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CONTACT: ELTON LIN ELTON@NOTORIOUSMSG.COM WWW.NOTORIOUSMSG.COM
THE MSG STORY
Rising up from the hard streets of Chinatown, The Notorious MSG are three renegade restaurant
workers on a mission to make your ass palpitate with their high-sodium beats. Their gritty sound is a
compound of the rawest sounds on the New York City streets, hip-hop and punk rock, through a lens
of streetwise Chinese-American tradition. They transcend traditional stereotypes while inventing a style
and lexicon all their own. Their stage show, a whirlwind of sound and fury, has reduced women to tears
and made grown men incontinent.
The Pan-Asian trio’s rise from the kitchens to the stage has been rapid. Since their debut, they’ve
received both national and international press from sources such as The New York Times, Blender, GQ
Japan, MTV and MTV Asia, Time Out NY, BBC World Radio, URB and Bust. They’ve been interviewed by
Cipha Sounds on Sirius Radio’s Shade45, and were featured in documentaries both on CurrentTV and
French and German television. They’ve carved a path of destruction with their live shows, all across
the US at various colleges and notable venues including Bowery Ballroom, The Knitting Factory, CBGB’s,
Joe’s Pub, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and various dates on the 2007 Warped Tour.
The MSG’s assault on your senses doesn’t stop with their music: They have garined a cult-like following
with their music videos and original web series, “Schoolhousin’.
The MSG are currently preparing to release a full-length studio album in early 2011, entitled “Heavy
Ghetto”. Your blood pressure will soar. Your ass-hairs will sizzle. This is Chinatown, motherdickers.
THE NOTORIOUS MSG
Lead vox: Hong Kong Fever, Down-Lo Mein & The Hunan Bomb
Guitar: Billie D. Wang
Drums: Noodles
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
www.notoriousmsg.com
BUST MAGAZINE APRIL/MAY 2008
Notorious MSG
Imagine Run DMC with a splash of Pretty Ricky and some thick Asian
accents and you’ve got a good idea of the Notorious MSG sound.
Since the release of their 2004 debut album, Die Hungry, they’ve been
making fans’ faces hurt from laughing with songs like “Straight out of
Canton,” “Dim Sum Girl,” and “No Good Muthabitch.” All emigres from
China and Korea who met working in Chinatown’s Kitchens, Hong
Kong Fever, 29, Down-Lo Mein, 27, and their late friend Funky Buddha
started MSG in 2002. That’s when 60 year-old mentor Angus Wong,
a C-town O.G., took them under his wing and taught them everything
from the “Beijing Blast” - which the grup describes as a dance move
that “summons the sex gods” - to street smarts. After Funky’s untimely
death in a food delivery accident in 2005, the group grew to include
The Hunan Bomb, 25, guitarist Billie D. Wang, 27, and Noodles, 31,
their dick-exposing drummer. It’s not easy being an all-Asian rap
group, and the boys address their struggle in their music. “We wrote
a song called “Chinatown Hustler” about our struggle to get seen and
heard in the music scene,” says Hong Kong, “which doesn’t really take
to people that are different, especially Asian people.” Adds Down-Lo:
“You don’t typically see Asian people and expect them to be shouting
in your face.” Through it all, it’s been Angus Wong’s attitude that continues to inspire them. “He does whatever he wants, he don’t care!”
Says Down-Lo. “That’s the kind of attitude we embrace. People don’t
give us a chance when they look at us. We just got to say ‘Fuck you’
to them.”
Coming out this spring, MSG’s latest EP, 5 Fingers of Revenge, focuses
on vengeance and retribution. Hong Kong insists it’s going to be their
most “scrotum-smashing offering to date.” Hell-bent on bringing more
fun and danger back to popular music, these guys are just the hustlers
to do it.
BLENDER MAGAZINE JULY 2006
TIME OUT NEW YORK MARCH 2006
Chopshticks
The Notorious MSG is not ready to take your order
Judging by their outfits—and their name—you might think that the band Notorious MSG is a put-on.
