Asian hip hop is a heterogeneous musical genre that covers all hip hop music as recorded and produced by artists of Asian origin.
1980s Philippines
The Philippines is known to have had the first hip-hop music scene in Asia since the early 1980s, largely due to the country's historical connections with the United States The intimate relationship between hip-hop culture and the large Filipino American community along the United States West Coast naturally resulted in the exportation of rap music back to the Philippines. Numerous cassette tapes, videos, books and magazines concerning hip hop issues and popular rap artists would be sent out by Filipinos to family members back in the islands.
The towns and barrios surrounding the numerous American military bases that were scattered throughout that country such as Clark Air Base in Angeles City and Subic Bay Naval Base in Olongapo were among the earliest to be exposed to the culture; as contact with African-American, Filipino American and Latino servicemen resulted in some of the earliest exposure the locals had to the new musical genre.
In 1980, singer and stand-up comedian Dyords Javier would record "Na Onseng Delight", and Vincent Dafalong "Ispraken Delight". They are known to be the first rap records from Asia.
Hip hop films such as Wild Style (1982), Breakin' (1984) and Krush Groove (1985) were also major influences; and as early as 1982 local break-dancing crews were starting to emerge. Local parks and malls in and around the Metro Manila area became mainstays and training grounds for future recording artists.
Taiwan
The first Mandarin rap song was done by singer-songwriter Harlem Yu in Taiwan, who is known for being one of the first artists to experiment with R&B and rap in the Mandopop music industry, in the early '80s which was parallel to the early New York '80s rap songs.
Japan
In Japan, early hip-hop was not led by corporate interests, but rather was largely ignored by large record companies and performance venues. The first known Japanese group to experiment with hip hop was Yellow Magic Orchestra, which created an early electro hip hop track, "Rap Phenomena", for their 1981 album BGM. In turn, the synthpop and electro music of Yellow Magic Orchestra and Ryuichi Sakamoto, and their use of the Roland TR-808 drum machine, had a significant influence on early key American hip hop figures such as Afrika Bambaataa and Mantronix.
Like the Philippines, with the arrival of hip hop films came a generation of break-dancers, b-boys, Deejays, and training grounds for future recording artist. Street musicians began to breakdance in Yoyogi Park, including DJ Krush who has become a world-renowned DJ after arising from the Yoyogi Park scene. In 1986 an all hip hop club opened in Shibuya.
Malaysia
The arrival of hip hop films in Malaysia, started the emergence of the genre. The biggest local movie of 1984 Azura had a breakdancing scene in it. It spawned some local B-Boys and B-Girls but the development of the hip hop scene as a whole wouldn't happen until much later.
In 1989, DJ and owner of Valentine Sound Production, Joe Siva began with KL deejay/rap-based group Krash Kozz, who went on to be the first major hip hop act of Malaysia.
United States
Fresh Kid Ice of 2 Live Crew 1984 to 2017
In the meantime (1984) in the US, three members of the U.S. Air Force, while stationed at March Air Force Base in Riverside, California, formed the rap group 2 Live Crew known to have popularized Miami Bass, a subgenre of hip hop music. This included the DJ David "Mr. Mixx" Hobbs, and two rappers Yuri "Amazing Vee" Vielot, and Christopher Fresh Kid Ice Wong Won (1964-2017). Wong won would become known as the first Asian rapper, his ethnicity is Afrochinese, his family is mostly from Hong Kong and both of his grandmothers were African. In many of his raps, he gave himself the nickname Chinaman.
After releasing a successful independent single, the group caught the attention of a Florida-based music promoter and DJ named Luther Campbell invited the group to work with him there. Vielot would quit the group shortly after. They then released the lyrically sexually charged single called "Throw The D" in January 1986 gave a permanent blueprint to how future Miami bass songs were written and produced. At the time Fresh Kid Ice was the only MC in the group and featured on the track. The fact that he was alone made him the first Miami Bass Rapper. It is rumored that he coined the term Miami Bass as well. Shortly after, Campbell would join the group as the hype man and Brother Marquis took over Amazing Vee's place.
The 2 Live Crew's debut album The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are (1986), and their second Move Somethin' (1988) both went Gold and were comedic albums with sexually explicit lyrics. Fresh Kid Ice and his group mate became American rap superstars of that area.
The group became notorious, influential, and legendary in 1989 with their third album As Nasty As They Wanna Be, along with its hit single "Me So Horny", proved more controversial still, leading to legal troubles getting obscenity charges for both 2 Live Crew and retailers selling the album (all charges were eventually overturned on appeal in the 1990s). The controversy lead to the album going double platinum.
Fresh Kid Ice, would make two more best selling albums with 2 Live Crew before disbanding in 1991. In 1992, he made his first solo album The Chinaman is the first American hip hop album to embrace an Asian heritage. It inverts Asian stereotypes into prideful declarations of self-identity. On the Billboard 200, it peaked at #38 and stayed two weeks on the Heatseekers Albums, and was #56 for ten weeks on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
Various reunions of the 2 Live Crew would occur. All the albums produced from that point would chart, but all them would have one or two members of the original line up missing, however Fresh Kid Ice was the only one always present until the last official 2 Live Crew album The Real One in 1998.
