Dumbfoundead

Dumbfoundead
Birth name Jonathan Edgar Park
Born (1986-02-18) February 18, 1986
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Origin Los Angeles, United States
Genres Hip hop
Occupation(s)
  • Rapper
  • actor
Years active 2005–present
Labels
Associated acts Project Blowed
Website dumbfoundead.com
Korean name
Hangul 박성만
Revised Romanization Park Seong-man
McCune–Reischauer Pak Sŏngman

Jonathan Park[1] (Korean name: Park Seong-man, Hangul: 박성만; born February 18, 1986),[2] known professionally as Dumbfoundead, is an Argentine-born Korean-American rapper.[3] He began his career in the 2000s as a battle rapper in Los Angeles and has since become one of the most prominent Asian-American rappers in the United States, known for his witty and socially conscious lyrics.[4][5][6]

Early life

Park was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina to South Korean immigrants. He has one younger sister. When he was three years old, Park's family immigrated to the United States by crossing the Mexico-United States border without green cards. His family settled in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.[3]

Park began rapping when he was 14 years old, inspired in part by the rappers he saw perform weekly at Project Blowed, a local open mic workshop.[7]

Park dropped out of John Marshall High School in his sophomore year, and moved into a one-bedroom apartment with his sister and a roommate at the age of 16. Before becoming a full-time rapper, he worked as a bail bondsman, among other odd jobs.[7]

Park became a U.S. citizen when he was 19 years old.[3]

Career

Park began growing a large web fan base, after video clips of his rap battles were posted to YouTube. In 2015, Park returned to rap battling to participate in Drake and OVO's event King of the Dot Blackout 5, and was complimented by Drake himself, who expressed his excitement in his return.[8] Park competed against Wild 'n Out cast member Conceited, and the battle is currently the most popular English rap battle of 2015.[9] In August 2015, Park has battled fellow battler Dizaster on Day One of KOTD's World Domination 5.

His first solo album, DFD, was released on November 1, 2011.[10] His second album, Take the Stares, was released on October 16, 2012.[11] In 2013, Park released his third album Old Boy Jon, and a single by the same, all produced by Duke Westlake.

Dumbfoundead has collaborated with other music artists, including Epik High, Traphik, Wax, Jay Park, Kahi, and Anderson Paak.[12] In 2015, he was featured on josh pan's remix of Keith Ape's song It G Ma, alongside popular rappers Waka Flocka Flame, ASAP Ferg, and Father.[13]

He has been featured on NBC for his viral video Jam Session 2.0, consisting of 8 different musicians from around the world sharing the spotlight individually via split screen but collaborating on one cohesive track.[14] He has also been on Los Angeles Times,[15] Last Call with Carson Daly,[16] MTV Hive,[17] and Mnet.[18]

Park played a supporting role in Joseph Kahn's horror film Detention.[19]

In 2016, he released the music video "Safe," [20] which gained widespread attention for superimposing Park's likeness onto the faces of white actors in famous movie scenes. The objective of this was to call attention to the fact that there were no Asian or Asian-American actors at the Oscars, and that "the only yellow men were all statues."[21] Furthermore, the music video was another call to "the obvious underrepresentation of people of color in Hollywood."[22] Park was also a starring member of the 2016 documentary Bad Rap, which outlined the lives of four Asian-American artists trying to make it in the hip-hop scene.[23]

Dumbfoundead is currently on his "We Might Die" tour to promote his new album of the same name, and has sold out the tickets for his stops in Vancouver, Washington DC, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle.[24]

Style and influences

He is known for his affiliation with Los Angeles-based hip hop collective Project Blowed, he has participated in the West Coast division of rap battle league Grind Time, and in Jumpoff's 2007 World Rap Championships; both of which have given rise to his status as a strong web presence. He has also done a stint as the opening act for South Korean hip hop group Epik High's Map the Soul tour,[25] and is also a member of the hip hop trio Thirsty Fish and Los Angeles battle crew Swim Team.[26]

According to Beatroute, Dumbfoundead's philosophy on music, rap battles, and life in general can be summed up in the quote, "too often we fool ourselves into caring about [something] we shouldn’t, and into battling everyone and everything when the battle is inside of us—when all we want to do is just eat some [food] and make some music."[27]

Discography

Studio albums

Title Album details Peak chart positions Sales
US
R&B/
Hip-Hop
[28]		 US
Rap
[28]
DFD 41 24 N/A
Take the Stares
  • Released: October 16, 2012
  • Label: Transparent Agency
  • Formats: CD, digital download
 56 —
Old Boy Jon
  • Released: February 18, 2013
  • Label: Transparent Agency
  • Formats: CD, digital download
 — —
We Might Die
  • Released: November 10, 2016
  • Label: Transparent Agency
  • Formats: CD, digital download
 — —

Extended plays

Title Album details Peak chart positions Sales
KOR
[29]
Foreigner
  • Released: May 23, 2017
  • Label: Born CTZN
  • Formats: CD, digital download
 87 N/A
Rocket Man
  • Released: December 13, 2017
  • Label: Born CTZN
  • Formats: CD, digital download
 —