Its members (who style themselves as “original Chinatown bad boys”) dress in matching jeans, T-shirts,
leather jackets and outrageous, not-so-matching hair. Frontman Hong Kong Fever sports a Dee Dee
Ramone bowl cut, while bandmate Down-Lo Mein (“you can call me D-Lo”) favors a jheri-curled mullet. Drummer The Hunan Bomb rocks a semiblowout Afro. Asian immigrants all, they met in the mean
kitchens of Chinatown, working as waiters, busboys and delivery guys. Until three years ago, none of
them had played music. “We were gangsters,” Hong Kong Fever claims. “Coming here, we decided to
turn over a new tea leaf.”
Since then, the band has released a single, “The Chinatown Hustle,” featuring couplets like “We can’t
be outdone / We come from the ghetto like Sanford and Son.” They also provided the soundtrack for
Chinese artist Cao Fei’s video, Hip-Hop, on view at Chelsea’s Lombard-Freid Gallery.
While their look veers toward the wacky, there’s a serious side to Notorious MSG: its determination to
illuminate the hard lot of Chinese immigrants working in Chinatown’s restaurant underbelly. “Americans
don’t know it’s a hard life, very dangerous,” Hong Kong Fever says. MSG’s former drummer was shot
to death last year while making a delivery. What’s unclear is whether the motivation was robbery or payback from the group’s gangland past. But the group feels his vulnerability was plain. “They see you on a
bicycle,” D-Lo says, “and think you are weak.”—Howard Halle
Cao Fei’s Hip-Hop is on view at Lombard-Freid Gallery through April 8.
GQ JAPAN OCTOBER 2009
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THE WHOLE MEGILLAH
HONORARY HEEB
THE NOTORIOUS MSG
DELIVERY BOYS ‘N’ THE HOOD
BY JESSICA GROSE
22 heebmagazine.com
Left to right: Hunan Bomb, Hong Kong Fever and Down-Lo Mein
they get serious for a moment to explain the hardships of
Asian immigrants in the American workforce.
“We thought we were following the American Dream when
we came to this country,” Down-Lo says. “But we were just
moving from one ghetto to another. It was shocking to see our
brothers and sisters in the kitchens [of Chinatown
restaurants] with no way out and no respect, making three
dollars an hour.” Fever chimes in: “People don’t see [delivery
men] as people. It’s like the food just comes like magic.” He
throws his leather jacket onto the floor and continues his rant:
“But we get just as much discrimination from the music
industry. Because we’re Asian, they don’t know where to put
us. We’re not here to assimilate. We’re here to tell the story
for our people, give them a voice. Our music is the music of
the streets.”
And, just as Biggie dealt drugs on the streets of Bed-Stuy
before hitting it big, MSG did what they had to do to get by on
the streets of Chinatown.
“When we first came here, we did some not-so-legal things,”
Fever admits. “Without the music, we’d be dead by now.” But
after that dire pronouncement, he smiles, his prominent
canines glistening in the darkness backstage: “But we’re more
than entertainers. We’re triple threat motherfuckers!” And he
doesn’t mean vegetable, chicken or shrimp.
PHOTO COURTESY OF NOTORIOUS MSG
The MSG in Notorious MSG stands for Moo
Shu Guys, not monosodium glutamate. Yes, the
ingredients in this pan-Asian hip-hop trio
consist only of natural flavor: Down-Lo Mein
comes from Taiwan, Hunan Bomb hails from
South Korea and Hong Kong Fever is from,
natch, Hong Hong. Each spent years working
in the bowels of the Chinese restaurant
industry, enduring the typical trials and
tribulations of recent Asian immigrants.
According to the group’s three members, its
song lyrics and MySpace.com profile, MSG is
both an outlet for their rage at the system and
a tool to raise awareness of the difficulties
facing the Asian restaurant worker.
