Dec 24, 2025
🎶🎶❤️🎶🎶
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from Canada
seen from China
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from T1
seen from Yemen
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Australia
seen from Poland
seen from United States
seen from China
🎶🎶❤️🎶🎶
I'm from America, Land of the free, of opportunity But some stuck in the past, clutching what used to be The gun community 2nd amendment constitutionally You got the right presumably But who gets to write the eulogy You and me, do you see, the little girl's head Painted with red, blown to bits from stray bullets that Sprayed from a shotgun out a Datsun, kid riding shotgun Yells "Toss em!'" before the cops come Meanwhile, a lunatic in the meat aisle Reveals a gun hiding in his leather jacket lining Firing in silence cause his boss fired him for not trying Now the innocent are dying The NRA are they crying? Do guns promote violence? Let's talk it over a frozen yogurt with caramel coating While victims eyelids are closing Blood stains their clothing And gun sales are soaring This is America (Land of the free)
Listen/purchase: Vinyl Love (24 bit hi-res) by Kero One
This is a vibe!
Kero One - In All the Wrong Places
View On WordPress
Kero One: In All the Wrong Places
The genres of rap and hip-hop are undeniably the creation of, and dominated by, African-American culture. Of course, when something created in a single community grows in popularity, it explodes into the mainstream. It is a form of expression, not limited by nationality or ethnicity, race or creed. It is music, which transcends these insignificant mortal barriers. Vibrations in the air. However, due to preconceived notions that rap and hip-hop are solely black owned, it can be hard for up-and coming artists, such as the Korean-American Kero One, to be recognized. The Asian side of rap and hip-hop is often times ignored or even laughed at. And yet, despite it all, Kero One brings something fresh to the scene.
Through a fusion of jazz and hip-hop elements, Kero creates a unique blend that stands out. Originally flourishing in Asian countries, where it was easier to get noticed, his transition to the Western scene was a rocky one. Indie artists were a lot harder to be heard in the US when Kero dropped his first EP, Check the Blueprint, in 2003, pre-mainstream internet. His career took off in Japan, but dived underground in the West. "I thought I could bring in a different element to the game, but I was still somewhat unsure because who was I in the world of Hip-Hop? An Asian kid without industry connections. I had a few obstacles to climb." The obstacles, though mountainous, were not insurmountable. When Kero began his career in the early 2000s, he was one of very few Korean producers in the US. After his 2003 EP, he released his first album Windmills of the Soul in 2006. This album cemented his role as a pioneer of jazz-hop, and the iconic track, "In All the Wrong Places" served as a good starting point.
Kero even details his life through his work. The track "My Story" details his life growing up on the West coast skateboarding and causing trouble. His passion for the art of writing music, against the grain of others dissuading him. It paints a perfect picture of his uphill battle: “For my generation, hip-hop was a secret art form.” Kero recalls in an interview. With the advent of the internet, and by extension, the flourishing of Asian culture in the West, Kero had a chance to really shine: "I think people float on trends, but I think the main difference is where the trend comes from. In some places that trend only comes from the mainstream outlets. In other places, such as Japan, the trends come from the underground communities and tastemakers. I think in the past America’s been more receptive to mainstream culture, but who knows what it’s like now with the internet and all." Kero went on to remark, "Times are different now, and the explosion in asian artists is quite amazing to see."
While you may have never heard of Kero by name before, he is as high-influence as he is low-key, which empowers him to navigate an album release strategy that is simultaneously global and no-frills. In addition to his iconic jazz-hop vibes, when Kero first started promoting shows in Little Tokyo, artists from Just Blaze (a producer boasting prolific credits with Jay Z, Beyoncé and Kanye West) to Mixed by Ali (Kendrick Lamar’s tour DJ and Top Dawg Entertainment’s in-house mixing engineer) came through his doors to perform; he later played live alongside Stevie Wonder and received a personalized, public video of praise from will.i.am. Yet, the rapper still has approximately 120,000 subscribers across Spotify, SoundCloud and YouTube, and over 113,000 followers across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram—a modest number by mainstream standards.
Kero can more than likely thank the mainstream popularity of Asian culture picking up in the United States for kickstarting his popularity in the West. While East Asian countries like Japan and Korea have strong underground scenes, as Kero said, American culture is often dominated by the mainstream. However, more Asian-Americans are adopting the genre, and through the internet, hip-hop is really expressing itself through many different avenues. The contemporary net has been a massive boon in spreading the jazz-hop influences that Kero was making in the before times. Even overseas the hip-hop scene is bumping: "Especially as hip-hop develops in Asian countries and a new generation of Asian-Americans starts adopting hip-hop culture, there will be more. Some of the illest hip-hop production to me is coming out of Korea and Japan right now." The tunes had been waiting the whole time, we just needed to look in all the wrong places.
Thanks for reading.
-G
Sources: https://www.rapreviews.com/2009/05/kero-one-interview/ https://thefindmag.com/features/hip-hop-interviews/interview-kero-one/ https://www.tunecore.com/blog/2015/12/interview-kero-one-discusses-diy-hip-hop-new-album.html https://www.forbes.com/sites/cheriehu/2017/07/21/inside-kero-azures-old-school-new-blueprint-trans-pacific-vision-of-indie-rap/?sh=51910372eed2 https://oishii-desu.com/2020/10/10/kero-one-from-underground-hip-hop-clubs-in-japan-to-25-million-viewed-videos/
