For anyone following Korean music, hip hop has been an absolute trend and boom in the last couple of years. Trends are great for cultural development, however, they are often driven without any filters or quality control. It’s amazing to see hip hop grow in Korea, whether it is underground or mainstream. We are seeing an exponential growth in hip hop releases, but the real question is: can they be considered as good music? There is an emergence of many young artists coming to life but do they actually understand the spirit of hip hop or are they simply jumping on the trend-boat to make quick dough?
Be sure to check out our exclusive interview with Owen Ovadoz.
In this mini-documentary, we catch a little glimpse into the life of a rising underground rapper Owen Ovadoz. Not only do we talk about processes of his creative endeavours in music and life, but Owen also shares his thoughts on the positive development of hip hop and the importance in understanding the spirit of hip hop as well as its history for anyone who is and aspires to be an artist.
https://vimeo.com/134477451
I met Owen for the first time at the ODB gig while I was spending a couple of days in Korea. After that, I was in Japan and a couple other places to carry on with other art and film projects, but we kept in touch. Probably a couple months after that I had a call to do film work in Korea and me and Owen discussed making this, however we were both so busy with both our own schedules. The day before I left Korea to San Francisco, we decided to film while Owen was doing a few recordings at the WORXX crew studio. I left for America the next day. Owen gives me a call in a couple weeks and tells me he’s coming to LA to do a gig on stage with Nafla, Loopy and the lot. That’s how the lego pieces came together.
Mushi is the endeavors of a young, Eurasian artist, so far focusing primarily on videography. With an eye on the relationship between form and content, Mushi’s work is at its heart reflexive and dialogic. His video projects explore various art forms with the intention of perpetuating a broader, more inclusive understanding of what it is to be an artist. Currently in San Francisco as an artist-in-residence (VAR program) Mushi is currently working on further developing both conceptual and documentary-style approaches to video production, taking advantage of as well as contributing to the collaborative ethos of the residency.
PORTFOLIO: mushiworks.com
INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/mushi_james/