September 8, 2020 • 31 mins
Growing up in a racially diverse Los Angeles, Dumboundead (Jonathan Park) found his way into the spotlight as a child actor and then his voice as a battle rapper, shredding the competition on the streets of LA as the only Asian emcee on the scene. After becoming one of the most famous Asian rappers in the world, Dumbfoundead has expanded his career into the worlds of podcasting, acting, stand-up and as an all-around creative. He and Esther talk about where he finds inspiration, how he's distinguished himself in his career, and what people expect from Korean American artists.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Kaya Beecham is not like a everyday thing, you know
what I'm saying. It's like special occasion. It has a
little bit of royalty to it, you know, like it's
an event, you know. But I always considered it to
be one of the more bougier kind of dishes in
Korean b Like, no one really grew up eating this.
It's expensive and I don't really be cooking like that,
so is it. It takes a minute to like make this.
(00:23):
It takes a while to make this, like three hours
for you. Thank you. What an amazing podcast. I could
have like bought it, you know, this is the thing.
I could have bought the kaypee gym and just brought it. Yeah,
but there's nothing I like connecting with my guests, and
that's that's why I cook. Welcome to get down with
kay Town. I'm your host esther Choy. Hey guys, So
(00:45):
today we have someone that I had admired from afar.
One of the most significant pioneers in the Korean hip
hop scene, rapper and actor Jonathan park A k mostly
known as Dumbfounded. So what do people call you? Do?
They call you my mom since a young age has
called me dumb, but not because I didn't nickname just
(01:05):
a dumb no no, Um, well yeah, they just called
me John or dumb. Okay, because I was actually going
to say, does you like mom called you know? She
really does, though, I mean but even now, yeah, I
mean she's embraced my whole persona as dumbfounded, you know.
So she would call me like hey, dummy or dumb
like she's real cute with it. Yeah, it's super cute.
And she speaks like perfect English or perfect No, she
(01:27):
actually speaks because we're from Argentina, so she speaks Spanish
and Korean and she never had to learn English because
we're in l A and there's a gang of Koreans.
There's a gang in Latino, so she never really learned English. Well,
so it's still kind of like she still calls you dumb. Yeah,
she would be like, hey, dumb. Yeah, but it's funny
(01:48):
that she just knows Spanish and Korean and like our
neighborhood is just filled with both Koreans and Latinos, so
she never really had to learn English too. I feel
like it's like that in l A for sure. Okay,
so don me the name for himself into early two
thousand's by going to open Mike Evenings, right rap battling
and freestyling, and this is like during the time you
were like honing your crops. Yeah, I mean, um, you know,
(02:10):
I started rapping when I was in like freshman year
of high school. That was like fourteen fifteen years old,
and um, I was just really immersed into Los Angeles
hip hop scene. It's so weird because I feel like
kind of an o G now because I'm in like
I'm turning thirty four in like three weeks. It's thirty
four for being that's like fifty four and rap years
pretty much. It's like it's like dog here, you know,
(02:33):
it is it is. I mean if you just consider,
you know, kids getting signed at like age sixteen seventeen
right now off of viral TikTok clips, you know what
I mean. Like that's so it's a different generation for sure.
So I guess you got to figure it out right here,
I mean, or you can be one of the old
rapper guys right well. Yeah, I mean to me, it's
like as I go into writing for TV stuff to acting,
(02:55):
like I bring a lot of that humor in aging
in this youth driven industry. Into the creativity. Like I
feel more vulnerable and secure with myself to talk about
these things. You know what I mean, because you've been
through it, Like you released several hit albums. You really
made a real name for yourself in the world of
hip hop. You're doubling and acting, and you have doubled
(03:15):
in acting and you're now acting more. Yeah, well it was.
It was always a passion of mine. I think when
I was like when I was a kid, I actually
had an agent for like a short like two years
as a child child actor. Child was like a PlayStation
one commercial and like I was Fox Network. Yeah, I
was like ten eleven. And then I went and got
(03:36):
into high school and then, uh, you know, I got
more into music because I was stewing here and you know,
it just weed and music. It is connected stuff. But
I was always creative, so I wanted to make and
create stuff. But all of a sudden, I got more
into music and hip hop. I was always a class clown,
so before I even started making music, I was more
into battle rap. So I kind of fused my passion
(03:58):
for comedy and hip hop tic other which is kind
of battle wrapping, you know, like where you can comedically
insult somebody or you know whatnot So so when you
were battle wrapping, which honestly, like I am just learning
about all this. Yeah, good, it's all good. It's a
long time ago, but that is pretty much what kind
of put me on the map. That was the first thing.
Do you still do it? No? No, no, it's been years,
(04:20):
but I'm considered kind of an o G in the
battle rap game. Okay, so does battle rapping still exists?
Like people are still huge, It's still really big. I
mean they they get tens of millions of views, Like
you know, all my battles are in the millions of views.
That's amazing. Yeah, and I have like battles, and but
I came I left the scene in the right time,
(04:41):
Like what what does that mean? Because some people leave
after getting destroyed in battles. I kind of left while yeah,
and some people just stay in it too long. You know.
It was hard for me to leave that arena too,
because I was getting so many views, like people were
showing me mad love. And it's scary to go from
like tons of views and something and then go into
(05:02):
a whole another thing and not expect the same kind
of views. You know, I went more into making music.
It's not the same thing, you know. I mean it's
like your battle rap and you're not making music, you're
not touring and stuff like that, you know, because it's
like in the moment it's impromptu. It's not always it's
sometimes it's set up like a boxing match where you know,
two people know they're going to battle each other a
month before and they too care for each other. It's
(05:23):
not become more of that, and now it's more acapella.
There's no beat playing. You just you know, say rhymes
to each other. But then you decided to leave that
to kind of pursue like writing music, Yeah, putting out
your albums. I wanted to work on music and getting
better at making music because at the time, like from
fourteen and fifteen when I started, for the next four
(05:44):
or five years, I didn't make a single song. I
just focused on battle rap, you know. So you were
doing that at like fourteen, fifteen years old. Fifteen, Yeah,
and I open mics. Um. I was going to open
mic and South Central which is kind of legendary open
mic in Los Angeles called Project Blowed. It was my
first time seeing like the most incredible like rappers in
my life, and I was the only Asian kid. They're
(06:06):
you know, sticking my head in. And at the time,
I was so cocky because I was the best rapper
in my high school. So when I went to the
open mic, I saw like a hundred other rappers that
were better than me. So it really humbled me as
an arrogant little rapper kid. And I just got addicted
to that place. It was every week for years and years.
You know, they just had their twenty five year anniversary
(06:28):
that I was just that. It's crazy. It's a really,
it's like a staple in Los Angeles. I can't believe
you're that young and you were like doing this right,
Oh yeah, and you're the only Asian kid like doing
like in that scene. Yeah for sure. I mean really,
you know, Project Blowed was predominantly black, and it really
taught me. It like unlocked us. Like confidence in me
(06:50):
was crazy because they showed me tough love, like if
I was whacked, they would boo you off the stage.
Do you think that like motivated you because you were different?
You look different yet something. Yeah. People always asked me,
like how does it feel to be an Asian in
hip hop? Like they want to hear an answer like
you know, um that it was much harder or whatnot. No,
I think it actually did help me because I did
stand out, you know, because even if you're whacked, people
(07:12):
are curious, like what does this Asian do gonna say? Like,
and the hip hop has always been about like being
different and you know, having a different style of different voice.
