Killa California. I'm sorry to inform you. Im serving all you rappers like Anna Kournikova.

Interview by : Josh Lee

Josh: I see you got a big emphasis on remaining authentic and being a rapper’s rapper and a dj’s dj. So who are people in the rap game you respect right now? Can you really get big and still remain authentic to yourself in the rap game today?

Dumb: Yea. I think there’s a lot of cats you know like ASAP Rocky and Odd Future and those kids. I feel like with them, whether you’re into their music or not, I respect them because in an era where everybody is talking about being cool and shit these kids were like fuck that. We’re gonna go into it and talk about crazy shit and weird like dark shit. It’s not necessarily even cool; it’s just like weird. It’s almost like gothic hip-hop. But it’s dope.  It’s an era where that’s not even that popular but they went in there and they fucking blew up off of it. Where someone like me, I feel like I could relate to those kids because I don’t do typical hip-hop that’s on the radio. So when I hear kids like that, I feel like there’s hope for someone like me to blow up. You know what I mean. It’s not necessarily about their music. It’s about them being true to themselves. You know what I mean. That’s why I respect a lot of those artists. And you know there’s a lot of great artists in the new school with J.Cole and Drake; I feel like they’re promoting really great music. I think it’s a really great era to come out with original music.

J: I’ve always seen hip-hop as like the trend-setters of cool, and always chasing the cool, and new street blogs about ‘the impossible cool’ and ‘where is the cool?’ And you’re saying cool is really originality and if it’s weird shit, it’s cool because you’re chasing you, you’re doing you at the end.

D: O yea, by the time you try to emulate what’s cool at the moment, it’s too late. You have to be the innovator of cool. You know what I mean? You know don’t try and sit at the cool table. Be the cool table. You can’t try to be cool. It’s too late. If you try to be cool, it’s really too late. All the dudes who’re considered cool is because they’re the ones who innovated what they do and their style.

J: Because this is an Asian American magazine and we’re looking forward to hearing what it’s means to be an Asian American rapper out there. I saw you guys did something with Jin, and Jin’s looked at as the OG of Asian American rap, in just being able to put it on TV in the first place. Do you identify as an Asian American rapper? Because I notice now, I see more and more with your singles coming out with stuff about your moms immigrating over here, what it means to have a kind of ethnic experience here in America.

D: Yea, I think one of the things that got me to where I am is that, actually is the fact that I didn’t preach or use it as a crutch being Asian. I think that’s one thing that has got me to where I am right now. Because if you look 3-4 years ago, there were a lot of Asian American rappers in hip-hop emerging and to me a lot of them weren’t that original. The ironic thing about that is they mentioned a lot about how they were Asian. But the funny thing about it is they weren’t really repping Asians necessarily, because they were preaching that while sounding like so many different artists. You know what I’m sayin? In my opinion, even though I don’t even really talk about what it is being Asian, I almost feel like I represent it more because I feel like I’m defining what it is. As opposed to them, they’re trying to relate their Asian struggles to another culture’s struggle. You know what I’m saying? As opposed to me, I feel like I’m doing me and I am Asian, so I’m representing Asians. You know what I’m sayin? It’s ironic to me how a lot of the rappers then were really, really preaching the Asia American stuff but talking about street hustle shit like of a black dude in the projects, and they weren’t really living that lifestyle. They were just sprinkling the word Asian in there and used it as a crutch. To me, I never used being Asian as a crutch in hip-hop. While they were talking about, “O you think I’m Asian so , blah blah, I can’t spit.” I never felt like that. I always felt like being Asian in hip-hop was an advantage. Because it’s unique, hip-hop’s about being unique, so anytime I stepped into a cipher and I was the only Asian dude, I felt fucking great. I felt like a stood out. So when I spit something people were like shocked and I love that shock value. I love when people attack me in a battle with Asian shit. “O shit.” That challenged me and that made me a better battler. I always thought it was an advantage. I never thought it was a crutch, or Asians have a disadvantage in hip-hop at all. I think while people were complaining about how we can’t get into the industry, I’m more worried about, yo I want to dope enough to be accepted in this industry. To be honest, there’s some of talented Asian Americans out there, but none of us have really super figured out the formula to get in yet in my opinion. I’m still trying to figure it out. I’m trying to be better and I’m trying to develop my craft. So I think we need to be more worried about honing our crafts, instead of complaining about how Asians can’t get into the industry.

