Amazon Music’s Mixtape Asia features a brand-new Amazon Original song, “Rent Free,” by Dumbfoundead ... [+]
Amazon
On May 15, the music streaming platform with IMDb, IMDbPro, AEG, Gold House, Pacific Bridge Arts Foundation and Transparent Arts is also hosting Identity 2021, a virtual live stream fundraiser at 8 p.m. EST via Amazon Music’s Twitch channel. The event will present live performances, PSAs and panels by artists Dumbfoundead, Sherry Cola, Mike Shinoda, Karen Fukuhara, Kalani Peʻa, Taylor Rapp, ATEEZ, Steve Aoki, James Reid, Guapdad 4000 and others to benefit Gold House’s AAPI Community Fund and Pacific Bridge Arts’ musical scholarships.
As Amazon Music highlights the achievements and contributions of the API community in America and around the globe, the viability of API artists will rise. Amplification of diverse API backgrounds will not only help to address the community’s current climate, but it will also influence and unveil greater opportunities for API artists of tomorrow, according to Frankie Yaptinchay, Amazon Music’s Senior Voice Creative Program Manager and APAHM lead.
“For the API community, this past year has been one of grief and resilience in the face of so much adversity,” Yaptinchay said in a statement. “It’s essential that representation isn’t only during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month but year around, and it’s critical for members in our community to work towards change to inspire and create solutions for the next generation.”
Every Friday during May, Amazon Music’s playlist of the best new music by API artists reveals itself on Mixtape Asia. The first track was a brand-new Amazon Original song, “Rent Free,” by Dumbfoundead featuring Filipino-American singer, songwriter and record producer Jeff Bernat. Listeners can expect to discover emerging musicians including the South Korean boy band ATEEZ and Filipino-American singer, songwriter Jules Aurora.
On May 28, Amazon Music will debut a new short film directed by Christelle de Castro and written and produced by Mamag Studios to honor API women artists who break norms and defy stereotypes to redefine culture. The film, showing on Amazon Music’s Twitch show “Group Thread: IYKYK,” features popular artists Audrey Nuna, Deb Never, Joyce Wrice and Maliibu Miitch.
“When we started developing Amazon Music’s Editorial content program for APAHM this year, I felt it was imperative to hold space for API women to be heard and seen,” says Jane Shin, Amazon Music’s Senior Content Producer who is leading the streaming service’s APAHM Editorial content activities. “With that said, our content program is intentionally focused on highlighting API women artists and creatives with an ambitious short film and panel discussions on our Twitch channel that celebrate the ways in which they break through norms and stereotypes.”
Shin says that the film and panels are meant to be “vessels for healing and empowering conversations to take place among the women in our community.” As young Asian and API girls watching find encouragement, she says they will be able to create more authentically without barriers and have their voices and truths heard.
On May 15, Amazon Music with IMDb, IMDbPro, AEG, Gold House, Pacific Bridge Arts Foundation and ... [+]
The new collection of Amazon Music playlists showcases a diverse collection of API musicians. “Made in Hawaii” features established and emerging Hawaiian musicians curated by GRAMMY-Award-winning singer and songwriter and producer Kalani Peʻa while “The Collective” presents new hip-hop music from API artists around the world. A few existing playlists like “Bollywood Tadka” and “K-Pop Now” are also a part of the mix spotlighting various destinations in Asia.
“We can't just fight together through adversity, we must sustain our movement through affirmation,” says Gold House President Bing Chen. “From the A100 List that projects the very best in API achievement and activism, to Identity that establishes a definitive stage for established and emerging talent; to our forthcoming Future Network that delivers even more next generation creative voices faster, we are here—end to end—to reshape public opinion and the treatment of our community so that we may be in a position to leas, and serve, others.”
Rising Vietnamese-American music artist Dolly Ave released her debut album Sleep on May 7. Her break-out hit, “Sunlight, Quiet, Flowers,” was from a collaboration last year with rapper Charlie Curtis-Beard. The song trended Number One on TikTok’s Original Music charts for seven consecutive days and attracted more than 428,000 streams on Spotify.
Ave says, “We overcome by lifting each other up as a community and working on projects with people that want to help. As we see in the media today, there is an audience that believes in us … we’re breaking records, we’re seeing more representation and the narrative is slowly changing.”
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Identity Festival 2020 was transformed into a seven-hour livestream fundraiser for United Way Asia Pacific with Amazon Music. Earlier this year Amazon Music teamed up with The Recording Academy for its Black Music Collective scholarship and offered support to movements like #HateIsAVirus, #StopAsianHate and Asian American’s Advancing Justice.
