88rising brings contemporary Asian sounds, style to town
In its short existence, New Yorkbased mass media company 88rising has received global recognition for its approach to marketing the sounds of contemporary Asia to the world.
Pursuing the modern concept of being a label, production, video, management and marketing shop, the company founded by Sean Miyashiro and Jaeson Ma has helped break global hip-hop acts such as Rich Chigga, Keith Ape, Higher Brothers and Indonesian R&B artist Niki (a.k.a. Nicole Zefanya).
Make no mistake, this is not a company geared to supplying talent to the diaspora in North America. 88rising is all about breaking talented acts from China, Japan, Korea and beyond. The company appears to be moving from one viral hit to another with calculated ease.
“We’re a collective of Asians, generally, who are banded together to combat the representation of Asian artists in the media,” said Niki. “Yes, our audience is heavily weighted to people of Asian descent, but our audiences keep expanding because they relate to our music and respond to us.”
The explosion of K-pop into the mass market has certainly created a demand for a specific kind of clean, sugary, hook-laden music that everyone wants to stream. But Niki is an R&B artist with one foot in the classic smooth sound of the ’90s — her video for I Like U even includes Aaliyah and TLC posters on the bedroom wall — who was a rising Instagram personality back in Jakarta.
Now Niki’s touring North America on a bill that includes Rich Brian, Joji, Keith Ape, Higher Brothers, Kohh and Don Krez.
It’s a pretty packed and varied lineup.
“I will say that this collective was founded on Asian hip-hop and that was the original trajectory it was going to target and it did,” she said.
“My R&B and pop was something different, but there is a much wider range of sounds there now. As a member of the audience, I’d always prefer a bill with more versatility and I really feel that our shows provide it.”
Her slow jams and ballads fit perfectly in between the wildly manic rant/rap of South Korean rapper Keith Ape and Japan’s KOHH, whose style is right in line with radio’s trap hits. It’s a big world out there and hip hop and R&B, with some significant nods to reggae, are what the world hears. Rock ’n’ roll, not so much.
Niki says that the explosion of the music has also been accompanied by associated fashion. Asian streetwear is a big hit everywhere and her audience reflects it; there is an 88rising esthetic.
“I think so, I feel that there is a very urban/street look to a lot of people,” she said. “The fashion matches and reflects the music. Clothes make you feel good about yourself, right?”
The merchandise booths should be pretty busy as all the acts on the bill appear to have their own cool branding and unique style. Expect it to be reflected in the T-shirts.
Niki says that she’s been noticing how I Like U, Vintage and Warpaint have been the tunes in her set that have been getting the most powerful response. 88rising ’s Ollie Zhang says sourcing the artists began with Sean Miyashiro expanding his concept of bringing Asian rappers to a new audience.
“Before 88rising, Sean was managing Keith Ape and another Korean rapper Dumbfounded and he saw this small community of really amazing, talented artists that we could work with,” said Zhang.
“It’s grown mostly through contacts and community, very organically through recommendations and referrals. Over time, we progressed into this place where we are naturally.”
Mounting festivals in Los Angeles and other target markets, the brand built the capacity to take its roster on the road, finding solid audiences across the U.S., Canada and into China and elsewhere.
“L.A . ... , Chengdu in China where the Higher Brothers are from and both Korea and Japan have their own hip-hop cultures and histories,” he said.
“It may have started in North America, but it’s been around long enough for each city and country to develop its own history and styles and you don’t need to go to a specific Asian night to hear it anymore.
“There is amazing, enduring music coming out of those scenes and it’s not being made just for a specific group.”
The access provided to more music in general, and specific scenes, that comes part and parcel with the digital age enables the artists you see breaking in the 88rising camp to reach audiences that would have been very difficult to connect with in the past.
Zhang says that it’s very cool, very global and enables a business like 88rising to do a tour like it did in 2017, going to Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, and China. Many individual artists have broken into Europe and other areas of Asia.
“It’s taken a lot of work to get to this point, but we’re still at the beginning, I think,” said Zhang.