But, as you may have guessed, MSG are not
hip-hop activists. Channeling Bone Thugs-NHarmony, N.W.A. and Cypress Hill all at once,
they are satirists, brilliantly imploding notions of
race, ethnicity and the American Dream.
At the Knitting Factory’s Tap Bar in Manhattan,
the “Original Chinatown Bad Boys” get onto
the stage in matching Adidas tracksuits,
speaking into the mic in caricatured Asian
accents. They are a sight to behold: Fever has
the body of Bruce Lee and the haircut of Dee
Dee Ramone; Down-Lo’s jherri-curled mullet recalls Eriq La
Salle’s wannabe loverboy in Coming to America; and Hunan
Bomb’s wild mane of hair and intense demeanor evokes
Min-sik Choi’s crazed killer in Oldboy.
Not long into the performance, the guys pull out a
massive egg roll and light it up like a blunt. The crowd
screams in glee. One audience member wears a wife beater
proclaiming, “I (heart) Orientals.” When MSG sings, “I will
be the one who makes fried rice for you for all eternity,” the
group’s rabid fans push their way to the front of the stage in
a veritable frenzy. Then come “Dim Sum Girl” with its
Motown ballad-style chorus and the anthem “Chinatown
Hustler.” Hong Kong Fever, the frontman and resident
heartthrob, teases the lusty audience, swapping between
faux-innocence and faux-naughtiness. He croons, “I know
I’m supposed to be a G, but Gs have feelings too!” and “My
heart is a dumpling with no meat inside.” Fever picks one
woman from the audience to be his “Dim Sum Girl” and
reaches out to hold her hand. Then he grins and shouts,
“I might get some ass tonight!” After a few beats, he adds,
“This is the Tap Bar, right?”
The members of Notorious MSG maintain the Chinatown
G shtick backstage, congratulating themselves on a
performance that “blows out your ass like spicy beef.” But
POPEYE OCTOBER 2006
WOKKING THE WORLD
The humanizing and conscious-making impacts of The Notorious MSG.
Writer Bernice Yeung
rap group—comprised of front man Hong Kong Fever, heartfelt
crooner Down Lo-Mein and the silent but strong Hunan Bomb4 —
are more accurately likened to Asian American Sidney Poitiers for
our post-modern times.
The rap group’s socio-political consequence to Asian American identity-making comes, in part, from the members’ humble
beginnings in Asia.5 Following the well-documented pattern of
1
Not since Martin Yan have Americans witnessed this rare and effective form
of entertainment-cum-culinary cultural diplomacy between Asia and America.
2
It’s possible that the first person to draw this allusion may have posted to
the Badminton Central Discussion Forum, www.badmintoncentral.com.
3
With hit songs such as “Straight Outta Canton” and “Chinatown Hustler,”
The Notorious MSG deftly capture the ennui and angst experienced by lowwage migrant workers who are constantly overlooked and dismissed by both
the corporate entertainment industry and mainstream America at large. Furthermore, the group’s frequent allusions to their sexual conquests and prowess,
coupled with their colorful gastronomic analogies for male genitalia (e.g. their
“egg rolls”), powerfully counteract decades of Asian male emasculation that
have been exacerbated by the Western press and media. See also the entertaining interview with The Notorious MSG from the Web portal the Gothamist,
“The Notorious MSG, Original Chinatown Bad Boys,” February 23, 2006. Here’s
a snippet: Q: When you’re roaming the streets, what kind of heat do you guys
pack? Gas, electric, hot plate? What else do you pack? A: Our most ferocious
weapon is the heat that we pack between our legs. Our egg-rolls are like homing
missiles, and we have a full-lock on the vagina, captain.
4
These are not, in fact, the performer’s real names.
