Lyrics Born isn’t retiring, he’s expanding

ED: What’s a song you recorded from That 1 Tyme in the Studio that’s your favorite?
LB: I have three. I like "Do That There," "I Like It, I Love It," and "I'm the Best / Rules Were Meant to Be Broken." As far as "I'm the Best / Rules Were Meant to Be Broken," these are two songs from two different albums. It just worked well as a medley. And it's how we had been doing it live for a long time and it's always one of my favorite parts of the set live to do when we do it. Because it's just the message. Everything that I wrote in those songs is my truth. A lot of what I do live and on this album is harder or funkier. And this is a little jazzier, slow, quieter. I like that contrast. I like using my voice in that way, so to speak. 

ED: You’re a hip-hop artist but I enjoy that you don’t stick to one genre. You're influenced by P-funk, alternative. Your list of inspirations is everywhere from Public Enemy and De La Soul to Hieroglyphics and Curtis Mayfield. Is it just you being from the Bay? Is that why you're so eclectic?
LB: I think that's part of it. I think part of it is I'm just a fucking freak. I love music. For me, I just see and feel the through line that connects every genre. And it excites me to be able to fuse all of these things. I honestly see that throughline through music. I see it the same way in cooking. I see the same way in writing. I see the same way in fashion. I see it the same way in art. Categories, genres, boundaries, and things like that, the lines are blurrier than people allow themselves to think most times.

ED: What have you seen in the musical landscape change in your 20-plus career, specifically for Asian Americans in hip-hop?
LB: I think that the Internet has been the great equalizer. I think it allowed us to show ourselves and speak our truths. Put ourselves and our talent on display without having to ask for permission or be granted entry by a gatekeeper. I think for the first 20 years of my career, that's how the industry was. The industry was theirs. There is still a lot of power within those circles. But it has become more everybody's. I don't mean to say that we live in this utopian world where all things are equal, but they have become a little more equalized.

ED: It’s thanks to people like you and what you’ve done for independent artists and what you’ve done with Solesides. You’re a blueprint for the next generation.
LB: Thank you. I appreciate you saying that. When I first started making music, you needed a lot of resources. You needed a lot of money. You needed a lot of machinery. You needed a lot of apparatus. You needed a lot of personnel. And now you don't. The barrier of entry is a lot lower, and I think not only for music but any kind of art in general, particularly entertainment. Just like we did with Dinner in Place, we created our TV show. You can do that now. You don't have to wait for a label, a network, a streamer, a channel, or a company to come in by some stroke of luck and hard work to "notice you." You know what I mean? You're like, "I'm good. I know I'm good. I'm going to put out myself.” And even if I don't know I'm good, I can still do that.

Rapper Lyrics Born has been on the music scene for decades.

Mark Chua

ED: As long as your product is good, people are going to notice and come to you.
LB: I think it is damaging for artists to have to navigate that old machine and maze. It can be hard on artists unnecessarily and I think it's taking a toll on the artistic community as a whole to have to subject themselves to that. Whether or not you were allowed entry in the past was based on a billion circumstances beyond your control. And frankly, it was controlled by a very, very small group of people that, for whatever reason, may never understand you or your vision. There is truly an audience for everything. Some audiences are larger than others, but there truly is an audience for everything. You have the power to discover that audience and have them discover you now. Much easier than before.

ED: You were originally called Asia Born but dropped Asia so fans would like you for your rhymes and not your ethnicity. Where Asians are now in acceptance in music and entertainment, do you think you’d be where you are today if you kept the name?
LB: I would back up. That's what you said, that's why I changed my name. But that's not completely accurate. You got to understand when I came up in the early ‘90s, there were no Asian rappers. Almost zero. I came out as Asia Born, and I got my ass kicked in the press. I didn't have a community within the industry to champion what I was doing. Do you understand what I'm saying? I was alone on an island. It became very hurtful and damaging to continually read in the press. "Oh, he's pretty good for an Oriental." That word was still in the lexicon. This is how long I've been doing it. I know I'm dating myself, but people need to hear this.

Coming from the Bay Area, that was very foreign to me. It was not unusual for a guy who looked like me with a last name ending in a vowel to do what I do. I looked around and I saw [DJ] Qbert, I saw Dan the Automator. There were a variety of other groups and artists back then but not all of them are still active today. I didn't think I was unusual. I came from a place, particularly in the '80s and '90s, that was wildly diverse. It wasn't until I got in the press and I started touring, started going to places nationally that I thought, "Oh my God, I'm on stage performing on tour in this little town in God knows where. I may be the only Asian in this entire city."

Certain situations got abusive, particularly in the media. What people don't understand is being Asian American and of color, I probably got called racial slurs every day from the age of 3 to 21 or 22. That's a lot. I'd finally gotten to a place in my life where I was like, "You know what? Fuck this." I don't want to have somebody's ignorance determine whether or not I progress. Lyrics Born was a nickname and it wasn't a difficult shift.