Fresh Kid Ice: The 1st Asian-American Rapper Dies at 53

I got into hip-hop when I was in middle school in 1988. Fresh Kid Ice (Christopher Wong Won) was the only Asian-American face in hip-hop. He wasn’t the most brainy M.C. that existed, nor did he say or do or wear anything that made me want to emulate him, but I appreciated that he was accepted in the black community for what he was. I related to that. As an Asian-American male with no one in mainstream anything and almost zero other Asian males in my classes. I also, was accepted into the black community. I slightly hoped he’d do a solo and maybe introduce other Asian-American rappers. It never happened. And now it never will. To me he and most likely every American was the first Asian-American rapper. I’m trying to think of how many years it took to see another Asian-American in the hip-hop scene on that level, and I think M.C. Jin is the next to get our attention. And that took hip-hop 17 years to reach. 2004 was 13 years ago. And we still have not had an Asian-American hip-hop act with that much influence that was a household name like 2 Live Crew.