ZO: I agree with that because sometimes people will come to Dumb and be like “Yo, Waddup Dumb, I rap too. I’m Asian, man. Come Check me out. I’m Asian and I rap.” So what. You should work on your craft and if you’re dope, you’re dope.

D: Yea, I don’t care if an artist says, “I’m Asian, we should stick together.” No. I don’t support Asians. I support dope. You know what I’m saying. I support dopeness. If anything, I’m harder on my own people. You better be fucking dope if you’re Asian. If you’re going to represent me, I always say, if I’m not the one to break through, I’m going to inspire the next kid to breakthrough. You know what I’m sayin? And if that kid breaks through like he better be fucking dope to represent our culture.

Dumb: I just feel like we, as Asian Americans, sometimes, I think we’re hurting ourselves in a sense that we’re creating our own little comfort zone. We think we’re supporting mad Asian Americans. But in a way, I feel like we’re creating a comfort zone for ourselves. And our own scene is getting so big that Asian artists want to strive to be the biggest Asian rapper, as opposed to being the best rapper. And I’ve seen that a lot lately, and that’s something I don’t promote. I feel like us Asians to really prove, I’m not trying to be the best Asian rapper. I want to prove our people outside of the Asian scene. If you really want to represent our people, do it outside of the Asian scene. That’s real tough. I feel like if you’re an Asian American artist, you’re already representing the Asians. Mofuckas will ride with you. You’re Asian. That’s why I do a lot of Asian shows because they can relate to me and they just book me. It’s not necessarily, “O I’m trying to just do Asian shows.” But I feel the support from the community and that’s awesome, but I think what they really want to seem me do is stuff outside of it.

J: I know you have a big respect for KOLLABORATION and PK. Do you see that as a comfort zone or do you see PK get these artists out to bigger forums?

D: Well Pk, he’s an originator first of all. He is the originator of that showcase and that Kollaboration movement. I don’t see that as a comfort zone because what Kollaboration does in particular is it’s a talent showcase. So they find upcoming talent that is not big already. They might have special guests or Asian artists that are doing well. But it’s actually a talent show of upcoming talent that hasn’t been exposed yet. What the Asian scene is good for is a foundation. They could start with the Asian scene, but what I’m trying to say is don’t just do that. Let that be a foundation. Let that Asian support be a foundation for greater things.

J: I just want to ask you about Grindtime. Grindtime itself is trying to offend each other? But for me if anyone said some racial stuff to me, I’d flip a shit. I’d be like “Let’s go.”

D: I think a lot of people have that same response to some of the racial things that’s said in grindtime. Honestly, Asian people hit me up and say, “How could you take that?” But dude, it’s a battle. If I was battling an Asian dude and I wasn’t Asian , I would bust out hella racial shit. It’s a battle you use anything you can to beat your opponent. It’s a sport. Dave Chappelle has a great sketch about this. He said when he saw Kramer when he dropped the N Bomb on stage, he said when he saw him do that like that’s when he knew he was 80% comedian and 20% Black– meaning instead of him being offended, he was more like, “Damn, he’s having a horrible set up there.” You know what I’m saying, which means that dude loves his craft to the point where it’s like he’s thinking beyond the racial thing; he’s thinking more about the craft. I’m thinking more about the craft when I’m in there too. Once you do that you can overcome these little racial sensitivity things. I’ve said shit. Everybody has it bad. It’s not just Asians. Everybody has equal struggles and once we treat those little things, as unimportant. We have way bigger issues than that. When we treat those little things lightly,then I think we can overcome these racial boundaries. The reason we have these racial tensions is because people are way too fucking sensitive over these things. You know what I’m sayin? Think about when you’re with your friends and you say little racial jokes to each other. Think about how cool that is, instead of being in these really tense situations. But it’s a sport. In football, you’re trying to kill each other on the field. What’s the difference between that and words?

Memorize 200 characters in Chinese, and you can read the newspaper.

Imagine knowing such characters, and then forgetting them. Which is easier, the learning or forgetting?

It sounds incredulous that a plethora of people can no longer write certain characters by hand, even though they have previously been taught how to. Due to the complexity of the characters, it is normal to forget from time to time, but there is an astounding number of those who are not just forgetting a few characters, but everyday words, habitually.  How can it be possible to forget a language so easily?

