We were the beginning.

And when I say "we," I mean usa: Korean-Americans.

We were the early adopters of "Information technology G MA," in that first week after Keith Ape's explosive song and music video dropped out of nowhere on New year's Solar day. I don't have exact YouTube stats on this, merely I'd venture to say that people like me—Korean-Americans, a.k.a. gyopos (people of Korean descent living exterior of Korea)—dominated the start 301+ of the nearly x million views that the video has now clustered. (I do have YouTube stats that show that almost 60 percent of total views originated in America, compared to only x percent in South korea.)

Few of us had heard of Keith Ape before January. 1, notwithstanding "IT M MA" chop-chop became an instant share. I found the song to be catchy (and derivative, certain), but information technology was the raw energy of the video and its cultural signifiers—Keith's paper mask, the dark-green bottle of makgeolli (milky, carbonated rice wine) he clutches like a 40, the flashing won (Korean currency) symbols—that resonated nigh. Korean shit. Cool Korean shit. And the phrase "Information technology 1000 MA" itself: 잊지마. Don't forget. Plumbing fixtures.

Ethnic pride is ane of the reasons that you lot're reading about Keith Ape in Complex and too why Circuitous produced and premiered the "It G MA Remix" video. (More on that later on.) Simply it's not the principal reason. Hip-hop circa 2015 has 2 main tiers: the aristocracy one pct of megastars (and those futilely trying to join them) and a huge abyss of has-been rappers. There's a widening third class, though: an Net total of enthusiastic upstarts who effort to get noticed via novelty, or skill, or but a relentless DIY IDGAF mentality. The ones who become noticed, similar Keith Ape, combine all 3.

So Keith and the Cohort crew (Seoul), much as Awful Records (Atlanta) and the Sad Boys (Stockholm) before them, have vaulted from regional obscurity to blogosphere fame. This new class of standouts represents hip-hop's strange new world, where homegrown creativity and unabashed cribbing incubate on your broadband connection.

And, though I might be biased, I have a feeling that the kid from Due south Korea will exist the biggest of them all.

" 엄청 많이 바꼈죠."

A whole damn lot has changed. This is what Keith Ape says to me, over the phone, when I ask him how his life is unlike 7 months after the release of "IT G MA." He'southward calling from L.A., where he intends to stay for the foreseeable future as he begins his solo career on the newly formed CXSHXNLY Records.

For one, Keith is speaking sporadic English at present—"I'm non studying," he says, "merely I'm trying"—and he's alone in the U.S., without fellow members of the Cohort, his x-man team. Dorsum in April, when I first met Keith on the set of the "It G MA Remix" shoot, he was accompanied by most of the Cohort on the final leg of an Austin-to-L.A.-to-NYC trip, bookended by Keith'due south SXSW debut and a sold-out show at SOB's. Off phase, he cuts a slight effigy in tattered jeans and Chucks, more punk rock than rap, with delicate features and perpetually heavy eyelids. In New York, he seemed a little overwhelmed by it all—the English language-speaking members of the Cohort did most of the talking while he dazedly drifted in and out of view.

But then again, how could Keith not be out of sorts? It'due south surreal enough for a rapper to have a sudden hitting record and immediately become a wanted commodity. Now imagine that happening in a country where y'all've never been and barely speak the linguistic communication. Keith was all the same largely unknown in Korea, merely here he was, on his very offset visit to the U.Southward., beingness celebrated not only by hordes of non-Korean fans and media but also past American rappers queueing up for collabos. "꿈 같았어요," he says now, recalling the whirlwind trip. It was like a dream.

"He's matured a lot after all this happened," says Oscar Lee, the soft-spoken 27-year-one-time who created the Cohort collective and is similar the A$AP Yams of the group. "I feel similar he saw the responsibility that's being requested of him."

Born Dongheon Lee in 1993, Keith is the youngest member of the Cohort, but has actually been recording music the longest. He grew up in Bundang, a sleepy suburb about an 60 minutes'south train ride from the heart of Seoul. "I wasn't doing bad things like smoking cigarettes, riding motorcycles, jacking people'south money," he says, in English language. "Merely I was a trouble child." Bored by schoolhouse, Keith, similar so many suburban kids, found an outlet in hip-hop.After listening to mostly pop music as a child, Keith says his ear turned at historic period 14, when he heard Nas and AZ trade bars on "Life'southward a Bitch" (the 10th-anniversary remix, as it turns out).  From so on, Keith began working on his arts and crafts, mostly past himself, writing rhymes and experimenting with production.

At 17, Keith dropped out of high schoolhouse with no other plan than to make music. Using the name "Kid Ash," Keith started uploading music on SoundCloud and making videos with friends on YouTube. "Only in that location was no hope," he says. If not successful, he was diligent, spending long days practicing at a small-scale recording studio, where he often slept. At home, his begetter, a music professor, would lament his son's career choice.

