Meet the Final Music Contestants Vying to Join the Uncaged Heroes

Tiger Beer recently introduced their “The Uncaged” initiative to spotlight creatives around the world who are positively reshaping their communities while unabashedly pursuing their passion. We have teamed up with 88Rising and the San Francisco-based charity, Imprint City, to find the music industry’s best up-and-coming artists to join these Uncaged Heroes at Tiger Beer’s global fall festival. From the group of contestants, one winning act will be selected to perform at the autumnal event. HYPEBEAST caught up with the six finalists whose bold artistic prowess and tenacity aligns with the DNA of the Uncaged Heroes. Presented in no particular order below, read what each music artist is bringing to the table.

Chow Mane

Can you introduce and describe your art/music aesthetic to those unfamiliar with it?
I’m a Chinese American rapper/producer from the Bay Area. My biggest influences include Andre 3000, Lil Wayne, Curren$y and Mac Dre, which are reflected in my writing style — a fine balance between flourishing imagery, ridiculous wordplay, offbeat flows and fun. The sounds in my music range from experimental, dissonant trap to bright, melodic hip-hop — I even have a few R&B songs and a lo-fi track in my discography, so no two songs sound exactly alike. Although sonically my songs may be different, the lyrics, personality and experiences displayed in them are undeniably me.

What was your earliest experience with music?
I started playing the piano when I was very young — around 5-years-old — and practiced classical and jazz piano. I began rapping when I was 11, largely influenced by my uncle, who always played artists like Too $hort and Snoop Dogg around me. I began producing hip-hop and electronic music at about 15-years-old and have been perfecting my craft ever since.

What track or album informed you the most about how you create?
In my early music, I was heavily influenced by Lil’ Wayne, especially the Dedication series, Da Drought series, and No Ceilings. I think Wayne taught me how to write punchlines, which have always been an important part of my writing process. My other biggest influence is Outkast’s ATLiens, particularly Andre 3000’s verses on the second half of the project. The flows are so complex and the imagery in the lyrics is so vivid, that’s the direction I wanted to take my music in. My debut project Mooncakes was largely experimental, and each song sounded pretty different because I wanted to create a little bit of everything.

Can you take us through the creative process for your lyrics/art – from pulling references to forming concepts?
Most of the time, I have a stream-of-consciousness approach to writing lyrics. Song concepts come from catchy hooks I create in my day-to-day activities or from deeply personal experiences I want to share with the world. Having a concept or a hook first makes the verses a lot easier to write because it gives me something to keep in mind, to gravitate back to. I try to stay on topic, insert a little wordplay wherever I can and trick the listener with an unexpected — but still catchy — flow. My references come from what I see in my life, whether it be media I consume or people I meet. I like to write them all in a little notepad that I can pull from when I need help, but most of the time when I’m writing I can just keep going.

How does your music fit in with what’s happening contemporarily in the industry?
My music is evolving, and so am I. In my debut project, Mooncakes, I wanted to show people I could rap and that I could put together a cohesive project in my own lane. My collective-mate, Jordan Garrett, and I recently released a project called Rush Hour, where we were heavily influenced by artists like Smokepurpp, Ski Mask and Lil Pump. The whole “punk rap” aesthetic of raw, aggressive, sounds mixed with my own experiences and wordplay alongside Jordan’s DOOM-esque flows made for something that I think was different but in the same lane as a lot of popular hip-hop. In my next project, I’m shifting gears again and focusing a lot more on melodies and concepts, in the vein of Elujay, Goldlink, or Towkio. You can kind of hear the writing style I’m using for this in my verses on “Fk & Tlk” and several other features.

What is it that you hope people take away when listening to your music?
It’s different for each project, but the common theme is that I want to evoke some sort of emotion from the listener, and I want them to give a chuckle or headnod to the flows and wordplay I use. The Mooncakes EP was meant to evoke nostalgia, anger and laughs. The Rush Hour project was mostly geared towards live shows, where the songs made people mosh, headbang and overall get really hyped. Some songs, like “Cozy,” are there to create a vibe and a smooth backdrop. On all of my songs I’m rapping on, I’m showcasing my personality, flexing bars and making people feel some type of way.

What has your journey through music been like thus far?
It’s been a lot of self-discovery and reflection for me. I’ve been rapping for over 10 years now, but I didn’t start honing in on my style until the last two. It’s also been very interesting being an Asian rapper in America. While Asian rappers are starting to get more love and recognition online, the local scenes are still tough. I’ve had kids bring calculators to shows and try to hand them to me while I’m on stage. But regardless, I’m still learning a lot about the business and the music I create and I think it’s good to keep evolving.

Why would you say you are best the choice for the judges?
I think I have everything in place to become a successful artist in the long run. I put on a fun live show, I have great Spotify and Apple streaming listening numbers  alongside getting placement, independently, in a big Spotify playlist, I have a unique brand and a distinct sound in my music and voice, and I can create music that either gets people in their feels or gets people to feel powerful and aggressive.