So I think me being Asian was a thing that
kind of helped. You know, people were like, what does
this Asian kid have to say? He could be whacked,
he could be tight, but um, it was. It was amazing.
That's why I really I really appreciate my upbringing at
(07:34):
that open mic. Okay, so in Los Angeles, you were
raised in k Town, but you didn't hang out with Koreans. Now,
I was kind of a nerd, like and that's the thing.
I think a lot of these Asian experiences in America
we hear about right now, right It's like the Asian
kid was picked on by all these different races and
like Middle America or whatnot, you know, but they we
(07:56):
don't hear about these cats like like who grew up
in like very Asian communities where the Asian kids I
was around. They were mean, and they were cocky and confident,
you know, like you couldn't make fun of an Asian
dude of my neighborhood because you'll get a whole gang
pull up career like and pride like. You know. These
kids were like hanging out and parking lots, smoking cigarettes
(08:19):
like all day, and like mobbing in huge crowds. And
I was kind of a nerdy dude who was into
indie films and art galleries and you know what I mean.
I was kind of art. I was a little art
art kid, you know what I mean. Um, you know,
and also skateboarding and like punk and pop punk and
hip hop like this, you know, weird stuff like you know,
the school I went to was a lot of artist
(08:39):
kids and their parents were artists and directors. So I
was kind of a weirdo. And but I was still rapping.
So when I would wrap with the other Asian kids,
and there were other Asian kids rapping too in my neighborhood.
They were they sounded like Tupac, you know. I sounded
more like lyrical, miracle spiritual, like, you know, I was
like really wordy and like nerdy sounding. The difference between
(08:59):
like Korean wrap hip hop scene in Korea and then
your experience here in America, like did you grow up
with nineties k pop hip hop? Like? And I knew
about them, but I didn't grow up on Korean music
like no No No, I got up with two Part. I
listened to a lot of those things, but it wasn't
like my style, Like I didn't a lot of the
Asian kids, you know, they were really on some Asian
(09:22):
gang ship, you know, so they sounded aggressive like I
wasn't coming from that world. So I just kind of
sounded like the way I'm more comedic, you know, and
I was more humorous, So I wrapped the way I did,
and they didn't really The Asian kids didn't rock with me.
They thought I was weird until I started battle rapping,
like and I started making a name in battle rap
because I was the only Asian kids in the battle
rap scene. So all of a sudden, Asian kids was like, oh,
(09:44):
you're holding it down for us Asians. And that was
my first time like getting props from Asian like gangster
dudes and dudes in my neighborhood that always thought I
was nerdy, you know, when I when they just started
seeing these YouTube videos get millions of views, they were like,
oh damn, Like there's an Asian dude to the scene
in the battle rap world, and there's in the battle
rap world. There's like barely occasions even since I even
(10:06):
since I've retired like years ago, there still isn't like
a new Asian. There's only been like two Asians that
really made a mark. And it was like jend em
C and it's like me, why why is that? I
don't know, I don't know. A battle rap is a
tough thing. It's the front line of hip hop where
you really have to deal with getting roasted, like right
in front of the video. You know, for every other
(10:27):
side of hip hop, you kind of the battle element
in dance, in breakdancing to them seeing you know, um
to all the elements of hip hop is like that's
where the front line is. You know, you're really putting
yourself out there to be either destroyed or get humiliated,
you know, and that takes a lot for anybody to
kind of put themselves out, takes a lot of confidence.
(10:51):
Yet just not giving a ship I guess it, or
just knowing your skill right. Yeah, it's tough. It's scary.
It's scary. I you know, be in that circle every
time you do it. It's not something that you just
know that you're gonna kill. You know, you couldn't have
it down. You're ready mentally studently to step in. You
can blank out, you know. So it's it's a scary thing,
(11:11):
you know. Oh my god, No, it's going ahead and profile.
So my profilence silence, you're no portful? So too one
(11:34):
day when was your turning point when you decided to like, Okay,
now I'm representing my people like I'm I'm an Asian
American and then you like shifted right you Yeah, I
mean I talk a lot about this, and you know
with the Battle Rap, I feel like Battle Rap really
helped me with my identity, you know, figuring out who
(11:55):
I was because at the time, you know, we all
go through this stuff. You know, I don't want to
be Asian because you know, it wasn't lit like to
be Asian during that time. Yeah, for sure, I was
like the only Asian and my group of friends, you know,
and you'll see another cool Asian walk into my squad
and I feel threatened and ship, you know. But then
(12:16):
what happened like to me what I realized is like
with through battle rap, I think is because I when
I would step in an arena and battle somebody, they
would hit me with all these things they thought of
what an Asian person is, stereotypes, and when I what
you realize is like they don't know much. You know
what I'm saying, It's like a list of four or
five things that every dude like every battle you watch me,
(12:38):
and it's like I get hit with the same thing
four or five things, you know, like for instance, like
celebrity references. Right, it's always like Jackie Chang, Jently, Bruce
Lee or Lucy Louke. It's like that's the only like things.
I mean, now they might add a few crazy rich
Asian things or something, but at the time, it was
always the same thing. You know, can't drive, eats, cats, dogs, whatever,
(13:01):
all those stereotypes, and it kind of really makes you think, like, oh, man,
like there's a very narrow view about Asian people in
general when these people don't know anything about us, you know,
which made me like I don't know. It did something
to me a little fire in me where I wanted
to kind of show cats like there's there's different types
(13:22):
of Asians, you know what I'm saying, and and my
upbringing is different, and I wanted to hold it down
in the most clever way, you know, and not be
so hacky in the way they made fun of Asians.
You know. Would you consider yourself an American rapper with
Korean descent or are you a Korean rapper from America?
Because I feel like this really matters, uh to you
(13:42):
because you talk about your identity a lot in your
music is very personal to who you are. So yeah, no,
I that's a good question because I mean, I guess
a little bit of both. Back in the day, I
used to hate when people introduced me as oh Korean rapper,
and I found it like I did a thing on
Carson Daily and car Some Daily introduced me was like
this next performer is a Korean rapper, blah blah blah da,
(14:05):
And I was like why, why was that even necessary? Right?
But then I kind of realized, like, it's actually a
big part of my identity, you know, being Korean. And
that's also because like I mean, you know, and maybe
one day it won't be as important, you know, and
maybe that could be progress too, But there was you know,
I feel like when I hop on stage, like people
see an Asian person, people see this dude on stage.
(14:28):
That's you know, it's not that's like one of the
first things they'll notice, you know, so, which which means
so it's it's it's something that I wanted to embrace
now and I don't want to run away from it,
you know for sure. So, so you're a Korean rapper,
then yeah, I guess. I mean that's not wrong, you
know what I mean, Like that wouldn't be wrong, you know. Yeah,
(14:51):
I would say Korean American rapper. That's important because I
think people don't really you know, it's two different things,
the Korean experience in the Korean American experience. And I'm
very very Korean American. Like would you be able to
go to Korea and do like that scene there? Yeah,
I've dabbled in it, but I don't rap in Korean.
(15:11):
You know what I'm saying. All my songs are in English,
and then I the couple of songs I have in Korean,
it's just I took one Korean word and I repeated
in the hook like that's the That's the extent of
my dabbling with Korean rap, you know what I mean,
why can't you rap in English and create like? You can't?