Everything inverse in 2012, when the Cohort rapper Okasian, who was already bubbling in the underground, stumbled upon Keith past take chances while listening to a producer's shell tape. Ane of the tracks happened to accept Keith's vocals already on information technology. "I hit the producer up, like, 'Who's this guy?'" says Okasian. "It was his vocalisation, his menstruum, his lingo, his accent. He raps like a linguistic communication. I definitely saw huge potential that's different from other rappers."

"In Korea, in that location was no crew I'd desire to be in too the Cohort. Considering you know, Korean rap, it sucks. Bad."
—Keith ape

Numbers were exchanged, and Okasian brought Keith to Oscar and eventually into the Cohort fold. Keith went on to feature, as Kid Ash, on several tracks from Okasian's commencement anthology, Boarding Procedures , and before long became a regular on the Accomplice mixtapes. "한국에 Cohort빼고 하고싶은crew 없었어요," says Keith. In Korea, at that place was no crew I'd desire to be in likewise the Accomplice.  "Because you know," he adds, in English: "Korean rap, it sucks. Bad."

It was during this time that "Kid Ash" transformed into "Keith Ape," as he rebranded himself with a name that nods to both his favorite artist, Keith Haring, and his spirit animal. "Sometimes I'm smart and sensitive," he says, "and sometimes I feel impaired and reckless." ("SAVAGEHARING'15" is what he calls himself on Instagram .)

Then, past the shut of 2014, the newly christened Keith Ape was in a good place every bit an artist, working with a like-minded crew that had a steady foothold in Korea'southward burgeoning rap scene. He was beginning to make a living from his music, and even started gaining his male parent'south approval. Slowly merely surely, things were looking up.

And then: "IT G MA."

The vocal that changed Keith'due south life forever wasn't intended to be an international hitting. The Cohort crew had been vibing to—you guessed it—OG Maco and wanted to spit on something like to his frenetic record "for fun," says Oscar. Producer Junior Chef cooked upwardly the trap vanquish and the Accomplice fellow member JayAllDay, who lived in Japan for several years, enlisted Japanese rappers Kohh and Loota to join himself, Keith, and Okasian on the track, making it a rare Korean-Japanese collaboration. Keith took "It Thousand MA," a phrase that the Accomplice oftentimes jokingly used amongst each other, and flipped it as the championship.

The vocal's frequent nautical references—"underwater team," "killer whales," and "Orca ninjas"—were already function of the Cohort slang. Around 2009, Oscar and Okasian had met equally rap-loving international students studying biology at Penn State University, where Oscar dreamt upwards the crew name later learning about cohort studies. He began assembling creative friends who wanted to "do something that nosotros love, not what we were pushed to do equally a model minority," says Oscar. In add-on to the aforementioned members, the squad includes co-founder Kangkook and Swidea, who oversee the Orcawear clothing line; producer Cokejazz; rappers Reddy and Bryan Cha$e; and well-known male model/artist Sung-jin Park.And all of the SeaWorld stuff? "I was just really into killer whales," says Oscar.

So "It K MA" was a Cohort song like whatever other, a free release, something "our fans were going to honey," says Okasian, though Oscar recalls: "Before the video dropped, when nosotros actually performed 'Information technology G MA' for the starting time time in Korea, people didn't really fuck with the song." The official driblet of "Information technology G MA" came on January. one, 2015 via the music video, shot by Keith'southward homie January' Qui at IP Boutique Hotel in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood.

Prior to "It One thousand MA," l,000 views was a respectable YouTube count for a Cohort release, but within a few days the video rocketed past that number. Pigeons & Planes got in early, posting the video on Jan. 7 every bit it moved toward 6 figures. The Fader writeup followed a few weeks later, on Jan. 23, leading to the next milestone: 500,000 views, which Okasian says is the number that "big rappers practise in Korea. I was like 'Oh, shit, nosotros're ane of them now.'" Past the first week of February, when Noisey checked in and it popped upwards on WorldStar, the video was well on its way to a milli. Korean rap finally had a song and artist with 18-carat traction in the U.S.

And at present back to the ethnic pride bit: As mentioned earlier, "It One thousand MA" was eagerly shared in that starting time week amongst Korean-Americans, especially those in creative fields, and especially the very few who rap professionally. Rapper Danny Chung, who was already hip to the Cohort's organic movement ("They were like streetwear Soho kids, a fiddling step ahead of the usual Korean wave and non farm-raised like almost every Korean hip-hop deed before them," he says), passed the "IT G MA" link via group chat to boyfriend artist Dumbfoundead, the veteran L.A. rapper who yous may remember from Drake'due south heavy cosign at the final KOTD rap battle and you should definitely know for murdering his poetry on the "IT K MA Remix."

