 | ▲FM at Macy’s APAHM Event on May 22 at South Coast Plaza
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There are probably no groups out there that represent their own community with such pride and honor other than the internationally acclaimed Asian-American hip-hop group, Far East Movement. They went from making music from their bedrooms to creating songs that top the Billboard charts. After signing with Cherrytree Records in 2010, FM made history with their first major debut album, ‘Free Wired’, as their single, “Like A G6”, helped them become the first Asian-American group to ever achieve the number one spot in the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ charts.
On May 22, FM made a special performance at the South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa in honor of AsianPacific American Heritage Month, which was hosted by Macy’s and American Airlines. FM performed at 6 locations in May.
FM members, Kevin Nishimura (Kev Nish), James Roh (Prohgress), Jae Choung (J-Splif), Virman Coquia (DJ Virman), met with K-Herald to share their stories and even crack a few jokes along the way.
K-Herald: When you first started out, you guys were called “Emcee’s Anonymous” and then changed it to “FM”? Is there a reason to that?
Kev Nish: Mostly because we started putting a lot more tracks on the Internet and we were like, “You know, maybe people don’t know what we are, what we look like, or anything and they’re just listening to our music.” After a while, we put out two or three songs and we were just freestyling. Right before we started, J-Spliff was like, “Far East Movement!”, because at the time, it was during like the “G-Unit” time when people were hollering out their crew so we were all like, “Yo, that sounds cool! That sounds powerful. It sounded like there’s an identity to that.” So we just started tagging that as our crew and eventually, it ended up just becoming our name.
KH: How did it first feel to know your first major debut album, “Free Wired”, was such a huge hit?
J-Splif: *Jumps up from his seat* Woo-hoo!
Kev Nish: It’s really hard to believe because we started making music literally just in our bedroom and every time you make a song, you never think “Oh, this song is gonna be a hit.” because you’re just focused on making it. It really took us by shock. It’s still such a trip when we get off a plane, we get in a car, turn on the radio and you hear your song play. We were just in Turkey and we heard the radio say our name and when we went to the airport, we see our music video. It’s like, “Who would have thought?” We’re really grateful and it’s like a dream come true every day.
KH: Did you know “Like a G6” would be such a huge hit?
Prohgress: Oh completely! …No, I’m just kidding.
Kev Nish: When we first made it, I think we made like 15 versions, but we were having lunch one day with Martin Kierszenbaum, president of Cherrytree Records, and Virman was there and he said, “Yeah, I think this one is going to be a hit!” Martin said, “I think this is going to be a number one record. I just do.” And it really happened. I thought, “Dang, God bless him and his psychic abilities!”
Prohgress: He said he was going to take a tractor and drive it around the streets… We’re still waiting on that.
Kev Nish: Yeah… he didn’t do that.
KH: Do you think it was difficult to achieve success at first because of your ethnicity?
Kev Nish: No, we actually get asked that a lot. People would assume that, but I think with the way that the new generation is that people are definitely more openminded to new perspective and new stories. It was weird because when we were first starting, there would be an opportunity where someone would say, “There’s this hiphop show. We need more diversity. Why don’t you guys jump in?”, and we would be like, “Really?! Cool!” It’s almost as if it opened a door to opportunities because we are different. The reverse side to that I guess is you’ll experience things like when we’ll be headlining a show, the opening acts all go in and they get treated really well, but when we go up to the door, everyone’s all like, “Wait outside. Pull up your pants. Take off your hat.”, and we’re like, “What?” They don’t realize that we’re performing because they just don’t think that we look like the headlining act. Slowly, but surely, people came to realize, “Oh, that’s the Far East Movement.”, We even used to get fans come up to us all the time and they would say like, “Honestly, I had no idea you guys were Asian for the longest time.” So yeah, we work hard to definitely keep a profile and let people know about us.
KH: Which artists inspired you when you first started out?
Kev Nish: Definitely the Beastie Boys. It’s three emcees and a DJ! It was more like, culturally, they were the group that was more excluded and they were a new perspective to hip-hop. What we love about them is how they were able to switch up their style and change their culture. They just did it themselves and people just appreciated that so they were a big influence to us. There’s also Linkin Park especially with the Asian influence in there and the mash-up of rock and hip hop. There’s really no limit to what they can do.
DJ Virman: I’m a big Q-bert fan being a DJ and all, of course.
KH: What are some of the sacrifices you had to deal with to get to where you are?
Kev Nish: It’s hard to say we’ve made sacrifices because we’ve seen others make sacrifices and I think if you’re an artist, not even being Asian, but every artist and everybody in the music industry has made sacrifices.
(Prohgress): We kill goats every Sunday… <…they were joking, of course!>
Kev Nish: We’ve definitely given up a lot of things from our personal lives, our family lives, sleep, etc., but it’s like, everybody does that. Everybody that pursues their dreams does that so I don’t want to make it seem like, “Yeah! We sacrificed this and this, etc.” I mean, it’s the story of everybody’s lives that needs to get to where they want to be.
Kev Nish: Like how we give Virman all our food.
Prohgress: Exactly. He needs to grow… *laughs* No, but you know, if someone’s sick or they’re tired, you give them like, the side seat so they can put their head on the window – little things like that.
Kev Nish: There are sacrifices every day, for sure. We definitely don’t want to come off as we’re anything special. | 