5
All three men hail from what they call “the ghettoes” of Asia. Before arriving
in the United States, Hong Kong Fever, who is originally from Kowloon Bay, admits that he was engaged in some form of criminal behavior that he is now “not
proud of.” Down Lo-Mein is from Ping-Tung, Taiwan, where his grandparents
ran a prosperous brothel. The Hunan Bomb is a former pit fighter originally from
Inchon, South Korea, who developed what is believed to be an unstoppable
fighting technique known as the “Kimchee Claw.” The original third member of
MSG, Funky Buddha, was also originally from Korea and was rumored to have
come from an unsavory background. Funky Buddha was replaced by the Hunan
Bomb in October 2005, after Funky Buddha was gunned down in Chinatown.
See the TV news report of Funky Buddha’s death on New York 1, accessible on
The Notorious MSG’s web site. (There continues to be vigorous debate as to
whether or not Funky Buddha’s death is a hoax. But then again, if it was reported
on the news, it must be true.)
6
It is rumored that the men of The Notorious MSG were passengers aboard
the infamous Golden Venture ship, which smuggled 286 illegal Chinese immigrants in cramped and horrific conditions.
7
E.g. Strain Theory. Look it up, you lazyass.
8
From an interview with The Notorious MSG:
HK: When we get here, we discover it is not that easy. You know, we work in
the kitchen, we work very hard in the restaurant. We find out about our brothers and sisters getting killed, getting jacked. On the streets. No respect.
DLM: ...People treat them like animals.
HK: So we find they live like second-class citizens over here. … That become
more of our message from our music. To kind of, with our success, we want
to give our brothers and sisters in the Chinatown streets, in the ghetto and
kitchens all over the world, given them a voice and let their stories be told. …
020 HYPHEN FALL.06
In tapping into the unexplored territory of New York’s Chinatown, The Notorious MSG have come to establish themselves as
something of a hip hop tour-de-force, with appearances on MTV
and performances at respected New York night clubs such as
CBGBs and The Knitting Factory. The group has also been profiled by top media organizations such as BBC’s “The World” and
the New York Times,13 which have noted the group’s astonishing
Horatio Algiers-like rise from Chinatown pot-scrubbers to a renown and influential musical act.14
Through its compelling music and public presence, the
group has brought the plight of Asian immigrant workers, as well
as the oft-disregarded potency of Asian male masculinity to the
forefront of mainstream Western consciousness. For example,
their tremendous fashion sense15 imbues their performance with
youth and sex appeal. And the fact that the trio raps and makes
statements such as “we fucking rock the bitches when we’re on
stage” in hop-socky Chinese accents only adds authenticity to
their revolutionary musical work. Indeed, in its continued quest to
represent the True Experiences of Asian male workers to a larger
audience, The Notorious MSG succeeds in disrupting flawed but
persistent stereotypes and discourses about Asian Americans.
Despite their notable contributions to American life and
culture, however, The Notorious MSG remains dissatisfied with
their accomplishments, which perhaps reveals their weakness
for over-achieving. In fact, Hong Kong Fever has argued that the
group will not feel it has achieved the American Dream until it has
helped incorporate Asian Americans fully into mainstream media
and entertainment.
As he has eloquently stated, “We are here to carve a boothole
in the Corporate America. We will carve the boothole bigger and
bigger until all of our brothers and sisters can fit there. And it is
going to be painful. But they will like it.”16 ≤
There are a lot of stories that have not been told that we want to share with
the world. It is a perspective that people have not thought about or even seen.
We try to bring that to the surface. There is a lot of, I feel, repression and rage
in Chinatown that people, from not being able to express themselves fully. …
We try to give that expression in our music.
e.g. downing shots of soy sauce and smoking egg rolls.
The New York Times keenly notes: “The name Notorious MSG is more than
a play on that of the Notorious B.I.G., the 1990’s rapper, and on monosodium
glutamate, the flavor enhancer used in some Chinese restaurants; it also serves
as an acronym for Moo Shu Guys. The name was adopted, said the former workers at a Chinese restaurant, after a run-in with a customer who had made racist
comments. … For reasons they declined to specify, the men would not give
their real names or say where they lived; they would say only that they were in
their 20’s and sought to make music illuminating the hard-knock life that they
and their fellow Chinese immigrants often face.” From Julia Wang, “Their HardKnock Life,” The New York Times, June 11, 2006.