It's hard, it's I can't. I really I try to
do it. I just realized, like you got to really
(15:33):
be there and soak in the culture. And this has
also been the problem a lot of Korean artists trying
to break in America where they try to do an
American song and it doesn't sound authentic. Or you see
like a K pop star doing an American music video
and trying to do all the latest dances or holding
a forty ounce like completely appropriating the culture. It's awkward.
I mean for me as an American when I hear it, like,
(15:53):
I can tell it's not authentic, because really it's not
just the language, it's everything, the new, the either, you know, everything.
It's just you know, when something's not genuine, you know
what I mean. And we're living in an era where
kids could see right, do that ship? You know that's true.
You have to be super genuine about who you are.
How do you feel about like the K pop scene
compared to the world that you're in. I mean, you know,
(16:17):
it's I have no problems with it. It's not my
like regular listening genre of music. But I don't hate
anything really, you know, like you know the craziness of
k pop right now like BTS. Oh yeah, no, I
know I've tweeted stuff and I've got destroyed by BTS fans,
but oh my gosh, they they are. I feel like
(16:37):
a lot of those fans are very supportive of what
I do, to be honest, Like it's funny, you know,
as my at one point, like my raps, my all
my raps, it was like pure just hip hop stuff.
And then now when I tour like my front to
three Rows or like k pop fans and they like,
I mean, and I don't even do k pop music.
I don't even wrapping Korean. But I think it's because
(16:59):
I'm Korean. They's interesting. So these K pop fans are
now just fans of Korean culture. Yeah, And I think
that's one part. They know that I really rerap Korean
stuff in a lot of my content. Um, but if
you see those fans, they're not necessarily hip hop heads.
They're like straight up K pop fans. And somehow it's
drizzled down to my shows and it's actually helped me
(17:22):
like really kind of revived my career a little bit,
not not revived, but it just kept it consistent, you know,
like shows are still you know, I still have like
that fan base mixed in with my rap fans, mixed
in with my battle fans. It's a little bit of everything. Yeah.
That's amazing though, because it's about culture and the rise
of K pop influences every part of Korean culture, which
(17:43):
is I think amazing. Yeah, and those fans are die hard,
you know, like hip hop fans are fickle, like K
pop fans. They will ride with you today, don't do anything,
they will, they will, they'll go to war with you.
So I wanted to ask you about your inspiration because
I read somewhere you actually don't get inspired by listening
to other rap No. I do. But it's not the
only thing, you know. I think people have this perception like, oh,
(18:07):
you're hip hop head and you just that's like I
listened to, But it's actually across the board where it's
not even music, you know. I feel like music shouldn't
be the only thing that inspires musicians, you know, like
stand up comedy inspires me a lot because it comes
from a really, really honest and vulnerable place. You can't
get that all the time. With hip hop, especially nowadays,
because it's you have this people have this persona and
(18:28):
this mask and this hard exterior we put out as
hip hop artists, you know, so sometimes you got to
get this vulnerability from different places. Stand up comedy. I
do stand up to actually, so that that's like a
space that I'm really in love with. I thought that
that was very interesting because I feel like for a
lot of creatives, if you're like into that too much,
then you're just repeating. When I started cooking and coming
(18:51):
up with my menu from my first restaurant, I couldn't
go eat at other places. I had to be in
my own zone, right, So I feel like the creative
process is very similar. I always tell people, especially these
kids who are in the studio, They're like, I'm in
the studio all day. I'm like, where do you get
your inspiration from? Because to me, it's like, if you're
an artist, should be outside living and soaking in culture
(19:12):
and life. And then the other half is how you
record that and your experiences on the microphone. You know
what I'm saying, Like, if you're spending a just in
the studio, you're not soaking in anything, maybe even from
the internet. You know, but you gotta be out there
living life so you have something to write about in
the lab, you know what I mean. So that's how
I like to kind of live my life. It's like
I want to have a good balance of like work
(19:34):
and also curiosity and soaking culture life. Yeah, trying to
slide in you goddamn when all of this is over,
can you talk to me about your acting a little bit.
You're going to be in show? Yeah, I'm on aquathin
as show. I'm gonna sprinkled in this season. With the
(19:55):
second season, I'll probably be in some more stuff. Um.
And Aquafine has been a friend of mine and for
eight years, like I was roommates with her in New
York and Williamsburg, I mean the green Point for just
for like four or five months and I was living
with her. This was like the beginning, you know for
all of us, like me and her. And what do
you mean about the beginning? Not the beginning, I mean
I was kind of probably doing more stuff musically, but
(20:18):
the beginning of the Aquafino rise was like then, you know,
which is dope? Because if you there's a documentary called
Bad Rap It's on Netflix and it's the they follow
for Asian rappers. It's me Aquafina lyrics and Rex Dizzy
and uh, you can if you watch the documentary, you
can see literally the beginnings. So it's great. It's a
great doc. It's kind of a slept On doc actually,
(20:39):
and it's it's on Netflix. Yeah, produced by j K
one of our mutual friends, shout out j Q. Yeah.
I'm developing a lot of shows. I go out for
all auditions, but really I feel like as kind of
the like a creative in the sense where I can
write my own stuff too. Like I focused a lot
on kind of developing me, developing my own stuff. So
I wrote a show that's gonna be announced. I just
(21:01):
sold it actually, so it's gonna be announced. Yeah, it's
gonna be announced like two three weeks. Um, so you
wrote the whole show. It's a show about me in
my life, and I'll be playing the lead in it,
and then um, uh you know there'll be there's family elements.
But I'm just a brief logline about it. It's uh,
it's about a wrapper aging out of the rap game
and he's been dumbfounded longer than he's been John Park
(21:23):
and now that his like like, uh, fame is dwindling.
He's reconnecting with like family friends in his neighborhood that
he's been so removed from, and like I didn't know
how to be an adult because rap is such like
a youthful kind of industry. So it's it's called Big
Dummy and it's gonna come out. So like we're working
on it. That's amazing. And TV network where it's gonna be.
(21:46):
It's a streaming service. But yeah, yeah, it should be
announced soon. I don't even know if I should have
said that. Actually I think it's cool. I think it's cool.
But well, by this time this errs, you'll be good,
so I think, so yeah, um, that's I mean. So
it's heavily about your life. It's it's you, yeah yeah,
and it's it's my relationships with my family too. It's
very broken kind of uh family, you know, my parents
(22:09):
split since I was super young. Dad kind of alcoholic, gambler. Um.
So there's a lot of these elements that I feel
like people don't talk about, Like we hear a lot
about these immigrants success stories, but we don't talk about
sometimes in pursuit of the American dream, the family gets
broken up, you know, because that pursuit is so aggressive
that you forget about the little things. And I feel
(22:29):
like when my family, a lot of that happened, you know.
So we talked kind of about that, and it's about
mending those relationships too. And you came over here, I
read I read somewhere where your mom brought you over
here from Argentina when you were like three years old
with your sister. Yeah, my mom actually carried me and
my little sister, who was one and I was three
at the time. Do the Mexican border to coyotes like illegally?
(22:50):
That's so crazy? Are there a lot of stories like that? Yeah?
There is. There's because there's a lot of Asians who immigrate,
Like most of my uncles and aunts are from like Peru, Paraguay,
like argent Tina. I don't know much about those roots.
I came here such a baby, but you know, it's
it's pretty interesting. I don't and I don't really know
why that was the case, you know, but there was.
