Homepage_Takeover

0

0

Concerts / Events
,
Pictorials
Posted by mashimello0 pt Friday, November 12, 2010

Dumbfoundead and Clara Chung give 'A Voice for the Voiceless' + interview with Dumbfoundead

From the latest breaking news to the everyday in's and out's of your favorite idols' lives, we here at allkpop have all aspects of Korean pop culture covered--well, mainly from the motherland (South Korea). But what about North Korea? Have you ever fully thought about the major differences between the North and the South, despite being neighboring countries and the same people? When was the last time you've heard someone speak out about North Korea? Well, this past Sunday rising artists Dumbfoundead and Clara Chung performed at a benefit concert at the University of Southern California (USC) to give 'A Voice for the Voiceless'. Presented by LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) and Alpha Kappa Psi, USC hosted a benefit concert on November 7th called 'A Voice for the Voiceless' at their famous Bovard Auditorium. This concert was held "to raise awareness of the Second Holocaust in North Korea." Performers at this event included the school's very own dance teams Chaotic 3 and Break Through as well as an A Capella group called the Trojan Men. In addition, guest speakers Danny Lee ("a North Korean refugee saved through the Hundreds Campaign") and Justin Wheeler (Vice President of LiNK) spoke about the monstrosities of the oppressive government and what average students can do to help. But among all the performers, the spotlight fell on the aforementioned artists Dumbfoundead and Clara Chung. Dumbfoundead opened up the concert with some ingenious freestyle rapping. In addition he performed "Liquor Store Blues" which he sang with Quest Crew's Victor Kim in his Youtube video as well as other songs, such as "Up In The Air" and "She Don't Care". Meanwhile, Clara Chung performed her hit song "Offbeat" as well as other tracks--like "The Camel Song"--off her new album (which you can buy here). After the concert, we caught up with Dumbfoundead as he was meeting his fans. Luckily for us, we scored an exclusive interview with the up and coming artist just for you readers! He dished about his album that is currently in the works and also let us in on a movie that he worked on. Check it out below! Q: Why 'A Voice for the Voiceless'? What made you want to come out and support this cause? A: I've known about LiNK for awhile through PK who runs Kollaboration and who's been involved in LiNK for many years so he put me up on that when I was like 15~16. I think it's an important cause to come out�everybody knows about the North Korea situation�well, maybe not. Everybody doesn't. I think people know about it but they don't know the specifics. It's [tonight's] not even about us [Clara and I], it's really about the message. And if Clara and I can get people out here to watch us perform and also get information, I'm down for that. Q: We heard about your album that's in the works. It was supposed to come out in the summer but it didn't go as planned� A: I ended up shooting a film recently. It's going to be a feature film that's going to be released next year. I got lucky since I hooked up with a big director named Joseph Kahn who has done music videos for Eminem, Madonna, etc. He's doing is first feature film that he wrote and directed. He found me on Youtube and casted me as a part of it. So that delayed the album but I'm heavily working on it now and I'm trying to catch up with that. That should probably be coming out the end of this year or early next year. Q: Speaking of the movie, can you tell us what the movie's name is and what role you play? A: The movie's called "Detention" and I'm one of the students who goes through this crazy adventure�almost. Not an adventure exactly but there's a killer on the loose and I'm one of the students amongst many that tries to figure out who this killer is. Q: So, it's a thriller? A: It's not really. It's a comedy too. Q: Going back to the topic of your album, what can your fans expect from your latest album? A: The production is a lot bigger sounding, more musical and the hooks are more interesting. The topics are very honest. It's a lot more grown. Even though it sounds playful and fun, it's still very grown. People are going to be very shocked about some of the things I talk about in it. Q: We heard there's a lot of collaborations on this album. Can you expand on that? A: I'm doing a lot of collaborations with different people right now but it's [the album] only going to have a few collaborations. But I have a lot of songs that might not make the album that I want to give out for free which should be interesting. Q: You've recently released a new track called 'Respect 16's' which features huge hip hop names such as Mithra, Tablo, Dok2, MYK, Tiger JK, Bizzy, Rakaa, and Yankie. First of all, how was it working with all of them and what were your initial and current impressions on those artists? A: Well, half of them I've already worked with. The cats I haven't worked with are like Tiger JK and Yankie. But most of them I know. I've talked to Tiger JK plenty of times and we're really cool with each other. But I mean it's an honor, even with the first time I worked with Epik High on their last album and their last U.S. tour. It's always an honor just working with those guys. I'm never used to it. It's always an honor. And it was awesome just catching up with Tablo and Mithra. MYK is a good friend of mine and so is Dok2. We've all toured together. But I guess the biggest honor was working with Tiger JK because he's one dude I haven't worked with and I've looked up to him for awhile now. Q: Secondly, how would you describe each of those artists in one word? A: MYK soul, DOK2 swag, Yankie ill, Rakaa OG, Tablo genius, Mithra�soulful too, Bizzy raw�he's �got that drunken style�and Tiger JK is OG too. Q: And you rapped in Korean in that track� A: Yeah, it was my first attempt, so don't judge me. Q: I was actually surprised! A: I want to do more, I've just really got to get it down. I don't want to disrespect the language by coming in and making a joke out of it. I want to really represent well. I really worked hard on that [rap] even though it doesn't sound like it. Q: You started your Youtube musical career about 1.5 years ago. Can you tell what it has been like? A: I've actually been doing music since I was 15 years old and I started rapping since I was 14. I've been doing shows at colleges since I was 16~17 years old and I performed at USC when I was 17. I've been doing it for a long time. I started my Youtube a year ago and when I started that is when people really started knowing about me. There's so many talented musicians out there that people don't know about because they don't see them on Youtube. But Youtube is great because it's changed my whole career. As soon as I got on Youtube, people were like, "Who is this guy? How come I've never heard of him?" But the thing is, I've been around. It was just harder for me to reach people without using the internet. Q: In this past year alone, you released a single with Jay Park and Clara Chung, another single with legendary Korean hip hop artists, as well as performed all over the states and in the homeland Korea. What musical or other (i.e. acting) aspirations do you have for the upcoming year? A: It's going to be great because people are going to see my acting next year and I'm trying to go into more and more acting. I also want to put out a lot more music than I did this year. I did give out a lot of music this year but I want to double that next year. I also want to get signed to a major label next year since that's been a big goal of mine. Next year's going to be a big year, I promise you. And it's been an honor this year. I did the first collaboration with Jay in the states, which was the first of his solo collaborations that he's done. And Clara? Now she's out there touring and she's killing it! When I first met them, all of us weren't that huge. We still got a lot of work to do but it's definitely been a great year. I can't complain at all. Q: Closing out, are there any last words you want to say to our readers? A: I know there's a lot of K-pop cats out there but I think K-pop should include hip hop artists and so much more. We should make the K-pop term a little more wider, as genre goes. It should be anything in pop culture that's Korean related. I'm really trying to bridge the gap in the states. Check out Dumbfoundead's music here. To learn more about LiNK and how you can support the cause, visit here. And a big thank you to the event organizers for making this possible! [gallery] Photography: Michael Lee

  1. DUMBFOUNDEAD
  2. CLARA CHUNG
  3. LINK
0 5,662 Share Be the first to vote

allkpop in your Inbox

THE TOP 10 STORIES DELIVERED DAILY
PLAVE
3 hours ago   22   1,271
New Message

SEND