What will you bring to the stage that can’t be witnessed when listening to your music?
My live shows are fun because the crowds tend to get really into my music. When I perform very hype songs the energy in the room becomes incredible. Moreover, I’m a lot more comfortable being myself and performing the way I want to when I’m on stage, whereas people aren’t able to see me at my best in music videos, since directors kind of tell me how to perform.

If you were to win, where would you see your career going afterward?
It would be an incredible opportunity to just meet and connect with the people at HYPEBEAST and 88rising. Earlier in my career, people thought my music was too comedic or gimmicky, which was probably my own fault on which songs I decided to make music videos for, but if people listened to the projects they wouldn’t think the same. I’m working to move away from that and show people that I’m a serious, talented hip-hop artist. I’ve begun to do so on the recent music I’ve put out, and will continue to do so in my future projects. I think this is the re-branding I have to go through before I can become a mainstream, commercially-viable artist, and I think opening for an 88rising show will give me an opportunity to show that I’m able to make that jump.

Danielle Minch (Behind The Facade)

Can you introduce and describe your art/music aesthetic to those unfamiliar with it?
We are a four-piece alternative/pop-punk rock band from the inner boroughs of NYC.

What was your earliest experience with music?
My childhood was filled with memories of my grandfather — who we called Giddo — fingerpicking beautiful Spanish tunes on his classical guitar.

What track or album informed you the most about how you create?
All We Know is Falling by Paramore. I discovered this band in junior high, right before I started my first band and I was so deeply inspired by a fellow female rock artist doing away with stereotypes and just killing it in every way possible.

Can you take us through the creative process for your lyrics/art – from pulling references to forming concepts?
I don’t force my writing. It comes very organically and I like it that way. I don’t ever sit down and say, “I’m going to write a song today,” I just get a wave of emotion and inspiration and it’s like autopilot. I mostly write when I’m sad, which is unfortunate because that doesn’t happen as often as I’d like to create, but I’ve been challenging myself lately to write when I’m happy too  –one of our new songs, “Bucket List,”  is a result of that. I’ve even awoken from a deep sleep with a line in my head, contemplating whether I should wake up and write it down or enjoy the rest of my dream or nightmare. Most of the time, I do write it down and I’m so thankful later. I usually write these lines in my notepad on my phone and continue adding to it throughout the course of weeks or months.

I tend to write the instrumentals separately although this is not always the case. I usually write them when I’m feeling happy and inspired — sometimes after a concert or after discovering an amazing band — which is the opposite of my lyrical process and ends up as quite an interesting song that’s full of contrasting emotions. It shows how complicated us humans are.

My bandmates work with my ideas and tweak the parts to their liking. There are also times when we collaborate and create something out of nothing in a jam session, and then there are other times when they give me a skeleton of a song they wrote and we develop that.

How does your music fit in with what’s happening contemporarily in the industry?
Everything we do is influenced by our surroundings, whether we like it or not. Even if our music isn’t directly about, let’s say, the tabloids, the political climate, the middle east or the fact that we’re on social media constantly, all these things play a role in our moods and our conversations and therefore affect the content and vibes in our music.

What is it that you hope people take away when listening to your music?
Our goal is to be true to ourselves in our musical endeavors and to have fun. But we really hope that the people listening and attending our concerts can end the day feeling at least a little better than they did before. We hope people are really hearing our lyrics, riffs, and fills, and are either relating and feeling less alone, or just genuinely enjoying it and feeling entertained.

What has your journey through music been like thus far?
It’s been like sunlight after a thunderstorm, that’s the reason why we continue to do it at all, and in addition, its being an outlet to express ourselves and a way to get a bunch of friends together to hang and have a good time. It’s not always easy since we pay for everything out of pocket and have to manage every angle of it ourselves, but as long as we’re having fun, we’ll keep going.

Why would you say you are best the choice for the judges?
We truly love music, and more importantly, witnessing people around us be enveloped by that same feeling of pure joy. We help by giving people an escape, by showing them that there are other people out there that know exactly what they’re feeling and that it’s okay to just feel! Entertainment is not as objectively important as being a doctor and saving lives, but it’s still important. What would life be without the little things? It would be existing, not living.

What will you bring to the stage that can’t be witnessed when listening to your music?
We bring a feeling.

If you were to win, where would you see your career going afterward?
We would love to be able to dedicate more time to writing and performing, which hasn’t always been easy as an independent group. We do the best we can, but we gotta eat and pay the bills! If we win, we hope it’ll allow us to continue on a path that lets us do what we love without having to worry so much about the logistics.

James Cole aka JAMESCOLD 

Can you introduce and describe your art/music aesthetic to those unfamiliar with it?
My style is melodic music with a message.

What was your earliest experience with music?
Back in 2008, my dad bought me my first laptop. I downloaded a program called FL studio and started experimenting with making beats and recording for fun.

What track or album informed you the most in how you create?
There were many albums that influenced me in the creative process, but the two albums that shaped my style of music were 808 & heartbreaks by Kanye West and A Kid Named Cudi by Kid Cudi.

Can you take us through the creative process for your lyrics/art – from pulling references to forming concepts?
After I find the right beat, I record myself mumbling a melody that I later form into lyrics for the hook. The hook of a song is always my top focus. It’s the part of the song that most people gravitate towards. Everything I write in my verses is determined by my hook.