“Character amnesia,” as the problem is coined, has been a growing phenomenon in China and Japan, where youths have become so reliant on technology that they cannot write certain characters without the aid of cellphones or computers. It has almost reached the point where people cannot hand write anything without pulling out their phones and checking for the proper strokes. In China, where the input system on these electronics is based on pinyin, people only have to recognize the characters, and choose them from a list that appears after the pinyin is typed. For example, the character for ‘I’ or ‘me’ is 我, which is pronounced, “wo.” The character 我 is the first displayed on the list, since it is the most widely used. Chinese people are able to type using pinyin very quickly, without noticing the actual strokes involved in constructing their sentences.

I know how it feels to forget a language, especially the mother tongue. At that time though, it was inevitable. I had just moved to the United States from Hong Kong, and I did not have much fluency of the English language. Under the pressure of my parents and friends, I decided to stop speaking Cantonese. I only spoke my mother tongue when I couldn’t express certain thoughts in English. “Speak English only, that is how you learn,” they would say. My Cantonese was fluent; I could pronounce every word without an accent, and I never thought that I would ever lose it.

But I did.

As I spoke more and more English, my knowledge of Cantonese waned. My parents would speak to me in Canto, only to elicit a reply in English from me. Nowadays, English was my main form of communication–if not the only. I still remember how to say everyday phrases in Canto, but my literate knowledge of the language was long gone. I could barely read, let alone write. I was illiterate in my native language.

At least those experiencing “character amnesia” have not completely lost their language. They can still text.

K-pop: Korean pop music.

J-pop: Japanese pop music.

C-pop: Chinese pop music.

Easy enough, right?

Through the 8 years of living in the small, white-dominated town of Fishkill, I’ve learned that the average Caucasian considers Asian music to be some weird mixture of sounds with awkward voices belting out weird words. They shy away from foreign music, and I, like most, feared the most expected sneers and mocking of liking such music. So, I didn’t. To me, Asian music—and other various parts of the Asian culture—was something only the Asians could enjoy. I mean, stating it so bluntly kind of makes me sound like I was a bit ignorant, but that’s how I honestly saw the world to be—incapable of becoming a completely homogenous society.

The thing I realized in more recent times is that the small town of Fishkill is, in fact, small; there’s this huge world that my little Fishkill can’t even be compared to. This statement most likely sounds undeniably obvious, but I’ve come to realize how exactly true this geographical detail is.

To help expand my view of the world a bit better, I found a little help from YouTube; for the past few weeks I’ve witnessed K-pop music videos pop up under the titles of “Most Viewed,” and “Most Rated.”

But, this simple fact couldn’t possibly make a statement… could it?

Well, I thought about it, and two questions came to mind:

“Is it really that hard to get the most views? I mean look at Rebecca Black…”

and

“Isn’t it just all viewed by Asians all over the world?… there’s so many of us everywhere.”

After a bit of thought, I concluded with myself that it takes someone really smart to think of a song as dumb as Friday, and that, though the majority of the views must be Asian, not all of them could be. (I mean, isn’t YouTube banned in China?)

Still, a lot of people would read and wonder about how little I do in my free time to observe and look far too deep into such small things. I’d agree…if it wasn’t for my train ride back home some wintry day in December of 2010.

I was going home for winter break, worrying about how I was going to confess to my parents about my horrendous grades for the semester. I went inside the train after waiting a few hours for its arrival, and sat down on the first empty seat I could find. I normally never considered the person sitting next to me to be of any importance other than the awkward fact that we were complete strangers sitting within a distance I personally considered to be too friendly.

This time, however, was a little different—I noticed a few things about the girl I was apparently fated to sit next to, which led to the conversation that might have possibly blown my mind. The first—and main—thing I noticed that sparked my interest was that she was from Poughkeepsie, the city so close to Fishkill. Maybe it was because I recently experienced my first semester of college where I’ve met so many people from all around the world, but to meet someone who lived so close was a friendly thought.

I started the conversation about where we lived and where we were from, which school we attended, what our favorite movies and books were, etc. I was pleasantly surprised that we shared a lot of things in common. Soon, though, the conversation turned to music and I experienced the most interracial-intercultural moment—she loved the Asian trilogy of J-pop, K-pop, and even C-pop.

The kicker? She was African-American.

Maybe to some, this moment may not have been surprising, or even worth the emotions of wonder I continuously experienced long after. But to me, the world seemed to grow a little smaller and a bit brighter. Don’t get me wrong—this moment was far from being dramatic or life changing. Alongside YouTube, this girl, whose name I can’t remember, just proved to me how our views of the world might just be a little limited. Well, how mine were, at least.