I guess after the Korean War the government paid all
(23:13):
these Koreans to go to South America, was it? Yeah,
And that's why there's so many Koreans in South America
and then from there they didn't want to stay there
because obviously the living conditions and yeah, the opportunities wasn't
that much for like a Korean person area. Yeah, and
of course the American dream is the American dreams, so
a lot of people came over to Los Angeles to
settle here. It's the same thing I feel like with
(23:35):
my parents and their pursuit of the American dream, and
my my show is kind of the same. My storyline
is the same thing where I feel like as I
get older, like I don't you know, maybe I didn't
enjoy the little things, and you know, those little things
become the big things, you know. So it's about that
and maybe like catching myself slipping into the kind of
the same thing. Because we're all focused on this like big,
(23:57):
big dream, you know, we kind of forget about all
the little between stuff and the journey is like really
the reward, right, So exactly, it's the experiences and that's
what matters. I'm looking forward to seeing what you have
in store for your future. So you you're working on
aqua final show and you have your own show and
the pipeline, anything else exciting that you want to do
or pursue. I just stay working, just making stuff, you know.
(24:19):
Like to me, it's just you know, I I've always
just made video stuff that wasn't even music related, you know.
So I like putting on a lot of artists, like
up and coming artists, you know. I just say, I
just like saying curious about culture, you know. And I
think that's the main thing. I never really feel old
because I'm up on everything. Like I know everything on
(24:40):
that's going on on the internet, like a sixteen year
old kid, you know what I mean, Like like a
sixt TikTok star, Like I know everything like that's going
on online. Yeah. Yeah, your tweets are like I'm like,
oh wow, really knows everything stupid stuff. Yeah. So your
podcast fun with them? Yeah, um, you want to talk
a little bit about that. Yeah. So mean, it was
just a podcast that I just want to start and
(25:02):
kind of talk to a lot of my friends who
are doing cool stuff. But it did become pretty focused
on like Asian and Asian American um, only because I
think I had a wide network of creatives and that
we're Asian descent. But it's not limited to that. We're
we're doing We're we got a lot of interesting interviews
coming up. But it's it spans like really wide, from
(25:22):
fashion to musicians too, like we had a magician that
guy Shin Lim who on America's got talent, to like
Roy Choy, Aquafina, obviously a lot of comedians. It's it's cool,
it's fun. It's like just once a week, I mean
it's yeah, yeah, just try to keep it cool and fun. Yeah, awesome, awesome.
So I was up really early. I know I told
(25:44):
you this, but I was up really early because you
said your favorite cream food is kim Yeah. Yeah, so
I have made that today, but I made it spicy.
I don't know if that's okay with you. Yeah, that's okay.
That's not my favorite version of it, but not it's okay,
it's okay. I usually like the regular one, okay, but
(26:05):
but spicy is always good. It's weird because I love
spicy stuff, but you don't like team I like it regular,
I don't. Yeah, but this is okay. Now you didn't.
I thought it was like being like, well, so I
should just like kept it, you know, like I should
just lie right there. And it's been like I like
this slice, no I like the realness. It's fine. Like
my mom made me like spicy Kype Team, so I
(26:28):
wasn't wanted to make that version for you. Okay, whoa,
this is fire all right. So what's your fondest or
best memory with Kype Team? Like why is this your favorite?
Kybe Team is not like a everyday thing, you know
what I'm saying. It's like special occasion. It has a
little bit of royalty to it, you know, Like I
(26:49):
mean it comes from you know, the royal cuisine. Yeah,
it's a it's an event, you know. But I always
considered it to be one of the more bougier kind
of dishes in Korean. Like, no one really grew up this.
It's expensive and I don't really be cooking like that.
So is it. It takes a minute to like make this.
It takes a while to make this, like three hours.
Thank you. What an amazing podcast. I could have like
(27:11):
bought it, you know, this is the thing. I could
have bought the Kybe jim and just brought it. Yeah,
but there's nothing I like connecting with my guests, and
that's that's why I cook. No, I love that. I
love that. I mean, I'm not complaining and then also
it's it's I just love that. Yeah, you put him
that much hard into the podcast because I half ass online.
I barely do any research. No, come on, you know
(27:35):
that's what it's raw ands like for me, it's should
into this, please do okay, here we go all right too.
I hope it's as good as your bombs look good.
And like Ellie's Korean food is like insane, and I
know that there's that kybe Jim place that's so famous
(27:57):
and yeah, it's right next to my favorite bar. Can
you probably go eat that? Like I don't actually I don't.
Um my favorite kabee in Koreatown is in this place
cause hung book don't. Oh my god, I love someone.
I was just there the other that's my favorite. But
there is very good. Yeah, yeah, cook pop is fire.
It has like a different thing to it, right, like
(28:19):
the most cook pops like it's its own thing because
I've never tasted like that, and it's like they ferment
the cabbage. I think that's is that. The I love
k time was like the thing I was going to
put maybe for the third one, because for some reason,
I just love Ugugi. What is that again? So Ugoji
is dried cabbage. Dried cabbage. Yeah, it's dried cabbage, and
(28:39):
it's it's just cabbage, but it's done in this way
where it's preserved, so it gives a different texture and dimension.
So I love ugoji as well. It's very like homey thing,
but some book don't ferment it, so that's why it's
kind of different. So delicious that this is fantastic. Um, okay,
(29:00):
can you describe what you're eating to our listeners? And yeah,
the braves short rib is that what a short rip? Yeah?
Raise short rib um? You know, probably cooked for hours
and then when you bite into it, it's like super tender,
like peels off the bone pretty much. And then usually
the carrots and potatoes are just really sweet. It's like
(29:22):
a sweet spicy it's not like when when it's this
is a spicy version, but it's not really spicy. It
just has a little kick and I like, yeah, usually
it's just soy brais, so it's like salty and sweet.
I like those better because it's not as spicy as
like the other spicy ones. This is good. This is
a good spicy, Like this is closer to the version
I like, you know what I mean? So yeah, but
it still has like that red, like kind of spicy
(29:45):
deep flavor because I add to this one and usually
Mayo garbean does not use K if you go if
you go to a cream restaurant or this though, it's
probably gonna be the most expensive thing on the menu,
right yeah, it's like, I mean, it's expensive and it
takes a long time to make. I think that this
is like sixty it's somewhere between forty and sixty. I think. Yeah.
(30:09):
I mean it's like a luxury food item. Like you know,
if it's sixty dollars, there's a Grandma's slaving away in
the back bear or something like she is going ham.
Did you try the potatoes? So I do a little
bit um, I do something a little bit different. I
add sweet potatoes. It's good just so it's like, you know,
(30:29):
level up, but it still tastes like Grandma food. Doesn't
taste like Grandma mad good. And I already ate lunch,
but I'm going in it's crazy, would you have for
lunch to day? I'm on like a meal plant thing.
I'm like a big one the fitness thing right now?
Did it? I don't care. I'm not gonna let you
throw you know, ky bee chim in front of me
and disrespected like it's fire. Though, this is great, amazing, Well,
(30:54):
where can our listeners find you everything at? Just at
Dumbfounded you spelled d U M B f O U
N d E A D. I have like hundreds of
videos on YouTube, um, Spotify. You can check on my
music and my podcast fun with dumb and uh yes,
stay tuned for more stuff. Trying to get my uh
cooking skills up this year too. So really, if you
(31:17):
need lessons you know who the yeah for sure. Well,
thank you so much for joining us. Thank you and
thank you for cooking. Appreciate it and that's our show.
