K-Pop Dreaming - Roots of Rap

Yeah No, I’m Not OK

Thank you for listening to Yeah No, I'm Not OK. The team at LAist Studios would like to share our latest podcast, California Love: K-Pop Dreaming. It's a story about the rise and history of K-pop in the United States, as told from the point-of-view of the Korean diaspora in Los Angeles by host Vivian Yoon.

The LA Uprising exploded racial and economic injustices simmering under the surface of Los Angeles into the open. Vivian looks at the events leading up to the Uprising, and the efforts following the protests to promote racial harmony in Los Angeles, including the staging of an African music festival in South Los Angeles that featured a performance by an up-and-coming Korean American rapper named Tiger JK. Years after the festival, he would go on to make a name for himself in South Korea as the “Godfather of Korean Hip-Hop”.
(Originally published March 23, 2023)

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