14
Another mainstream news organization, Time Out New York, ran a story
entitled “Chopschticks” that stated, “Judging by their outfits—and their name—
you might think that the band Notorious MSG is a put-on.” (Clearly, this is not
the case.)
15
During their live performances, the men of The Notorious MSG typically
remove Red Adidas track suits (or some other fly get-up) to reveal the standard
restaurant worker uniform of white shirts and black pants. Hong Kong Fever also
boldly sports a bowl cut, Down Lo-Mein wears his hair in well-coiffed jheri curls,
and the Hunan Bomb’s mop has a studied, punk rock messiness to it.
16
In Hong Kong Fever’s dialect, “boothole” is interchangeable with “butt hole.”
Slang for “street credibility.”
Their words, not mine.
From “FOB for Life”:
it’s getting so damn hot in the kitchen
people dissin’
jealous of all the ladies we kissin’
now listen
to the funky beats you’re missin’
9
10
11
PHOTO: COURTESY OF MSG
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF The Notorious MSG to Asian America
cannot be overstated.1 Though some cultural critics have already
begun calling the group the “Asian American Beastie Boys,”2 this
descriptor does not begin to accord this bold New York Chinatown rap trio proper respect for its role in challenging racist barriers in mainstream entertainment and revolutionizing Asian American media representation3. Indeed, the charming yet virulent
Third World migration to developed countries such as the United
States for economic opportunities, these young men, who were
all teenagers at the time, boarded a cargo ship to the United
States in 1993,6 which is where they reportedly met. Upon landing
in New York’s Chinatown, they went out in search of the American Dream. Hong Kong Fever and Down Lo-Mein did as so many
other hard-working immigrants do: They took thankless jobs as
delivery boys, waiters and chefs at a take-out restaurant in New
York’s Chinatown called the Crazy Wok. (The Hunan Bomb initially parted ways with his Chinese friends for a period of time and
went back to underground pit fighting, where he was undefeated
for many years.)
But as a result of experiencing what some scholars have
come to call “racial discrimination” and “cultural ignorance,” immigrant life would prove to be challenging for Hong Kong Fever
and Down Lo-Mein. Criminology theories7 would predict that the
twosome would not be able to resist the call of the criminal underground, and indeed, they could not. Both men joined a Chinatown gang called The Dumpling Killaz, which was known for
running the Chinatown mahjong circuit, but they soon discovered
that mayhem and destruction did not help them properly express
the rage and frustration they felt as disrespected and dehumanized immigrant restaurant workers.8 Though they would eventually stage a violent coup and disband the criminal organization,
arguably, it is their experience with gang life that helped the duo
establish the necessary “street cred”9 to launch a hip hop group
that could garner the respect of an unforgiving multicultural
society.
Using simple equipment such as the Roland D-20 keyboard and
a Tascan 4-track recorder, the musical duo began crafting “deep
fried beats”10 and lyrics based on their hardscrabble experiences in
the kitchens and alleys of Chinatown.11 The duo eventually recruited
their old friend the Hunan Bomb to join them in this new enterprise—one designed to create socio-political calamity through hip
hop music and unparalleled acts of on-stage bravado.12
Put your hands together for the boys
got the wontons and the baby bok choy
Makin’ good food everybody can enjoy
From New York city to old Hanoi
in my right hand my tek-9
in my left hand my fried rice
drink my oolong tea on ice
smoke the egg roll oh so nice
This scholarly work was originally published in The Journal of Symbolic
Eggrolls
12
13
HYPHEN FALL.06 021
WOKKING THE WORLD
The humanizing and conscious-making impacts of The Notorious MSG.
Writer Bernice Yeung
rap group—comprised of front man Hong Kong Fever, heartfelt
crooner Down Lo-Mein and the silent but strong Hunan Bomb4 —
are more accurately likened to Asian American Sidney Poitiers for
our post-modern times.