Thanks for listening. If you like what you heard, please
subscribe and leave us a five star review. Get Down
with Kaytown is a production of I Heart Radio and
was created by our executive producer Christopher Hasiotis and me
as to Troy. Follow me on all social media at
(31:39):
toy bites and I'd also like to thank our producer,
editor and mixer Marcie to Pina. For more podcasts from
I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Kaya Beecham is not like a everyday thing, you know
what I'm saying. It's like special occasion. It has a
little bit of royalty to it, you know, like it's
an event, you know. But I always considered it to
be one of the more bougier kind of dishes in
Korean b Like, no one really grew up eating this.
It's expensive and I don't really be cooking like that,
so is it. It takes a minute to like make this.
(00:23):
It takes a while to make this, like three hours
for you. Thank you. What an amazing podcast. I could
have like bought it, you know, this is the thing.
I could have bought the kaypee gym and just brought it. Yeah,
but there's nothing I like connecting with my guests, and
that's that's why I cook. Welcome to get down with
kay Town. I'm your host esther Choy. Hey guys, So
(00:45):
today we have someone that I had admired from afar.
One of the most significant pioneers in the Korean hip
hop scene, rapper and actor Jonathan park A k mostly
known as Dumbfounded. So what do people call you? Do?
They call you my mom since a young age has
called me dumb, but not because I didn't nickname just
(01:05):
a dumb no no, Um, well yeah, they just called
me John or dumb. Okay, because I was actually going
to say, does you like mom called you know? She
really does, though, I mean but even now, yeah, I
mean she's embraced my whole persona as dumbfounded, you know.
So she would call me like hey, dummy or dumb
like she's real cute with it. Yeah, it's super cute.
And she speaks like perfect English or perfect No, she
(01:27):
actually speaks because we're from Argentina, so she speaks Spanish
and Korean and she never had to learn English because
we're in l A and there's a gang of Koreans.
There's a gang in Latino, so she never really learned English. Well,
so it's still kind of like she still calls you dumb. Yeah,
she would be like, hey, dumb. Yeah, but it's funny
(01:48):
that she just knows Spanish and Korean and like our
neighborhood is just filled with both Koreans and Latinos, so
she never really had to learn English too. I feel
like it's like that in l A for sure. Okay,
so don me the name for himself into early two
thousand's by going to open Mike Evenings, right rap battling
and freestyling, and this is like during the time you
were like honing your crops. Yeah, I mean, um, you know,
(02:10):
I started rapping when I was in like freshman year
of high school. That was like fourteen fifteen years old,
and um, I was just really immersed into Los Angeles
hip hop scene. It's so weird because I feel like
kind of an o G now because I'm in like
I'm turning thirty four in like three weeks. It's thirty
four for being that's like fifty four and rap years
pretty much. It's like it's like dog here, you know,
(02:33):
it is it is. I mean if you just consider,
you know, kids getting signed at like age sixteen seventeen
right now off of viral TikTok clips, you know what
I mean. Like that's so it's a different generation for sure.
So I guess you got to figure it out right here,
I mean, or you can be one of the old
rapper guys right well. Yeah, I mean to me, it's
like as I go into writing for TV stuff to acting,
(02:55):
like I bring a lot of that humor in aging
in this youth driven industry. Into the creativity. Like I
feel more vulnerable and secure with myself to talk about
these things. You know what I mean, because you've been
through it, Like you released several hit albums. You really
made a real name for yourself in the world of
hip hop. You're doubling and acting, and you have doubled
(03:15):
in acting and you're now acting more. Yeah, well it was.
It was always a passion of mine. I think when
I was like when I was a kid, I actually
had an agent for like a short like two years
as a child child actor. Child was like a PlayStation
one commercial and like I was Fox Network. Yeah, I
was like ten eleven. And then I went and got
(03:36):
into high school and then, uh, you know, I got
more into music because I was stewing here and you know,
it just weed and music. It is connected stuff. But
I was always creative, so I wanted to make and
create stuff. But all of a sudden, I got more
into music and hip hop. I was always a class clown,
so before I even started making music, I was more
into battle rap. So I kind of fused my passion
(03:58):
for comedy and hip hop tic other which is kind
of battle wrapping, you know, like where you can comedically
insult somebody or you know whatnot So so when you
were battle wrapping, which honestly, like I am just learning
about all this. Yeah, good, it's all good. It's a
long time ago, but that is pretty much what kind
of put me on the map. That was the first thing.
Do you still do it? No? No, no, it's been years,
(04:20):
but I'm considered kind of an o G in the
battle rap game. Okay, so does battle rapping still exists?
Like people are still huge, It's still really big. I
mean they they get tens of millions of views, Like
you know, all my battles are in the millions of views.
That's amazing. Yeah, and I have like battles, and but
I came I left the scene in the right time,
(04:41):
Like what what does that mean? Because some people leave
after getting destroyed in battles. I kind of left while yeah,
and some people just stay in it too long. You know.
It was hard for me to leave that arena too,
because I was getting so many views, like people were
showing me mad love. And it's scary to go from
like tons of views and something and then go into
(05:02):
a whole another thing and not expect the same kind
of views. You know, I went more into making music.
It's not the same thing, you know. I mean it's
like your battle rap and you're not making music, you're
not touring and stuff like that, you know, because it's
like in the moment it's impromptu. It's not always it's
sometimes it's set up like a boxing match where you know,
two people know they're going to battle each other a
month before and they too care for each other. It's
(05:23):
not become more of that, and now it's more acapella.
There's no beat playing. You just you know, say rhymes
to each other. But then you decided to leave that
to kind of pursue like writing music, Yeah, putting out
your albums. I wanted to work on music and getting
better at making music because at the time, like from
fourteen and fifteen when I started, for the next four
(05:44):
or five years, I didn't make a single song. I
just focused on battle rap, you know. So you were
doing that at like fourteen, fifteen years old. Fifteen, Yeah,
and I open mics. Um. I was going to open
mic and South Central which is kind of legendary open
mic in Los Angeles called Project Blowed. It was my
first time seeing like the most incredible like rappers in
my life, and I was the only Asian kid. They're
(06:06):
you know, sticking my head in. And at the time,
I was so cocky because I was the best rapper
in my high school. So when I went to the
open mic, I saw like a hundred other rappers that
were better than me. So it really humbled me as
an arrogant little rapper kid. And I just got addicted
to that place. It was every week for years and years.
You know, they just had their twenty five year anniversary
(06:28):
that I was just that. It's crazy. It's a really,
it's like a staple in Los Angeles. I can't believe
you're that young and you were like doing this right,
Oh yeah, and you're the only Asian kid like doing
like in that scene. Yeah for sure. I mean really,
you know, Project Blowed was predominantly black, and it really
taught me. It like unlocked us. Like confidence in me
(06:50):
was crazy because they showed me tough love, like if
I was whacked, they would boo you off the stage.
Do you think that like motivated you because you were different?
You look different yet something. Yeah. People always asked me,
like how does it feel to be an Asian in
hip hop? Like they want to hear an answer like
you know, um that it was much harder or whatnot. No,
I think it actually did help me because I did
stand out, you know, because even if you're whacked, people
(07:12):
are curious, like what does this Asian do gonna say? Like,
and the hip hop has always been about like being
different and you know, having a different style of different voice.
So I think me being Asian was a thing that
kind of helped. You know, people were like, what does
this Asian kid have to say? He could be whacked,
he could be tight, but um, it was. It was amazing.
