Dumbfoundead’s story is this: He’s Korean by face, but Buenos Aires-born to a single mom. Big brother to little sister. All three illegally crossed the Tijuana borders for a better life and made a home in Los Angeles’s Koreatown, here he found a father named Hip-Hop.
The Korean rapper says it was hard to tell his Latin-Asian story through battle rhymes. In fact, his opponents would use his Asian roots against him using Jackie Chan mock lines. But that didn’t stop Dumbfoundead, born Jonathan Park, from continuing his emcee boot camp at the informally famous open-mic Project Blowed in South Central.
“I used to go every week to freestyle, battle and perform,” he said. “It was like rap school for me.” He made the transition from local celebrity to online monolith as he began making runs through the west coast division of Grindtime, one of the most popular battle rap circuits, spinning off one hilarious, sharp Youtube victory after another.
Mom wasn’t impressed with Dumbfoundead wanting to be rapper, nor did his appearance on Mtv or YouTube hits matter – But, when she saw her son make news in the local newspaper “Koreatown,” she said, “You made it!”
Dumbfoundead’s latest release is DFD (out now) and remarkably it peaked at #8 on the worldwide iTunes hip-hop charts, right up there with Wale and J. Cole. Check out his “Spotlight” with Carson Daly. WATCH VIDEO.
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