And finally, yes, I do realize that this whole experience of epiphanies and realizations was revolved around the minor topic of music. But then again, who knows?

Music can change the world because it can change people. Bono knows what’s good.

Liu Wen, the first female Asian model to walk the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Photo: Getty

by AUDRIE TAN

There’s been a recent upstart in all things Asian-inspired on the catwalk–from teasing cheongsams at Louis Vuitton to Japanese silk drapery at Kenzo.

But it wasn’t just the clothes that caught the attention of the mod crowd at this year’s New York Fashion Week. Many of the models lent an exoticism to the catwalk this season, with their delicate features and demure legginess.

For the last few years, the industry has orchestrated a gradual introduction of the Asian model in several major fashion shows and ad campaigns, including Calvin Klein, DKNY, Victoria’s Secret, and Ralph Lauren–which featured six Asian models at New York Fashion Week.

This recent onslaught of Asian models–mostly Chinese, Korean and Japanese–has been seen as ”redefining the traditional concepts of beauty” (Vogue). But what are the traditional concepts of beauty–if any–in the world of high fashion, which has found aesthetic value in the strange, otherworldly, and androgynous? And if this statement by Vogue suggests that Asian women are any less appealing than unconventional beauty, why have so many designers jumped on this foreign–Asian, no less–bandwagon?

The answer lies not only in the face value of these models. China is fast becoming the world’s second largest luxury-goods market, second only to the U.S. Luxury fashion houses in the likes of Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Chloé, and Diane Von Furstenberg have sprung up across China in the last few years, and are quickly expanding their presence there in the tailwind of predictions that China will soon surpass Japan as the world’s second largest consumer of luxury goods.

As designers flock to open boutiques in China, they are also evolving their marketing schemes in a bid to reach out to the Chinese market. Asian faces and prints on the catwalk are just the icing on the cake that will draw more Chinese consumers to buy these luxury brands and keep them afloat in tough times.

In the Western economic recession, China may be the new superpower–and the Asian model may be here to stay.

by AUDRIE TAN

It’s been such a bleak month in news that even Wendi Murdoch’s pie antics seem worthy front-page fodder. Right up there with the recent Oslo bombing and shootings, starving children in Kenya, and of course, the News of the World scandal that continues to glut the headlines. I’d even go so far as to say it’s probably been the pinnacle of the silly season, which—thankfully—is coming to an end. While I think we can all agree that the NOTW/Murdoch scandals belonged where they belonged—in the news—the whole media-bred instant celebrity story should have never been allowed to leave the sidebar. And if you’ve been living under a rock, well, good for you. This is all you’ll need to know: Outraged protester sneaks into Parliament, attempts to cream Rupert Murdoch, owner of NOTW tabloid, with pie of shaving foam, but is dutifully stopped by Murdoch’s more youthful wife, Wendi, who defends him in a stunning display of martial prowess. The end.

But no, it’s not really the end. Because Wendi Murdoch also happens to be Wendi Deng, or more precisely, 邓文迪. You don’t have to be able to read to know it’s Chinese (or some derivative of er, Asian—if you think that’s a language). Perhaps that’s why I’m so shamelessly—and regrettably—drawn to her story, and why I feel it may have more bearing on this site, even though I just wrote it off as a sad excuse for a news story. There are generally two camps of people on the Wendi issue, which is, essentially—why did she do what she did at Parliament? Diplomats will say she is an ambitious woman. Others, less politic, think she’s nothing short of a golddigger. I reckon it all boils down to the same. There is, however, a slight difference in the use of ambitious, other than the obvious reasoning that it has a nicer ring to it. It’s a veiled remark, if you will. While not necessarily congratulatory, it leaves less of a bad taste than golddigger (which is quite blatantly derogatory).

When I lived in Shanghai, it seemed like all Chinese women—local and immigrant alike—were clamoring to marry any Caucasian male in sight (and there were many). The general consensus is that Caucasians are richer than all other expatriates, something I know now to be completely misconstrued. Often, these marriages have a short half-life. The generation gap, for instance, spans several decades. Then there’s the separate issue of cultural differences and divorce suits —a few months into married life, the glass seems more than half empty. In many of these relationships, the allure of the green card seems to be what really ties the knot. My mother has a name for these women—ambitious. She really means they are shrewd and cunning.  But she also acknowledges that they are smart in this regard. There’s a systematic method to golddiggery: In fact, China has specialized schools instructing their girls on the art of cultivating ambition—or snagging rich men for husbands. It’s a lucrative business, because this is the definition of success to many modern Chinese women.  