That's why I really I really appreciate my upbringing at
(07:34):
that open mic. Okay, so in Los Angeles, you were
raised in k Town, but you didn't hang out with Koreans. Now,
I was kind of a nerd, like and that's the thing.
I think a lot of these Asian experiences in America
we hear about right now, right It's like the Asian
kid was picked on by all these different races and
like Middle America or whatnot, you know, but they we
(07:56):
don't hear about these cats like like who grew up
in like very Asian communities where the Asian kids I
was around. They were mean, and they were cocky and confident,
you know, like you couldn't make fun of an Asian
dude of my neighborhood because you'll get a whole gang
pull up career like and pride like. You know. These
kids were like hanging out and parking lots, smoking cigarettes
(08:19):
like all day, and like mobbing in huge crowds. And
I was kind of a nerdy dude who was into
indie films and art galleries and you know what I mean.
I was kind of art. I was a little art
art kid, you know what I mean. Um, you know,
and also skateboarding and like punk and pop punk and
hip hop like this, you know, weird stuff like you know,
the school I went to was a lot of artist
(08:39):
kids and their parents were artists and directors. So I
was kind of a weirdo. And but I was still rapping.
So when I would wrap with the other Asian kids,
and there were other Asian kids rapping too in my neighborhood.
They were they sounded like Tupac, you know. I sounded
more like lyrical, miracle spiritual, like, you know, I was
like really wordy and like nerdy sounding. The difference between
(08:59):
like Korean wrap hip hop scene in Korea and then
your experience here in America, like did you grow up
with nineties k pop hip hop? Like? And I knew
about them, but I didn't grow up on Korean music
like no No No, I got up with two Part. I
listened to a lot of those things, but it wasn't
like my style, Like I didn't a lot of the
Asian kids, you know, they were really on some Asian
(09:22):
gang ship, you know, so they sounded aggressive like I
wasn't coming from that world. So I just kind of
sounded like the way I'm more comedic, you know, and
I was more humorous, So I wrapped the way I did,
and they didn't really The Asian kids didn't rock with me.
They thought I was weird until I started battle rapping,
like and I started making a name in battle rap
because I was the only Asian kids in the battle
rap scene. So all of a sudden, Asian kids was like, oh,
(09:44):
you're holding it down for us Asians. And that was
my first time like getting props from Asian like gangster
dudes and dudes in my neighborhood that always thought I
was nerdy, you know, when I when they just started
seeing these YouTube videos get millions of views, they were like,
oh damn, Like there's an Asian dude to the scene
in the battle rap world, and there's in the battle
rap world. There's like barely occasions even since I even
(10:06):
since I've retired like years ago, there still isn't like
a new Asian. There's only been like two Asians that
really made a mark. And it was like jend em
C and it's like me, why why is that? I
don't know, I don't know. A battle rap is a
tough thing. It's the front line of hip hop where
you really have to deal with getting roasted, like right
in front of the video. You know, for every other
(10:27):
side of hip hop, you kind of the battle element
in dance, in breakdancing to them seeing you know, um
to all the elements of hip hop is like that's
where the front line is. You know, you're really putting
yourself out there to be either destroyed or get humiliated,
you know, and that takes a lot for anybody to
kind of put themselves out, takes a lot of confidence.
(10:51):
Yet just not giving a ship I guess it, or
just knowing your skill right. Yeah, it's tough. It's scary.
It's scary. I you know, be in that circle every
time you do it. It's not something that you just
know that you're gonna kill. You know, you couldn't have
it down. You're ready mentally studently to step in. You
can blank out, you know. So it's it's a scary thing,
(11:11):
you know. Oh my god, No, it's going ahead and profile.
So my profilence silence, you're no portful? So too one
(11:34):
day when was your turning point when you decided to like, Okay,
now I'm representing my people like I'm I'm an Asian
American and then you like shifted right you Yeah, I
mean I talk a lot about this, and you know
with the Battle Rap, I feel like Battle Rap really
helped me with my identity, you know, figuring out who
(11:55):
I was because at the time, you know, we all
go through this stuff. You know, I don't want to
be Asian because you know, it wasn't lit like to
be Asian during that time. Yeah, for sure, I was
like the only Asian and my group of friends, you know,
and you'll see another cool Asian walk into my squad
and I feel threatened and ship, you know. But then
(12:16):
what happened like to me what I realized is like
with through battle rap, I think is because I when
I would step in an arena and battle somebody, they
would hit me with all these things they thought of
what an Asian person is, stereotypes, and when I what
you realize is like they don't know much. You know
what I'm saying, It's like a list of four or
five things that every dude like every battle you watch me,
(12:38):
and it's like I get hit with the same thing
four or five things, you know, like for instance, like
celebrity references. Right, it's always like Jackie Chang, Jently, Bruce
Lee or Lucy Louke. It's like that's the only like things.
I mean, now they might add a few crazy rich
Asian things or something, but at the time, it was
always the same thing. You know, can't drive, eats, cats, dogs, whatever,
(13:01):
all those stereotypes, and it kind of really makes you think, like, oh, man,
like there's a very narrow view about Asian people in
general when these people don't know anything about us, you know,
which made me like I don't know. It did something
to me a little fire in me where I wanted
to kind of show cats like there's there's different types
(13:22):
of Asians, you know what I'm saying, and and my
upbringing is different, and I wanted to hold it down
in the most clever way, you know, and not be
so hacky in the way they made fun of Asians.
You know. Would you consider yourself an American rapper with
Korean descent or are you a Korean rapper from America?
Because I feel like this really matters, uh to you
(13:42):
because you talk about your identity a lot in your
music is very personal to who you are. So yeah, no,
I that's a good question because I mean, I guess
a little bit of both. Back in the day, I
used to hate when people introduced me as oh Korean rapper,
and I found it like I did a thing on
Carson Daily and car Some Daily introduced me was like
this next performer is a Korean rapper, blah blah blah da,
(14:05):
And I was like why, why was that even necessary? Right?
But then I kind of realized, like, it's actually a
big part of my identity, you know, being Korean. And
that's also because like I mean, you know, and maybe
one day it won't be as important, you know, and
maybe that could be progress too, But there was you know,
I feel like when I hop on stage, like people
see an Asian person, people see this dude on stage.
(14:28):
That's you know, it's not that's like one of the
first things they'll notice, you know, so, which which means
so it's it's it's something that I wanted to embrace
now and I don't want to run away from it,
you know for sure. So, so you're a Korean rapper,
then yeah, I guess. I mean that's not wrong, you
know what I mean, Like that wouldn't be wrong, you know. Yeah,
(14:51):
I would say Korean American rapper. That's important because I
think people don't really you know, it's two different things,
the Korean experience in the Korean American experience. And I'm
very very Korean American. Like would you be able to
go to Korea and do like that scene there? Yeah,
I've dabbled in it, but I don't rap in Korean.
(15:11):
You know what I'm saying. All my songs are in English,
and then I the couple of songs I have in Korean,
it's just I took one Korean word and I repeated
in the hook like that's the That's the extent of
my dabbling with Korean rap, you know what I mean,
why can't you rap in English and create like? You can't?
It's hard, it's I can't. I really I try to
do it. I just realized, like you got to really
(15:33):
be there and soak in the culture. And this has
also been the problem a lot of Korean artists trying
to break in America where they try to do an
American song and it doesn't sound authentic. Or you see
like a K pop star doing an American music video
and trying to do all the latest dances or holding
a forty ounce like completely appropriating the culture. It's awkward.
