Drunken Tiger is an international hip hop consortium initially jumpstarted from two Korean American emcees Tiger JK and DJ Shine later being joined with an all-star hip hop cast of turntablist DJ James Jhig and emcee Micki Eyez aka Opticals. The group also linked up with emcee/producer Roscoe Umali of The Glossilalics; all members of Campo Finique - a world union of underground hip hop heads.

Their first LP was produced by V-Luv of Da Wascals, a hip hop cat who shared mic sessions with famed LA underground act The Pharcyde. When the album finally dropped both in domestic and Korean markets in the summer of 1998; ripples later causing tsunamis alarmed conservatives and liberals alike as the Korean populace were caught in mental limbo in making sense of rap, drunken style. Already tensions being high to the economic meltdown, many observed the impeding presence of overseas Korean musicians as misappropriating native culture and traditions. Nevertheless, Drunken Tiger's roar reached decibels awakening the subconscious of young minds to the hypocrisy and utter wrongs of society. Soon a following took root.

Drunken Tiger returned once more in the summer of 2000 with their sophomore release greeted with wide appraisal. While sales of their second LP soared to 400,000 albums in one month alone, all was cut short. Swirls of allegations of narcotic possession and usage convicted DT emcee Tiger JK despite his plea for a fair and open trial to claim his innocence. Accused by his fellow emcee 'brothers' of Uptown, JK was forced to spend time in the pen along with probation on release. With no just cause nor evidence JK was regarded as a criminal to the state.

Yet our story does not end here. It's been well over several months since that ordeal and DT is as strong as ever. With the much anticipated third release set to drop, Drunken Tiger is once again prancing about, ready to set prey on any emcee in its path.

The following interview was conducted in DT's studio in LA at an undisclosed location.

EMCEE DJ SHINE

EM: You’re from New York originally right?
Shine: Yeah

EM: You’re family still there?
Shine: Yeah

EM: So I bet they miss you every now and then…
Shine: Well you know, me and my family it’s like…it’s a long story man, long fuckin’ story but it’s like my moms is out here now in LA. She actually lived in the Chicago area for a long time with my little brother (Ken). I was gonna produce him to do some stuff but his mind wasn’t in the right stage.

EM: What’s he doing right now, going to school?
Shine: At this moment he’s not, I mean I haven’t talked with him for six or seven months. I made a big fight with him you know family problems and shit but as for my little brother, he’s really the talented one in our family. He’s been playing the guitar since he was four years old. He’s a talented guy you know, and I was gonna produce him and I had everything ready but you know set backs and shit…but you know…my shit is hip hop, that’s what I’ve been doing since day one…  

EM: Where did you start?
Shine: I mean I did a lot of underground shit in New York but then since I didn’t know anything about the Korean culture you know…it was like start finding about your roots and shit and get that ‘Korean Pride’ like, “Oh shit!” you know. I mean I grew up in Elmers Flushing New York and it’s like there’s a lot of Korean cats but then when you’re at school like at a young age you know…I mean the fobs hang out with the fobs and the Korean Americans they be just doing whatever they wanted to do. You know the hip-hop thing in New York everyone’s hip-hop you know, especially growing up back then. I mean you got fobs who can’t speak English and they speak the lingo, when we went down to New York for a show I took James, JK, Eyez and everybody and we hooked up with my friends and shit, then I met some new cats up there, they can’t even speak English and they were like, “Whassup B! Whassup Dog!!” and I’m like (laugh) … “Yo what’s up dog” you know.

EM: Yeah hip-hop is becoming this global culture…
Shine: Honestly man,  I’ve lived hip hop as long as I could remember.

EM: And how old are you?
Shine: I’m twenty six right now, I’ll be twenty seven this year…born in the year of the tiger.

RANTS ON THE KOREAN MUSIC INDUSTRY

Shine: Yo man it’s all about money. Everybody wants to make the fuckin’ cheese. Everyone wants to make the cream. I’ll be honest with you man, you know all this hype about this and that and whatevers…I mean everyone’s got their own beliefs in politics and shit…in the end they all want that shit. They all wanna fuckin’ be known and shit…you know what I’m saying. Especially the industry out in Korea it’s so funny because we hate that shit honestly, we hate it but it’s then it’s like a bitch, we love it also. The way we grew up and shit, we came out like, “Yo man I want to change something in life” but I mean it’s so complicated because there’s so much fuckin’ different politics involved you know, so much corruption, so much this, so much that, and it’s like sometimes you get lost ‘cause it’s so fuckin’ complex you know what I mean? Man I wish you were out there man, yeah I wish you came out man, I mean you will see some shit. There’s people who realistically know what the fuck’s going on and people who are ignorant, just don’t give a fuck, just wanna believe in what they believe and I don’t know man, it’s fuckin’…(laugh) it’s funny huh? It’s funny man…We fuckin’ out there, bustin’ our ass to just show a little about hip hop you know and they fuckin’ shut us down like, “What’s this shit?!” it’s like, “We respect what you guys fuckin’ made and shit but it’s not your land it’s our land, I mean you’re not the only one who’s Korean.” And I hate that the most ‘cause there’s so much fuckin’ racism out there you know what I’m saying?
Jhig: There’s mad prejudice.

EM: Among who…among Koreans?
Jhig: Amongst Koreans man…natives and Gyopos (Overseas Korean).
Shine: There’s mad fuckin’ prejudice man…
Jhig: And especially like Gyopos that are into hip hop…

APKUJUNG >> DT’S JOINT

EM: You recently opened up a hip-hop club in Korea, how’s that going by the way?
Shine: (laugh) Like shit. I mean we didn’t give a fuck…we wanted to do something. It’s like Korea is nothing like the states…I mean I can see them try to like westernize and shit… OPS!!! Micki OPS! (Micki enters) We didn’t do it for money…we did it to fuckin’ get the culture more out there…I mean now you got niggas like Paul Van Dyke (PVD) you know what I’m saying man…(laugh) it’s like they’re raving out our country you know what I’m saying…(laugh) it’s like, “Yo!! What’s up with that shit?!” But I mean we ain’t got nothin’ against ravers. I mean we’ll admit we don’t like the music but we got mad friends that are involved with that stuff and they’re our boys like from day one and we’re not gonna hate’em just because they’re doing that kind of shit.

EM: You’re talking about Eugene and them right…
Shine: Yeah that’s my boy man, that’s our boy you know…

EM: He has that record shop…
Shine: Yeah Afterhours, I mean we wear this their shit on TV too, they’re our neighbors you know…and people get the wrong perception of that you know…they think, “Oh shit! DT’s at some fuckin’ rave yo, they’re fuckin’ raved out, oh yo they ain’t real you know.” Fuck them you know they don’t know who I am…you know what I’m saying but fuckin’ since we’re supposed to be like you know ‘Yohn- Eh-Eens’ (Celebrity) an’ shit…you know we’re supposed to act a certain way…but get the fuck outta here man…we the same people man, we just do music you know…and that’s why everyone gets the wrong perception of us.

DT’S LATEST CUTS

EM: And how is the third album going along by the way?
Shine: Well in the beginning it was mad hard because we kind of were pressured but we got back together, we got our flavor back, we put our minds together and this album’s gonna be off the hook.
Micki: It’s definitely on another level.

EM: When is it gonna be released?
Shine: It should be released the middle of February.

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