In the early 2000s, Fresh Kid Ice released three albums Still Nasty (2000), Stop Playin''' (2003), and Freaky Chinese (2004). Due to the graphic sexual nature of his lyrics, his music video could only be played on BET Uncut. Freaky Chinese is noted to be the first album where Flo Rida performed, whom he discovered and hired on to be his hypeman.
Circa 2006–2007 Fresh Kid Ice and Brother Marquis decided to relaunch 2 Live Crew. They toured together and released many singles. Fresh Kid ice would leave 2 Live Crew in 2016, and died in 2017 due to health issues.
Korea
In Korea, following the end of authoritarian military rule in Korea, the loosening of state censorship of popular music in the late 1980s and the arrival of 1988 Seoul Olympics brought global musical styles like hip hop, rap, and rhythm and blues through the Korean diaspora. Rock musician Hong Seo-beom's 1989 song about a 19th-century Korean poet, "Kim Sat-gat," is credited as being the first Korean pop song to contain rapping.
Burma (Myanmar)
The Burmese hip hop scene started in the lately 1980s with the famous rapper Myo Kyawt Myaing. His songs were more like plain rapping music rather than stereotypical hip hop. However between him and the next generation there would be a long gap.
1990s Philippines to present day
In August 1990, Francis Magalona made his hit debut album, Yo!, known to be the first commercially released rap album in the country. Later in that same year, Andrew E also released his debut album, "Humanap Ka Ng Panget", known for its novelty hits. Bass Rhyme Posse would release their self-titled debut album on VIVA Records in 1991, and which spanned cult hits.
1992 marked a turning point for Pinoy rap with the release of Francis Magalona's influential second album, Rap Is Francis M, which is regarded as one of the greatest Pinoy rap albums. Ushering in a socially awoken wave, he would go on to make six more albums throughout the decade.
In 1993, Death Threat who are known to be the fathers of the gangsta rap subgenre in the Philippines, released their debut Death Threat:Gusto kong Bumaet and would make five more albums through this decade.
From that point many local charting artist would emerge these include Gloc-9, Lyrical Assault, and many more.
Taiwan cont.
L.A. Boyz is a Taiwanese pop/rap group composed of 2 brothers, and their cousin. They were raised in Irvine, California and met at its University High School. They first became involved in music through their interest in hip-hop dance moves learnt from parties around Orange County and Los Angeles, and fashion from Compton and South-Central LA. Their dancing, and entry into various competitions, eventually led them to be scouted by a representative of Pony Canyon, in Taiwan. They released 10 albums starting from their first “SHIAM! 閃” selling more than 130,000 copies in 1992. Their second album, released in the same year, was similarly received. The group was very successful in the 1990s until their break-up. They are credited for starting the trend that would spreads into Taiwan and the rest of the Mandarin speaking world.
Japan 1990s to present day
By the early 1990s major American artist started to tour and their release saw the light in Japan.
The years 1994 and 1995, marked the beginning of hip-hop's commercial success in Japan. The first hit was Schadaraparr's "Kon'ya wa būgi bakku" (Boogie Back Tonight) by Scha Dara Parr and Ozawa Kenji, followed by East End X Yuri's "Da. Yo. Ne." and "Maicca," which each sold a million copies. This sudden popularity of J-rap, which was largely characterized as party rap, sparked a debate over 'realness' and authenticity between commercial and underground hip-hop artists.
From 2000 on, the hip hop scene in Japan has grown and diversified. Hip-hop style and Japanese rap has been enormously commercially successful in Japan. In a 2003 interview with the BBC, Tokyo record-store owner, Hideaki Tamura noted "Japanese hip-hop really exploded in the last two, three years. I never thought there would be a time when Japanese records could outsell American ones but it's happening." Additionally, a huge number of new scenes have developed. These include "rock rap to hard core gangsta, spoken word/poetry, to conscious, old school, techno rap, antigovernment, pro-marijuana, heavymetal-sampled rap, and so on.”
Tamura points to a shift in Japanese hip hop, when artists began to focus on issues pertinent to Japanese society, versus previous styles and subjects that were copied from US hip hop culture. For Japan, the style of hip hop was much more appealing than topics popular in American hip hop, such as violence. Ian Condry, on the other hand, focuses on an interplay between local and global hip hop within the genba of Japan. For Condry, Japanese hip hop was born out of simultaneous localization and globalization of hip hop culture, rather than a shift between the two binary factors.Condry, Ian. Hip Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006
Malaysia cont. 1990s to present day In 1990, Krash Kozz, releasing the group's debut Pump It!. With their mix of New Jack Swing melodies and Run DMC-influenced rap, Krash Kozz became a sensation in their home country, and even managed to chart on the Asia Billboard charts, one of the first Asian hip hop acts to do so. Siva later joined the group as their DJ.
From that point many local charting artist would emerge these include KRU, K-Town Clan, Chakra Sonic, Poetic Ammo, Mizz Nina, Too Phat, and many more.
US cont. Turntablists
By the 1990s, hip hop turntablists of Filipino descent came to prominence this include DJ Qbert, Mix Master Mike, and the Invisibl Skratch Piklz. as well as the inventions of the "crab scratch", "tweak scratch", "strobing", and furthering the development of "flare scratching".
apl.de.ap of The Black Eyed Peas 1992 to present day