself,” Danny Nguyen said. “David has shown so much
motivation and dedication. He’s added a lot of artists over
time, helping them gain exposure though the message boards and by
posting them on the front page.”
Although the Web site started as a simple project to share his
love for music, David Nguyen found a new mission ““ to change
the portrayal of Asians in the media. Sick of how Asians were often
typecast as “joke characters,” such as the Chinese guy
who runs a grocery store, David Nguyen kept working on Aznraps in
order to show the world that Asians are not just what the media
portrays them to be.
“When I just started, I just wanted to be a
producer/rapper, get lots of girls, whatever,” he said.
“But as I grew up and went to college, I learned more about
the portrayal of Asian Americans in the media and decided I want to
take that on.
“Asian Americans in the mainstream are misrepresented. The
way it is right now, the men are emasculate males who know karate,
females are exoticised as sex objects. They portray (Asians) as
geeks, nerds. I mean, you can say some of us are nerdy. But there
are urban people, there are rich people, there are poor people.
Asian Americans are just as American as the next white person, the
next black person.”
Nguyen thinks that one area where Asians can truly succeed in
breaking these stereotypes is in hip-hop. They just need help to
get their word out.
“With hip-hop, (Asians) are actually cool; we actually
have a better image,” he said. “Through hip-hop, we
want to be known as regular Americans and not overseas foreigners.
If you give the music a listen, you realize they have a lot of
talent. There are a number of Asian American artists who are
respected by a lot of the bigger-name underground hip-hop artists,
but they haven’t broken out into the mainstream.”
Also motivating Nguyen to continue with his work is the lack of
Asian American role models today. Although he looks up to many
people, he finds the lack of Asian American pioneers
disturbing.
“There aren’t many Asian Americans that are
glorified as heroes in America,” he said. “To say the
least, I admire and look up to many different people who have done
great things, people who have taken a stance and worked hard at
what they believed in. These include people like Malcolm X, Howard
Hughes, Kanye West, etc.”
Eventually, Nguyen also wants to be a role model people will
look up to. He has taken on other projects besides Aznraps, such as
interning for Interscope Records under publicist Greg Miller.
Recently, Nguyen has been running publicity for rapper Chan, whose
recent music video was voted to be the first music video to be
played on MTV Chi, MTV’s new station for Asian artists.
“I want to be a producer, I want to own the label,”
Nguyen said. “I want to be a mogul. I want to have a clothing
line, films, whatever I can get my hands on. That’s what
I’d like to do for myself.”
UCLA student and professor profiles will run every Tuesday
in A&E.