The Straits Times in Singapore (and many other major news outlets) recently launched a lengthy foray into Wendi Deng’s personal life, from the time she left China with an American couple, married the husband and got a green card, to her stint at Yale and later “fortuitous” encounter with Rupert Murdoch, who divorced his second wife to marry Deng. The story sounds all too familiar. When news broke of Deng’s athletic skills and wifely instincts in the pie episode, few wondered at why she did what she did. “PR” and “money” emerged as common themes in the discussion. These are fair enough assumptions, given Murdoch owns a multi-billionaire dollar empire. But Deng has her supporters, who give her names like “Super Wife” and “Wendi to the Rescue”. In China, she’s hailed as the new national role model for “boosting the image of Chinese wives”.

When news of that caliber reaches fan-club status, it’s gone awry. See, my beef with women like Wendi Deng isn’t her affinity for older men, or her pie-foiling skills, or even her instant celebrity status. It’s more an issue of conscience and scruple: How is she, a high-profile Chinese woman, representing the Asian community through her actions? (She is, without a doubt, an incredibly accomplished woman. But this doesn’t detract from the fact that she’s practically bulldozed her way to the top.) I wonder if this episode has really served to boost the image of Chinese women, or has it simply furthered the stereotype that all Chinese are morally incontinent golddiggers? Perhaps more importantly, what will her two young children with Murdoch, Grace and Chloe, think of their mother when they are old enough to understand? Will they, like many of Deng’s cheerleaders, embrace her success and ambition—or will they, having read the reports, see her as little more than a serial homewrecker?

Watch video of pie shenanigans at Parliament, July 19.

Photo: The New Yorker

A dad with a day off is a dangerous thing.

My dad took a day off of work, presumably because of this insane heatwave. (If you really get a chance to think about it, a suffocating hot day in the suburbs increasingly feels like a mammoth microwave, and you’re trapped on that rotating tray as it spins and spins you into crispier settings of insanity, charring your mind into the melted gum on your shoe) Now back to my Asian father.

My Asian father is not a tiger mom. I’m glad we’ve got that straight. Not all Asian parents are as frighteningly strict and literary as yourself, Ms. Chua. For that I’m grateful.

I’ve always been able to talk candidly about race, fatherhood and America with my dad, something I consider a blessing everyday of my life. So today, on his day off we went out to lunch. Korean restaurant. Free Appetizers. Lunch Special.

As the food was brought out and spices were appropriately marinated on top of our Squid fried-rice (DELICIOUS btw) we began to slip into a strange conversation about the fall of the American economy and the women’s world cup, which led to talk about the Olympics and Gold Medalist, National sweetheart, Kim Yuna.

Yuna Kim. Queen Yuna. The winter Olympics of 2010. I was a freshman with a crush on the Olympic favorite for Women’s Figureskating. And as she triple-axeled her way into my heart and onto the medal podium, I remember the stark pride that crossed my heart, the victory fist-pump and the winner’s snarl that disfigured my face. I’ve never been so proud of where my dad was born, and the language he speaks, and the country that he loves.

It was three years before that where I would’ve wanted to be anything else but Korean. April, 2007. I’ve never been ashamed of where my father was from. The Virginia Tech shooting was indeed, a monumental day in Korean-American history. After the initial shock of something so maliciously evil happening to students, I could not repress the selfish desire in me that shouted, “Why did he have to be Korean?” “What will the backlash at school be like tomorrow?” The constant thought that runs through every Asian American person is that he’d be mistaken for another Asian person. This thought has never been more imposingly threatening then on the morning after the shooting.

I asked myself. Why am I so attached to these people on TV. I’ve never met them and I know them just as well as I’d know Halle Berry or Ben Affleck. I speak a broken version of their language, yet my mood shifts with every pitfall and every glorious peak of each and every Korean man, woman and child.

I asked my father why I was feeling like this and why he felt the same.

He responded with a story about growing up in Seoul. If a child in his town misbehaved, it was the rightful duty of the closest adult to scold him on the spot, yelling at the kid for not living up to his status as a Korean child. It is very much a community and a father’s celebration of his son’s achievement or his scolding of that child is part of the community’s strength and weakness. Singularly ethnic people, like Koreans, think and act to preserve this manner.

