HeeSun Lee isn’t your average Hip Hop emcee. Put up for
adoption in her native Korea at the age of four months, she was brought to
America and raised by Chinese parents in a Christian home on Staten Island.
As a teenager, she became a fan of Hip Hop acts ranging from
Lauryn Hill and Will Smith to Tupac Shakur. All of Lee’s diverse experiences
have fused to create the illuminating backdrop for her sophomore CD
“Stereotypes” (In My City Records) that releases on iTunes and other retail
outlets on January 21, 2014. Lee’s story is unique in that she credits not only
her faith but also Hip Hop for saving her life. “Hip Hop saved me from a lot of
things,” she confesses. “My biggest struggle growing up was with my identity
and it all correlates with being stereotyped and not knowing where I belonged
because I was adopted.” See more and video link( I tried to upload the video buh it dint work out) after the cut...
Lee envisions the 16-track CD as a tool to evangelize while
also examining society’s stereotypes like the one that suggests that someone of
Korean heritage lacks the spit skills to make it in Hip Hop. “I have had to
constantly remind myself that I am legit,” Lee says of the battle to win cred
as an emcee. “Sometimes the stereotypes in this world are so big that they can
even get to my own confidence. I may think I’m good, but I can just be playing
myself if society is telling me this is not what I should be doing.”
 |
| HEE SUN LEE Photoshoot |
Any doubts about Lee’s gifts vanish on the CD’s opening
track in which she fires off the verse, “Every day I’m on a mission now trying
to save the lost. I’m never by myself, someone see me take the Cross, devil on
my backside, watch me how I shake him off” with machine-gun rapidity. It’s just
a taste of Lee’s deep commitment to the Hip Hop genre and her faith. That same
zeal dominates her concert sets that she’ll showcase at the Canyon Music
Festival on Friday, January 24th and Saturday, January 26th on the campus of
Canyon State University in Phoenix, AZ.
With a brilliant CD dropping and a career on the upswing,
ponders her life a decade from now. “Hopefully, I’ve won a Grammy,” she laughs.
“Not just to have a Grammy but because it helps my fan base grow so that more
people have an alternative to rappers with a negative message and to let girls
and guys know there’s another route.”
No comments:
Post a Comment