Impaired'due south initial impression: "Shit was turnt up! Keith reminded me of some kind of trap anime grapheme," he says. "I appreciated the low-budget rawness of it opposed to the big-production videos that Korea usually produces."

In turn, Impaired put his director, Sean Miyashiro, onto "Information technology K MA"—literally playing information technology for him on his phone—and Sean immediately put the wheels in motion to go Keith to America. "It was the mode they executed the video and portrayed themselves," explains Sean, who is of Korean-Japanese descent. "It was a perfectly executed vision, even with no money. If Keith could practice that, I was sure he could do a lot more."

Past the time Sean brought Keith and the Cohort to the U.South. for SXSW in March, he had negotiated the remix rights to "IT G MA" and was officially managing Keith (as well as Okasian and producer Junior Chef). To brand a long story longer: During SXSW, I got a telephone call virtually a potential Keith Ape remix video via Dumb and Korean rap whisperer/author Jaeki Cho. I continued with Sean, deals were made, and that's how all of this got to Complex. A network of gyopos connecting (or conspiring?) because we all desire to meet a Korean kid blow upwards over hither.

The challenge now, of course, is for Keith to turn his viral record into an bodily career. The remix video, with all of its boldface American rap names, is the first step.

"Assuming we get dandy music," says Sean, who heads CXSHXNLY, "he's gonna be the most transcendent Korean artist that has happened in America."

Just will that make him a true American rap star? Or, a better question: Does that fifty-fifty really matter to anyone merely us?

Over the final few weeks, I emailed a random collection of media people about "IT G MA," curious every bit to how much the original song had registered in manufacture circles. The email query was simple: Do you recognize this combination of letters: IT G MA?

Here are their responses:

  • Sean Fennessey, Grantland: I do not.
  • Peter Rosenberg, Hot 97: Nope.
  • B.Dot Miller, Rap Radar: Nah. New to me.
  • Jeff Rosenthal, ItsTheReal: Yup, I know what "​Information technology G Ma" is (as a vocal) but take no idea what they mean in Korean.
  • Jensen Karp, Get Upwardly On This podcast: Holy shit! I know this!!! It'due south the Asian kid Keith Ape's rap song. [ New York Times writer Jon] Caramanica wrote virtually him and I got kinda into it.
  • Rondell Conway, BET.com: I'chiliad lost. Is this some young people slang? It's all good ma"???
  • Cipha Sounds: I just know it every bit an Asian trap song.
  • Sprint Parker, Shady Records: Huh?

So iii out of eight, which is actually fewer than I expected. Information technology's clear that Keith Ape—who he is and what he could be—is important to usa. I've had countless conversations about "It G MA" over the by twelvemonth, which says every bit much nearly its impact as it does the dearth of entertainment that sates both sides of the Korean-American hyphen. We were waiting for something like "IT Grand MA" and someone similar Keith Ape, for a Korean vocal and artist that could escape the One thousand-pop playlist quarantine and maybe fifty-fifty commingle on Migos' Pandora station. But while those pocket-size wins might be significant to us, to really be a star here, Keith has to become important to them—that is, the 99.4 percent of the American population that isn't of Korean descent (check the census!) and could care less what he represents.

Presumably many more will become familiar with Keith (and Dumbfoundead, for that affair) in the wake of the "It Thou MA Remix" and every bit Keith's career takes shape in usa. His next big project is an upcoming EP fully produced past Southside (the 808 Mafia member backside your recent favorite Future songs), who met Keith through Waka at the video shoot. More U.S. collabos for Keith, hugger-mugger for now, are on the style.

Simply even if the hip-hop gatekeepers remain unaware, in 2015 their opinions only really affair if you're aiming to bring together the elite—which, if you ask him, is not on Keith's listing of current goals. (He rattled them off, in Korean, in this order: "settle in America, continue making music, bring the rest of the Cohort to the U.South., get famous, make money, and live well." These are achievable dreams.)

In the cease, whether "Information technology Yard MA" will be the top of Keith's success or simply a stepping rock in a long career is no longer up to "united states" or "them," just instead depends on his ability to successfully navigate the gap separating novelty rapper and legitimate artist. In that journey, Keith has enough of company, from ATL to Sweden to the unabridged globe over. Nosotros can hope all we want, just he'south just a 21-year-old child with a hit record and a vision, non an avatar of exterior expectations and others' by failures.

"People like the youth going crazy," says Keith when asked to explain his success thus far. "I'm doing crazy shit, and I'g a immature person. And I'm Korean." Never forget.