I mean for me as an American when I hear it, like,
(15:53):
I can tell it's not authentic, because really it's not
just the language, it's everything, the new, the either, you know, everything.
It's just you know, when something's not genuine, you know
what I mean. And we're living in an era where
kids could see right, do that ship? You know that's true.
You have to be super genuine about who you are.
How do you feel about like the K pop scene
compared to the world that you're in. I mean, you know,
(16:17):
it's I have no problems with it. It's not my
like regular listening genre of music. But I don't hate
anything really, you know, like you know the craziness of
k pop right now like BTS. Oh yeah, no, I
know I've tweeted stuff and I've got destroyed by BTS fans,
but oh my gosh, they they are. I feel like
(16:37):
a lot of those fans are very supportive of what
I do, to be honest, Like it's funny, you know,
as my at one point, like my raps, my all
my raps, it was like pure just hip hop stuff.
And then now when I tour like my front to
three Rows or like k pop fans and they like,
I mean, and I don't even do k pop music.
I don't even wrapping Korean. But I think it's because
(16:59):
I'm Korean. They's interesting. So these K pop fans are
now just fans of Korean culture. Yeah, And I think
that's one part. They know that I really rerap Korean
stuff in a lot of my content. Um, but if
you see those fans, they're not necessarily hip hop heads.
They're like straight up K pop fans. And somehow it's
drizzled down to my shows and it's actually helped me
(17:22):
like really kind of revived my career a little bit,
not not revived, but it just kept it consistent, you know,
like shows are still you know, I still have like
that fan base mixed in with my rap fans, mixed
in with my battle fans. It's a little bit of everything. Yeah.
That's amazing though, because it's about culture and the rise
of K pop influences every part of Korean culture, which
(17:43):
is I think amazing. Yeah, and those fans are die hard,
you know, like hip hop fans are fickle, like K
pop fans. They will ride with you today, don't do anything,
they will, they will, they'll go to war with you.
So I wanted to ask you about your inspiration because
I read somewhere you actually don't get inspired by listening
to other rap No. I do. But it's not the
only thing, you know. I think people have this perception like, oh,
(18:07):
you're hip hop head and you just that's like I
listened to, But it's actually across the board where it's
not even music, you know. I feel like music shouldn't
be the only thing that inspires musicians, you know, like
stand up comedy inspires me a lot because it comes
from a really, really honest and vulnerable place. You can't
get that all the time. With hip hop, especially nowadays,
because it's you have this people have this persona and
(18:28):
this mask and this hard exterior we put out as
hip hop artists, you know, so sometimes you got to
get this vulnerability from different places. Stand up comedy. I
do stand up to actually, so that that's like a
space that I'm really in love with. I thought that
that was very interesting because I feel like for a
lot of creatives, if you're like into that too much,
then you're just repeating. When I started cooking and coming
(18:51):
up with my menu from my first restaurant, I couldn't
go eat at other places. I had to be in
my own zone, right, So I feel like the creative
process is very similar. I always tell people, especially these
kids who are in the studio, They're like, I'm in
the studio all day. I'm like, where do you get
your inspiration from? Because to me, it's like, if you're
an artist, should be outside living and soaking in culture
(19:12):
and life. And then the other half is how you
record that and your experiences on the microphone. You know
what I'm saying, Like, if you're spending a just in
the studio, you're not soaking in anything, maybe even from
the internet. You know, but you gotta be out there
living life so you have something to write about in
the lab, you know what I mean. So that's how
I like to kind of live my life. It's like
I want to have a good balance of like work
(19:34):
and also curiosity and soaking culture life. Yeah, trying to
slide in you goddamn when all of this is over,
can you talk to me about your acting a little bit.
You're going to be in show? Yeah, I'm on aquathin
as show. I'm gonna sprinkled in this season. With the
(19:55):
second season, I'll probably be in some more stuff. Um.
And Aquafine has been a friend of mine and for
eight years, like I was roommates with her in New
York and Williamsburg, I mean the green Point for just
for like four or five months and I was living
with her. This was like the beginning, you know for
all of us, like me and her. And what do
you mean about the beginning? Not the beginning, I mean
I was kind of probably doing more stuff musically, but
(20:18):
the beginning of the Aquafino rise was like then, you know,
which is dope? Because if you there's a documentary called
Bad Rap It's on Netflix and it's the they follow
for Asian rappers. It's me Aquafina lyrics and Rex Dizzy
and uh, you can if you watch the documentary, you
can see literally the beginnings. So it's great. It's a
great doc. It's kind of a slept On doc actually,
(20:39):
and it's it's on Netflix. Yeah, produced by j K
one of our mutual friends, shout out j Q. Yeah.
I'm developing a lot of shows. I go out for
all auditions, but really I feel like as kind of
the like a creative in the sense where I can
write my own stuff too. Like I focused a lot
on kind of developing me, developing my own stuff. So
I wrote a show that's gonna be announced. I just
(21:01):
sold it actually, so it's gonna be announced. Yeah, it's
gonna be announced like two three weeks. Um, so you
wrote the whole show. It's a show about me in
my life, and I'll be playing the lead in it,
and then um, uh you know there'll be there's family elements.
But I'm just a brief logline about it. It's uh,
it's about a wrapper aging out of the rap game
and he's been dumbfounded longer than he's been John Park
(21:23):
and now that his like like, uh, fame is dwindling.
He's reconnecting with like family friends in his neighborhood that
he's been so removed from, and like I didn't know
how to be an adult because rap is such like
a youthful kind of industry. So it's it's called Big
Dummy and it's gonna come out. So like we're working
on it. That's amazing. And TV network where it's gonna be.
(21:46):
It's a streaming service. But yeah, yeah, it should be
announced soon. I don't even know if I should have
said that. Actually I think it's cool. I think it's cool.
But well, by this time this errs, you'll be good,
so I think, so yeah, um, that's I mean. So
it's heavily about your life. It's it's you, yeah yeah,
and it's it's my relationships with my family too. It's
very broken kind of uh family, you know, my parents
(22:09):
split since I was super young. Dad kind of alcoholic, gambler. Um.
So there's a lot of these elements that I feel
like people don't talk about, Like we hear a lot
about these immigrants success stories, but we don't talk about
sometimes in pursuit of the American dream, the family gets
broken up, you know, because that pursuit is so aggressive
that you forget about the little things. And I feel
(22:29):
like when my family, a lot of that happened, you know.
So we talked kind of about that, and it's about
mending those relationships too. And you came over here, I
read I read somewhere where your mom brought you over
here from Argentina when you were like three years old
with your sister. Yeah, my mom actually carried me and
my little sister, who was one and I was three
at the time. Do the Mexican border to coyotes like illegally?
(22:50):
That's so crazy? Are there a lot of stories like that? Yeah?
There is. There's because there's a lot of Asians who immigrate,
Like most of my uncles and aunts are from like Peru, Paraguay,
like argent Tina. I don't know much about those roots.
I came here such a baby, but you know, it's
it's pretty interesting. I don't and I don't really know
why that was the case, you know, but there was.