The rap group’s socio-political consequence to Asian American identity-making comes, in part, from the members’ humble
beginnings in Asia.5 Following the well-documented pattern of
1
Not since Martin Yan have Americans witnessed this rare and effective form
of entertainment-cum-culinary cultural diplomacy between Asia and America.
2
It’s possible that the first person to draw this allusion may have posted to
the Badminton Central Discussion Forum, www.badmintoncentral.com.
3
With hit songs such as “Straight Outta Canton” and “Chinatown Hustler,”
The Notorious MSG deftly capture the ennui and angst experienced by lowwage migrant workers who are constantly overlooked and dismissed by both
the corporate entertainment industry and mainstream America at large. Furthermore, the group’s frequent allusions to their sexual conquests and prowess,
coupled with their colorful gastronomic analogies for male genitalia (e.g. their
“egg rolls”), powerfully counteract decades of Asian male emasculation that
have been exacerbated by the Western press and media. See also the entertaining interview with The Notorious MSG from the Web portal the Gothamist,
“The Notorious MSG, Original Chinatown Bad Boys,” February 23, 2006. Here’s
a snippet: Q: When you’re roaming the streets, what kind of heat do you guys
pack? Gas, electric, hot plate? What else do you pack? A: Our most ferocious
weapon is the heat that we pack between our legs. Our egg-rolls are like homing
missiles, and we have a full-lock on the vagina, captain.
4
These are not, in fact, the performer’s real names.
5
All three men hail from what they call “the ghettoes” of Asia. Before arriving
in the United States, Hong Kong Fever, who is originally from Kowloon Bay, admits that he was engaged in some form of criminal behavior that he is now “not
proud of.” Down Lo-Mein is from Ping-Tung, Taiwan, where his grandparents
ran a prosperous brothel. The Hunan Bomb is a former pit fighter originally from
Inchon, South Korea, who developed what is believed to be an unstoppable
fighting technique known as the “Kimchee Claw.” The original third member of
MSG, Funky Buddha, was also originally from Korea and was rumored to have
come from an unsavory background. Funky Buddha was replaced by the Hunan
Bomb in October 2005, after Funky Buddha was gunned down in Chinatown.
See the TV news report of Funky Buddha’s death on New York 1, accessible on
The Notorious MSG’s web site. (There continues to be vigorous debate as to
whether or not Funky Buddha’s death is a hoax. But then again, if it was reported
on the news, it must be true.)
6
It is rumored that the men of The Notorious MSG were passengers aboard
the infamous Golden Venture ship, which smuggled 286 illegal Chinese immigrants in cramped and horrific conditions.
7
E.g. Strain Theory. Look it up, you lazyass.
8
From an interview with The Notorious MSG:
HK: When we get here, we discover it is not that easy. You know, we work in
the kitchen, we work very hard in the restaurant. We find out about our brothers and sisters getting killed, getting jacked. On the streets. No respect.
DLM: ...People treat them like animals.
HK: So we find they live like second-class citizens over here. … That become
more of our message from our music. To kind of, with our success, we want
to give our brothers and sisters in the Chinatown streets, in the ghetto and
kitchens all over the world, given them a voice and let their stories be told. …
020 HYPHEN FALL.06
In tapping into the unexplored territory of New York’s Chinatown, The Notorious MSG have come to establish themselves as
something of a hip hop tour-de-force, with appearances on MTV
and performances at respected New York night clubs such as
CBGBs and The Knitting Factory. The group has also been profiled by top media organizations such as BBC’s “The World” and
the New York Times,13 which have noted the group’s astonishing
Horatio Algiers-like rise from Chinatown pot-scrubbers to a renown and influential musical act.14
Through its compelling music and public presence, the
group has brought the plight of Asian immigrant workers, as well
as the oft-disregarded potency of Asian male masculinity to the
forefront of mainstream Western consciousness. For example,
their tremendous fashion sense15 imbues their performance with
youth and sex appeal. And the fact that the trio raps and makes
statements such as “we fucking rock the bitches when we’re on
stage” in hop-socky Chinese accents only adds authenticity to
their revolutionary musical work. Indeed, in its continued quest to
represent the True Experiences of Asian male workers to a larger
audience, The Notorious MSG succeeds in disrupting flawed but
persistent stereotypes and discourses about Asian Americans.
