Chiropractor makes another run at hip-hop stardom
Stephen Jung knew he had “it” while riding the bus to high school basketball games.
And we’re not talking about the swagger that comes from crossing over some defender on his way to the rim.
No, “it” had less to do with Jung’s skill on the basketball court and more with his linguistic dexterity. While traveling to games, Jung would hold his own during freestyle rap sessions on the bus, even wowing his teammates on the Dulles High School junior varsity squad with the quick wit and word play he built rhymes around.
“Back then is what ignited the fire,” he says about his hip-hop biography.
Jung was eventually cut from this JV squad, but he didn’t stop rapping. He built on the music to get his first independent record deal, relied on it when he decided against his mother’s better advice to pursue a career as a rapper and now shows it off once a year at the Korean Festival Houston, which takes over Discovery Green on Saturday. The music dreams haven’t faded, but
“I’m not hood, but people always tell me that I am.” Stephen Jung
these days Jung, whose rap persona is J.U. (an acronym for Just Underestimated), is happy to be the guy some of Houston’s top rappers go to for their back pain.
“Slim Thug and E.S.G, those were the two main people I opened up for in 2009 and now I treat them,” says Jung, a chiropractor whose client list includes NFL players, professional wrestlers, and, of course, local hiphop kings like Paul Wall.
As a chiropractor at a successful sports medicine clinic on the northside of Houston, Jung is able to display all the wealth you’d expect from a rapper — the glitz, the jewelry. But his swag, his hip-hop style — he had that long before he was cashing checks; it was something he developed on his own.
You can see Jung in action in one of the few music videos he made during his big push to become a professional rapper. On “Hold It Down,” he’s standing against the Houston skyline in a crisp white T-shirt, his hat to the back, with a gold “Jesus piece” swinging from his neck.
“My parents were pretty well-off, and I was a spoiled kid,” Jung admits about growing up in Houston’s lush suburbs. “I’m not hood, but people always tell me that I am.”
The son of immigrants from South Korea, Jung was born in 1984, a great year for hip-hop. Run-DMC was ripping
through the nation and groups like the Fat Boys were beatboxing their way to the airwaves. Jung claims he was into the music since he was in his mother’s womb.
He developed an interest in entertaining and rapping at a young age. And, thanks to a 7 p.m. curfew, he spent his teenage years in his room blasting Korean and U.S. hip-hop music while holding a rap magazine rolled up in his palm and rapping into his mirror.
“To this day my dad doesn’t know that I rap at all,” he says laughing, later admitting to not having the closest relationship to his dad.
As one of the founders of Seoul Baptist Church, one of the largest Christian Korean congregations in Houston, the elder Jung might not have approved of his son rapping and shooting music videos full of B-Boy posturing, but he probably would be fine with the lyrical content, which eschews foul language and, at times, includes Christian conscious themes.
Jung’s mother supported her only child’s interest in rap, but she always encouraged him to have a backup plan and focus on a path that would guarantee a comfortable life — becoming a doctor.
“My mom is like the homey,” he says. She would help him sneak out of the house after curfew and supported his interest in becoming an entertainer.
When Jung didn’t make it into medical school after graduating the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in biology, he went full force toward a rap career. He had some results, but no major success.
He says he could have gone to South Korea to become a hip-hop star. A cousin, Choi Min-Soo, is a Korean actor who, Jung says, is like the George Clooney of that country. “But my parents wouldn’t have been OK with me moving to Korea,” he says.
Back in Texas, a contact in the Austin club scene scored him opening sets for some of the area’s best-known talent, but after his first mixtape was released, Jung decided he needed another plan.
That’s when a friend started talking to him about sports medicine. Eventually he went to Texas Chiropractor College in Pasadena, planning to leave music behind him. He graduated in 2014.
Jung put his microphone down for a few years, until his friend and co-worker Tony Tran began treating retired Texan Arian Foster, who was also friends with many of Houston’s top rappers.
Thanks to Tran, Jung started to become reacquainted with hip-hop performers. One of those regular clinic clients happened to be E.S.G., the Screwed Up Click member who embraced Jung for his rap skills from day one.
“I had seen a video a while back, he was a little chubbier then, I didn’t even know that was him,” E.S.G. says. “Once I started playing some beats for him, he started freestyling one day when I was (at the clinic) getting work done. I know one thing in this world and that’s music. I told him he has to come out of retirement, he’s too young to be retired.” Jung agreed. “I did miss it,” he says. “Being around them made me feel like I could do it too.”
When Jung performs, there are elements of Houston’s hip-hop scene in his sound. A quick-fire melodic pitter patter delivery is part of his style, reminiscent of some of his favorite rap acts, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Chamillionare. It’s a laidback Southern delivery placed over spongy beats.
Jung’s latest goal for his music is to put together a new mixtape. He’s been hard at work on new tracks in his recording studio inside his Galleria home.
Other than videos, rap show segments or other bedroom-rapping videos posted on Youtube, it’s tough to find any of Jung’s material online. His first mixtape, “Just Underestimated Vol. 1,” was released on iTunes, SoundCloud and his Myspace page in 2009, it contained seven tracks. It didn’t last long, though.
“I had to pull everything offline; some guy from Canada said I was using his name,” Jung says.
Still, regardless of what name it’s released under, Jung says there should be some new music making its way to release. “I hope to have something out before the end of the year.”