I guess after the Korean War the government paid all
(23:13):
these Koreans to go to South America, was it? Yeah,
And that's why there's so many Koreans in South America
and then from there they didn't want to stay there
because obviously the living conditions and yeah, the opportunities wasn't
that much for like a Korean person area. Yeah, and
of course the American dream is the American dreams, so
a lot of people came over to Los Angeles to
settle here. It's the same thing I feel like with
(23:35):
my parents and their pursuit of the American dream, and
my my show is kind of the same. My storyline
is the same thing where I feel like as I
get older, like I don't you know, maybe I didn't
enjoy the little things, and you know, those little things
become the big things, you know. So it's about that
and maybe like catching myself slipping into the kind of
the same thing. Because we're all focused on this like big,
(23:57):
big dream, you know, we kind of forget about all
the little between stuff and the journey is like really
the reward, right, So exactly, it's the experiences and that's
what matters. I'm looking forward to seeing what you have
in store for your future. So you you're working on
aqua final show and you have your own show and
the pipeline, anything else exciting that you want to do
or pursue. I just stay working, just making stuff, you know.
(24:19):
Like to me, it's just you know, I I've always
just made video stuff that wasn't even music related, you know.
So I like putting on a lot of artists, like
up and coming artists, you know. I just say, I
just like saying curious about culture, you know. And I
think that's the main thing. I never really feel old
because I'm up on everything. Like I know everything on
(24:40):
that's going on on the internet, like a sixteen year
old kid, you know what I mean, Like like a
sixt TikTok star, Like I know everything like that's going
on online. Yeah. Yeah, your tweets are like I'm like,
oh wow, really knows everything stupid stuff. Yeah. So your
podcast fun with them? Yeah, um, you want to talk
a little bit about that. Yeah. So mean, it was
just a podcast that I just want to start and
(25:02):
kind of talk to a lot of my friends who
are doing cool stuff. But it did become pretty focused
on like Asian and Asian American um, only because I
think I had a wide network of creatives and that
we're Asian descent. But it's not limited to that. We're
we're doing We're we got a lot of interesting interviews
coming up. But it's it spans like really wide, from
(25:22):
fashion to musicians too, like we had a magician that
guy Shin Lim who on America's got talent, to like
Roy Choy, Aquafina, obviously a lot of comedians. It's it's cool,
it's fun. It's like just once a week, I mean
it's yeah, yeah, just try to keep it cool and fun. Yeah, awesome, awesome.
So I was up really early. I know I told
(25:44):
you this, but I was up really early because you
said your favorite cream food is kim Yeah. Yeah, so
I have made that today, but I made it spicy.
I don't know if that's okay with you. Yeah, that's okay.
That's not my favorite version of it, but not it's okay,
it's okay. I usually like the regular one, okay, but
(26:05):
but spicy is always good. It's weird because I love
spicy stuff, but you don't like team I like it regular,
I don't. Yeah, but this is okay. Now you didn't.
I thought it was like being like, well, so I
should just like kept it, you know, like I should
just lie right there. And it's been like I like
this slice, no I like the realness. It's fine. Like
my mom made me like spicy Kype Team, so I
(26:28):
wasn't wanted to make that version for you. Okay, whoa,
this is fire all right. So what's your fondest or
best memory with Kype Team? Like why is this your favorite?
Kybe Team is not like a everyday thing, you know
what I'm saying. It's like special occasion. It has a
little bit of royalty to it, you know, Like I
(26:49):
mean it comes from you know, the royal cuisine. Yeah,
it's a it's an event, you know. But I always
considered it to be one of the more bougier kind
of dishes in Korean. Like, no one really grew up this.
It's expensive and I don't really be cooking like that.
So is it. It takes a minute to like make this.
It takes a while to make this, like three hours.
Thank you. What an amazing podcast. I could have like
(27:11):
bought it, you know, this is the thing. I could
have bought the Kybe jim and just brought it. Yeah,
but there's nothing I like connecting with my guests, and
that's that's why I cook. No, I love that. I
love that. I mean, I'm not complaining and then also
it's it's I just love that. Yeah, you put him
that much hard into the podcast because I half ass online.
I barely do any research. No, come on, you know
(27:35):
that's what it's raw ands like for me, it's should
into this, please do okay, here we go all right too.
I hope it's as good as your bombs look good.
And like Ellie's Korean food is like insane, and I
know that there's that kybe Jim place that's so famous
(27:57):
and yeah, it's right next to my favorite bar. Can
you probably go eat that? Like I don't actually I don't.
Um my favorite kabee in Koreatown is in this place
cause hung book don't. Oh my god, I love someone.
I was just there the other that's my favorite. But
there is very good. Yeah, yeah, cook pop is fire.
It has like a different thing to it, right, like
(28:19):
the most cook pops like it's its own thing because
I've never tasted like that, and it's like they ferment
the cabbage. I think that's is that. The I love
k time was like the thing I was going to
put maybe for the third one, because for some reason,
I just love Ugugi. What is that again? So Ugoji
is dried cabbage. Dried cabbage. Yeah, it's dried cabbage, and
(28:39):
it's it's just cabbage, but it's done in this way
where it's preserved, so it gives a different texture and dimension.
So I love ugoji as well. It's very like homey thing,
but some book don't ferment it, so that's why it's
kind of different. So delicious that this is fantastic. Um, okay,
(29:00):
can you describe what you're eating to our listeners? And yeah,
the braves short rib is that what a short rip? Yeah?
Raise short rib um? You know, probably cooked for hours
and then when you bite into it, it's like super tender,
like peels off the bone pretty much. And then usually
the carrots and potatoes are just really sweet. It's like
(29:22):
a sweet spicy it's not like when when it's this
is a spicy version, but it's not really spicy. It
just has a little kick and I like, yeah, usually
it's just soy brais, so it's like salty and sweet.
I like those better because it's not as spicy as
like the other spicy ones. This is good. This is
a good spicy, Like this is closer to the version
I like, you know what I mean? So yeah, but
it still has like that red, like kind of spicy
(29:45):
deep flavor because I add to this one and usually
Mayo garbean does not use K if you go if
you go to a cream restaurant or this though, it's
probably gonna be the most expensive thing on the menu,
right yeah, it's like, I mean, it's expensive and it
takes a long time to make. I think that this
is like sixty it's somewhere between forty and sixty. I think. Yeah.
(30:09):
I mean it's like a luxury food item. Like you know,
if it's sixty dollars, there's a Grandma's slaving away in
the back bear or something like she is going ham.
Did you try the potatoes? So I do a little
bit um, I do something a little bit different. I
add sweet potatoes. It's good just so it's like, you know,
(30:29):
level up, but it still tastes like Grandma food. Doesn't
taste like Grandma mad good. And I already ate lunch,
but I'm going in it's crazy, would you have for
lunch to day? I'm on like a meal plant thing.
I'm like a big one the fitness thing right now?
Did it? I don't care. I'm not gonna let you
throw you know, ky bee chim in front of me
and disrespected like it's fire. Though, this is great, amazing, Well,
(30:54):
where can our listeners find you everything at? Just at
Dumbfounded you spelled d U M B f O U
N d E A D. I have like hundreds of
videos on YouTube, um, Spotify. You can check on my
music and my podcast fun with dumb and uh yes,
stay tuned for more stuff. Trying to get my uh
cooking skills up this year too. So really, if you
(31:17):
need lessons you know who the yeah for sure. Well,
thank you so much for joining us. Thank you and
thank you for cooking. Appreciate it and that's our show.
Thanks for listening. If you like what you heard, please
subscribe and leave us a five star review. Get Down
with Kaytown is a production of I Heart Radio and
was created by our executive producer Christopher Hasiotis and me
as to Troy. Follow me on all social media at
(31:39):
toy bites and I'd also like to thank our producer,
editor and mixer Marcie to Pina. For more podcasts from
I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
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