Singles

Title Year Peak chart positions Sales Album
KOR
[30]
As lead artist
"Different Galaxies"
feat. Sam Ock		 2010 — N/A Non-album singles
"Clouds"
feat. Jay Park, Clara		 —
"Respect 16's"
feat. Dok2, Myk, Yankie, Rakaa, Mithra Jin, Tablo, Bizzy, Sean Rhee, Tiger JK		 —
"Mellow Yellow" 2015 —
"Coachella" —
"Domies" (도우미)
feat. Keith Ape, Okasian		 —
"Mijangwon" (미장원)
feat. Loopy, Nafla		 —
"Safe" 2016 — We Might Die
"Hyung" (형)
feat. Dok2, Simon Dominic, Tiger JK		 2017 — Foreigner
"3890" — Non-album single
"Every Last Drop" — Rocket Man
"P.A.A.C. (Protect At All Cost)" —
"Kill Me" —
Collaborations
"100 Grand"
with Keith Charles Spacebar		 2015 — N/A Non-album singles
"Banned From The Motherland"
with Josh Pan feat. Jay Park, Simon Dominic, G2		 2016 —
"K.B.B" (가위바위보)
with Jessi, Microdot, Lyricks		 —
As featured artist
"It's Me"
Kahi feat. Dumbfoundead		 2013 45 Who Are You?
"Please"
DPR Live feat. Dumbfoundead, Kim Hyo-eun, G2		 2017 — N/A Coming To You Live
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

References

  1. ↑ Grigsby Bates, Karen (2013-04-15). "Dumbfoundead: A Rising Star In A Genre In Transition". NPR. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  2. ↑ "덤파운데드" [Dumbfoundead]. Daum 100 (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  3. 1 2 3 Kivanc, Jake (2015-12-10). "LA's Hidden Gem: Dumbfoundead Speaks on Battle Rap and Finding His Place as an Asian Rapper in America". Noisey. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  4. ↑ "Korean-American rapper Dumbfoundead on why representation in hip-hop matters". CBC News. 2018-03-19. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  5. ↑ Doo, Rumy (2017-05-22). "[Next Wave] Dumbfoundead on Koreatown, 'Foreigner'". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  6. ↑ Tabios, Nina (2018-03-20). "Trump's tweets inspire rapper Dumbfoundead's new EP". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  7. 1 2 Weiss, Jeff (2011-11-18). "Dumbfoundead On Dropping Out Of High School, Working As A Bail Bondsman, And The Advantages Of Being An Asian Rapper". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  8. ↑ "Dumbfoundead". Facebook. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  9. ↑ "Organik - KOTDTV.com on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  10. ↑ Son, Linda (9 November 2011). "Dumbfoundead Gets Personal and Professional with 'DFD'". KoreAm.
  11. ↑ Lam, Charles (26 October 2012). "Dumbfoundead can't 'Take the Stares'". Northwest Asian Weekly.
  12. ↑ "Dumbfoundead & Epic High interview with". Popseoul.com. 22 May 2009. Archived from the original on 23 May 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
  13. ↑ "Keith Ape - IT G MA (Remix) Feat. A$AP Ferg, Father, Dumbfoundead & Waka Flocka - Stream [New Song]". Hotnewwhiphop.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  14. ↑ "MusicRaw: Dumbfoundead". KNBC.
  15. ↑ Weiss, Jeff (8 July 2011). "The arrival of Dumbfoundead: Koreatown rapper's 'Are We There Yet?'". Los Angeles Times.
  16. ↑ "Last Call with Carson Daly". NBC. 17 December 2012. Archived from the original on 13 January 2012.
  17. ↑ "Dumbfoundead: A Rap Battle Vet Grows Up". MTV. 11 November 2011.
  18. ↑ "Dumbfoundead". Mnet.
  19. ↑ Kang, Y. Peter (16 June 2011). "Sony Buys Rights To Joseph Kahn's Indie Horror Film". KoreAm.
  20. ↑ DUMBFOUNDEAD (2016-05-26), Dumbfoundead - SAFE, retrieved 2017-02-15
  21. ↑ Thomas, Dexter. "Dumbfoundead breaks down the lyrics in his anti-whitewashing anthem 'Safe'". latimes.com. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
  22. ↑ "Don't Mistake Dumbfoundead For Safe". The FADER. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
  23. ↑ Film, Bad Rap. "About". Bad Rap Film. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
  24. ↑ "Dumbfoundead Sells Out Two More Stops ⋆ latest kpop news and music | Officially Kmusic". officiallykmusic.com. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
  25. ↑ Eunicec (9 June 2009). "Funnin' with Dumbfoundead". Allkpop. Archived from the original on 3 March 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
  26. ↑ "MP3: Swim Team Members Open Mike Eagle, Dumbfoundead, Sahtyre, and Alpha MC". URB. 6 May 2009.
  27. ↑ "Koreatown's Dumbfoundead is ready to fight his own battles". BeatRoute Magazine. 2017-01-16. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
  28. 1 2 "Dumbfoundead Chart History". Billboard.
  29. ↑ "Gaon Album Chart" (in Korean). Gaon Music Chart.
    • "Foreigner charting".
  30. ↑ "Gaon Digital Chart" (in Korean). Gaon Music Chart.
    • ""It's Me" charting".
  31. ↑ Cumulative sales of '"It's Me":
    • "2013 Week 42 Download Chart".
    • "2013 Week 43 Download Chart".
    • "2013 Week 44 Download Chart".
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