My dad has always been fascinated by American culture. So different, divided, and ruggedly individualistic, but so strong in certain bonds of unity and patriotism. “They don’t understand what it feels like to be raised in the same village by the same people for years on end.” America is constantly changing racially, ethnically, religiously. Standing out is the principal, not fitting in.

We look for the outliers and pick at them. One Excelled in Fame, the other shot into notoriety.

I guess what links Virginia Tech shooter and Kim Yuna together is me. A boy born in Wayne, NJ still lights up with every gold medal and cringes with every interview with bad English or something as truly horrendous as Virginia Tech. The son of an immigrant based in the suburbs of Jersey.

Take a load off. This is me at home, in the land of Lincoln.

Welcome to our summer edition. We’re boasting a new staff. New graphics. New editors and new writers. For the time being, this blog will be dedicated to Asia America on its grind in this damn heat.

I will read this post in February in an archive with some of the finest writing A-Line has seen in its history and smile, pleading for that July afternoon with a high of 104.

This is for all those faithful A-Line readers, writers, and alumni, who’ve been with us at some point in these 21 years.

And for all you newcomers: You’re here at the right time.

Wassup SU. It’s July 23rd. We’ll be here to talk every week.

Paper Crane installation on SU campus // Photo Credit: Jennifer Cheng

Project Paper Crane is raising money for earthquake relief in Japan. For every $2 that students donate, Project Paper Crane will make add an orange paper crane to the installation located on the lawn between Schine and Newhouse. And SU alum will donate $2 more for every $2 donated by current SU students. The goal is to raise $14,000 within the student body and produce 7,000 cranes. The installation is not finished yet, there is still much more room for cranes.

There will be a marathon crane-making event on May 2, from noon to 5 p.m. all day long on the Quad. Teams of four to five students will compete to see which team can make the most cranes in four hours.

Cranes to raise money for Japan // Photo Credit: Jennifer Cheng

Upcoming Events
May 2, Paper Crane Making Marathon
@ Schine / Newhouse Lawn, Syracuse University
May 6, Fundraising Event, 6 p.m. – 11 p.m.
@ World Lounge and Martini Bar, 134 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

What has happened:
The 9.0 magnitude earthquake was the largest to ever hit Japan. Even though the country has had a history of earthquakes, being situated right on the Ring of Fire, the protective measures against the earthquake was still not enough to withstand the destructive force of the tsunami. Three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station had explosions and radioative gas leaks, resulting in a severe nuclear emergency. Radioactive materials were found in the atmosphere, Washington Post reports that the radioactive material detected in water, milk and vegetables in the region around the nuclear power station were found to be above the legal limit. The New York Times reports that as of March 24, the official death toll has climbed to 9,500 with more than 16,000 people missing. Officials expect the final toll to be nearly 20,000.
How you can help:
The Japanese Student Association is fund-raising on behalf of the Consul-General of Japan in New York. There are donation boxes dotted all over campus:

Locations of donation boxes to help Japan

- Jennifer Cheng

These are just a few quotes from a pint sized Asian who is taking the Youtube comedy club at large. When fans of Luan Legacy aren’t listening to his high-pitched, fast-paced rants about everyday qualms, they’re anxiously anticipating the release of his newest sketch. His blunt opinions shine through his reels with a ghetto-star attitude, as he recounts the “stupidity” of run-ins with clueless strangers (“Dumb girl at the Bustop,” “The Akins Special,” and a high brow rich boy who doesn’t like Lipton Iced Tea, to name a few).

But one thing that separates Luan from his fellow Youtubers is his ability to mix comedy with serious issues. Luan, a Texan high school senior, chooses to mix his gay-rights activism with comedic twists. Though most of his videos vary from ordinary complaints, Luan uses Youtube to channel his frustrations about homophobe bullies who victimize closeted gays. In videos such as “It Gets Better if You Want it To,” “Prop 8 Has Been Repealed,” “Sexual Orientation is NOT a choice,” and “Stop Hating on Feminine Gays,” viewers get to see more serious side of Luan. In these clips, he addresses the dangers of suicide attempts, feelings of oppression by the LGBT community, and his ideals to champion equal rights. He also promotes other positive messages, such as believing in oneself and nurturing a high self-esteem.

With a voice as fierce and fiery as his Kool-Aid dyed Mohawk, Luan is definitely a newfound favorite to check out, either at:Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Blog TV, or Myspace.

http://www.youtube.com/user/luanlegacy#p/u/0/NttJWWUvXPw

And as Luan would say:

Love you guys <3 (mwah*) Bye!