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29 March 2012

TigerJK & Tasha to promote Uijeongbu Music Festival


Hip-hop couple Tiger JK and Yoon Mirae have been picked to promote the Uijeongbu International Music Theatre Festival. As part of promotional activities, the couple will give a free concert at the city's Arts Center on May 20, the last day of the 15-day event.

Since its inauguration in 2002, the annual festival has largely featured musicals, opera and classical music. But this year pop music will take over the stage for the finale. "To make the festival more approachable to the public, we asked the couple to take on the role of promotional ambassadors, and they happily accepted the offer," the organizing committee said.

Tiger JK said he has close ties to the city. "I married and had a baby in Uijeongbu, so I can say I found love and family here." Yoon said Uijeongbu is like her hometown. "It's natural to have affection for the place where we live," she said. "I've lived here since my childhood and all my relatives also live here. I won't move away because people and the environment are great here."

Their concert in May will also feature a number of other top hip-hop musicians.

Source: The Chosun Ilbo


03 March 2012

[OP-ED: Guest Post by Tiger JK] A simple suggestion on Racial Prejudice



This is a guest post by Tiger JK (Seo Jung Kwon), a Korean American rapper, best known as one of the founding members of hip hop group Drunken Tiger. He is also the founder and former CEO of Jungle Entertainment. He is married to Yoon Mirae (Tasha) who is of mixed heritage (Korean / African American).



As I read the replies and comments to the news story about UFC‘s Ben Henderson (Lightweight champion), I was dumbfounded and saddened by quite a few racial slurs. He was the son of a Korean-American mother and an African-American father. He wanted to come back to Korea to feel that he’s a part of the Korean collective.

Such instances of racial discrimination are not isolated… the comments to the news article about a TV comedy ‘Sebakwi’(‘Three Wheels’), showing a parody of blackfaces, also revealed prejudices.

“Why should we apologize? Don’t they make fun of Asians in America, too?“, some kids asked while others would say, “They were only comics dressed up as a black-faced, thick-lipped cartoon characters performing in a comedy like SNL.”

I fully understand that the acts portrayed were not meant to intentionally defame nor antagonize black people , and such comic scenes appeared on many other comedic sketches on both network and cable TV.

However, I think it’s time we should let the kids learn on what’s the right thing to do, and what’s wrong and what not to do. I think we should try to provide them with enough information and opportunities to change their minds regarding racial prejudices.

Racial discrimination and prejudices used to exist in any country throughout the world. But now the world has shrunken into a small global community. Korea is currently enjoying attention around the world with the K-Pop phenomenon along with other human resources.

If we learn a little more about the history of Africans, we could understand why it’s not right to present them as the comic objects. Because it contains a lot of pain, deathly revolution, and struggles to regain their human dignity.

As you may well know, African slavery is a history that’s quite tragic and recent in the grand scheme of things. Not too long ago in American history, they couldn’t even share the same restaurants, buses, and even rest-rooms with other races! They could not even appear in Hollywood films, they were only treated as comedic objects derided by white people.

Racial discrimination exists in the sports world, too, but heavy punishment follows such actions. Sony Music also had to pay a high price, for releasing records by their artist that contained racial prejudice. ESPN had to immediately punish their employee for the headline with a racial slur about American-Asian basketball sensation Jeremy Lin. The wrong choice of the words and actions can put a huge damper on things. The words that drew an outrage all over the world was, “Chink in the armor.”

Korea hosts many K-pop concerts and music award shows overseas. We need more support of the people of the world, not only from music fans but also in many other fields as well.

A movie director for the successful “Tower Heist” was banned from the Academy Awards for his remarks discriminating against homosexuals. I hope our journalists put extra effort to enlighten the young kids to learn more about the flow of the people of the world, and about racial equality and justice.

Thank you for listening to my humble suggestion.

Truly yours,

Tiger JK



source: allkpop