Despite their notable contributions to American life and
culture, however, The Notorious MSG remains dissatisfied with
their accomplishments, which perhaps reveals their weakness
for over-achieving. In fact, Hong Kong Fever has argued that the
group will not feel it has achieved the American Dream until it has
helped incorporate Asian Americans fully into mainstream media
and entertainment.
As he has eloquently stated, “We are here to carve a boothole
in the Corporate America. We will carve the boothole bigger and
bigger until all of our brothers and sisters can fit there. And it is
going to be painful. But they will like it.”16 ≤
There are a lot of stories that have not been told that we want to share with
the world. It is a perspective that people have not thought about or even seen.
We try to bring that to the surface. There is a lot of, I feel, repression and rage
in Chinatown that people, from not being able to express themselves fully. …
We try to give that expression in our music.
e.g. downing shots of soy sauce and smoking egg rolls.
The New York Times keenly notes: “The name Notorious MSG is more than
a play on that of the Notorious B.I.G., the 1990’s rapper, and on monosodium
glutamate, the flavor enhancer used in some Chinese restaurants; it also serves
as an acronym for Moo Shu Guys. The name was adopted, said the former workers at a Chinese restaurant, after a run-in with a customer who had made racist
comments. … For reasons they declined to specify, the men would not give
their real names or say where they lived; they would say only that they were in
their 20’s and sought to make music illuminating the hard-knock life that they
and their fellow Chinese immigrants often face.” From Julia Wang, “Their HardKnock Life,” The New York Times, June 11, 2006.
14
Another mainstream news organization, Time Out New York, ran a story
entitled “Chopschticks” that stated, “Judging by their outfits—and their name—
you might think that the band Notorious MSG is a put-on.” (Clearly, this is not
the case.)
15
During their live performances, the men of The Notorious MSG typically
remove Red Adidas track suits (or some other fly get-up) to reveal the standard
restaurant worker uniform of white shirts and black pants. Hong Kong Fever also
boldly sports a bowl cut, Down Lo-Mein wears his hair in well-coiffed jheri curls,
and the Hunan Bomb’s mop has a studied, punk rock messiness to it.
16
In Hong Kong Fever’s dialect, “boothole” is interchangeable with “butt hole.”
Slang for “street credibility.”
Their words, not mine.
From “FOB for Life”:
it’s getting so damn hot in the kitchen
people dissin’
jealous of all the ladies we kissin’
now listen
to the funky beats you’re missin’
9
10
11
PHOTO: COURTESY OF MSG
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF The Notorious MSG to Asian America
cannot be overstated.1 Though some cultural critics have already
begun calling the group the “Asian American Beastie Boys,”2 this
descriptor does not begin to accord this bold New York Chinatown rap trio proper respect for its role in challenging racist barriers in mainstream entertainment and revolutionizing Asian American media representation3. Indeed, the charming yet virulent
Third World migration to developed countries such as the United
States for economic opportunities, these young men, who were
all teenagers at the time, boarded a cargo ship to the United
States in 1993,6 which is where they reportedly met. Upon landing
in New York’s Chinatown, they went out in search of the American Dream. Hong Kong Fever and Down Lo-Mein did as so many
other hard-working immigrants do: They took thankless jobs as
delivery boys, waiters and chefs at a take-out restaurant in New
York’s Chinatown called the Crazy Wok. (The Hunan Bomb initially parted ways with his Chinese friends for a period of time and
went back to underground pit fighting, where he was undefeated
for many years.)
But as a result of experiencing what some scholars have
come to call “racial discrimination” and “cultural ignorance,” immigrant life would prove to be challenging for Hong Kong Fever
and Down Lo-Mein. Criminology theories7 would predict that the
twosome would not be able to resist the call of the criminal underground, and indeed, they could not. Both men joined a Chinatown gang called The Dumpling Killaz, which was known for
running the Chinatown mahjong circuit, but they soon discovered
that mayhem and destruction did not help them properly express
the rage and frustration they felt as disrespected and dehumanized immigrant restaurant workers.8 Though they would eventually stage a violent coup and disband the criminal organization,
arguably, it is their experience with gang life that helped the duo
establish the necessary “street cred”9 to launch a hip hop group
that could garner the respect of an unforgiving multicultural
society.
Using simple equipment such as the Roland D-20 keyboard and
a Tascan 4-track recorder, the musical duo began crafting “deep
fried beats”10 and lyrics based on their hardscrabble experiences in
the kitchens and alleys of Chinatown.11 The duo eventually recruited
their old friend the Hunan Bomb to join them in this new enterprise—one designed to create socio-political calamity through hip
hop music and unparalleled acts of on-stage bravado.12
Put your hands together for the boys
got the wontons and the baby bok choy
Makin’ good food everybody can enjoy
From New York city to old Hanoi
in my right hand my tek-9
in my left hand my fried rice
drink my oolong tea on ice
smoke the egg roll oh so nice
This scholarly work was originally published in The Journal of Symbolic
Eggrolls
12
13
HYPHEN FALL.06 021
T
he showcase promoted a number of underground Asian
bands, but most of the audience at the Knitting Factory in
TriBeCa on this Sunday night had come out to see a threeman rap group, the Notorious MSG, whose account of an unusual
trajectory from the kitchens of Chinatown restaurants to the local
stage was the big draw.
By 9 p.m., with fists and camcorders raised, the crowd cheered
as the group bounded onto the stage. They were outfitted in
matching black Adidas tracksuits, sunglasses, and three distinct
hairstyles: Jheri-curled mullet, frizzy dreadlocks and bowl cut.
Tossing back flasks of soy sauce, they opened with ‘’Straight
Out of Canton’’:
Just coming out the ghetto with an egg roll
Got a .57 magnum feelin loco
And you know
I never go solo
Got your Hunan Bomb and your boy D-lo.
In the middle of the song, they stripped down to white tank
tops, black pants and aprons, pretty much the universal uniform
of restaurant workers -- prompting a chorus of whistles. Between
songs, they regaled the crowd with visual gags, like lighting up and
smoking a gag egg roll, and with personal tales of heartache over a
girl with a dim-sum pushcart.
‘’It was an assault on the senses,’’ said Michael Nuñez, 31, a
freelance art producer who lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. ‘’Seeing
them live, clearly, that is the only way to soak in what MSG are all
about.’’
The name Notorious MSG is more than a play on that of the
Notorious B.I.G., the 1990’s rapper, and on monosodium glutamate,
the flavor enhancer used in some Chinese restaurants; it also serves
as an acronym for Moo Shu Guys. The name was adopted, said the
former workers at a Chinese restaurant, after a run-in with a customer
who had made racist comments.
The members of MSG -- who go by Down-Lo Mein, Hong Kong
Fever and the Hunan Bomb -- say they first met in 1993 on a ship that
smuggled them into the United States, stayed in touch through the
network of restaurant jobs in Chinatown and started the band in 2000.
For reasons they declined to specify, the men would not give their real
names or say where they lived; they would say only that they were in
their 20’s and sought to make music illuminating the hard-knock life
that they and their fellow Chinese immigrants often face.
‘’When you go to Chinatown, you see all the hustlers out there
trying to get by every day, selling fish, DVD’s, bags, make a little
cheddar,’’ Hong Kong Fever said. ‘’They call Harlem home of the
hustler. Well, Chinatown is the mother to the hustler.’’ JULIA WANG
HOUSTON CHRONICLE SEPTEMBER 2007
HOUSTON PRESS SEPTEMBER 2007
SING TAO METRO MAY 2006