How does your music fit in with what’s happening contemporarily in the industry?
My music fits in because it’s melody driven. A lot of the successful music that’s out right now is centered around strong melodies. I feel like I have that, and more, because I sing and rap.

What is it that you hope people take away when listening to your music?
I just want people to feel something when they hear my music. Feel inspired, feel love, feel hype and everything else good for the soul.

What has your journey through music been like thus far?
My journey hasn’t been easy. I don’t think anyone’s journey for anything in life is easy, but my journey has taught me things about myself that allows me to be the person I am today. What I didn’t know before, I know now and that helps me know who and what’s important in my life.

Why would you say you are best the choice for the judges?
I am the best choice because I keep growing and getting better. This is technically my first performance and won’t be my last. The best show in town is the one you’ve watched from the beginning because you feel like you been along for the journey.

What will you bring to the stage that can’t be witnessed when listening to your music?
The energy and soul I bring in person.

If you were to win, where would you see your career going afterward?

Currently, my goal is to get signed. I see this moment as a blessing and I plan on using this experience to take myself to the next level. My purpose in life as a creative is to create and inspire. I’ll never stop no matter what the result is.

Le Vice

Can you introduce and describe your art/music aesthetic to those unfamiliar with it?
Our music is super eclectic. We always have a hard time describing it, but our producer, Donnie Scantz, refers to it as Urban Alternative, so we are going to roll with that. We play live as a live band but also incorporate electronic elements. We’ve also just executive produced, starred in and wrote a visual album/short film, so we’ve started to dig into other realms other than just music.

What was your earliest experience with music?
When I was little my dad used to play tons of records. MJ, Gap Band, Steely Dan, Madonna and Earth Wind and Fire. He had super eclectic taste, as well. Then as soon as I was old enough to play an instrument in elementary school, I hopped into that.

What track or album informed you the most about how you create?
I can’t really point to one album or track. When I first started out, N.E.R.D. and Erykah Badu were huge influences.

Can you take us through the creative process for your lyrics/art – from pulling references to forming concepts?
Every day you create can be different. Sometimes you can write off of an emotion. Like, you’re so stuck on something you’re feeling so you must write it down. Other times, I can just get together with Sean, he can pull out his guitar  — and some beers — and we make it happen.

How does your music fit in with what’s happening contemporarily in the industry?
We like to keep up with whats going on in the mainstream, but we also love to go back and reference the classics. I’d say we just do our own thing. The industry always does what’s “hot”. We just do us, and I think it’s still fire even if it doesn’t sound like everyone else.

What is it that you hope people take away when listening to your music?
I just hope they can enjoy it. We stay in our own lane.

What has your journey through music been like thus far?
It’s been a grind. We’ve been doing this for years. It’s a constant state of,  “We’re almost there, just keep pushing.” And that’s what keeps us hungry because we are only getting better with time, but I think that’s the whole point of doing it. It’s not just about the destination, it’s the journey.

Why would you say you are best the choice for the judges?
I just think we make great music and have a sound most people haven’t really heard before. Not to mention, we live for this. This has been what we’ve revolved our lives around for so long. Not just the music, but the whole culture. We live in one of the richest cities in the world and somehow we’re still here hustling and making music without a 9-5.

What will you bring to the stage that can’t be witnessed when listening to your music?
People always tell us they love the albums but when they see us live, it’s a whole other level. I’m lucky to have these great musicians playing behind me day in-and-out. I think seeing these guys kill it live is a huge deal.

If you were to win, where would you see your career going afterward?
TOUR!!

TIN

Can you introduce and describe your art/music aesthetic to those unfamiliar with it?
My music is part choir, part spaceship flying into a blackhole, and part Asian man in his bedroom. For genre-sake, I think it can be found somewhere between Neo-R&B and anti-pop. I worship the likes of Radiohead, Frank Ocean and Oneohtrix Point Never.

What was your earliest experience with music?
My mom is a beautiful singer and I think my earliest experience was listening to her sing “Que Será, Será” to me as a lullaby.


What track or album informed you the most about how you create?
“RGB” was the first track I released online and it still informs the rest of my music. It’s got this quiet, but forward aggression about Asian representation and experiences, and it’s that attitude I’m still writing with half a year later. Its lyrics also have a level of wit I’m always trying to get back to. “Must be that I’m RGB, cause I’m never in the press,” is a nerdy designer’s analogy about how you can’t really print the RGB color model from Photoshop, for example, so it’s a good comparison as an Asian person since I don’t get much time in the media. Also, I’m a designer by trade!

Can you take us through the creative process for your lyrics/art – from pulling references to forming concepts?
I make sure I get my ideas realized and out on the mic. I have to get every idea out on paper. They’re all worth thinking about and considering even if it sounds like shit at first. I’m a big proponent of coming at my art from any angle, source, space, spirit —anything. If I get stuck on something and don’t feel inspired by it, I’ll openly discuss it with whoever or even just put it aside and try again — I’m not precious about my ideas. Overall, I believe that by keeping up this high tempo pace of creativity, it keeps me evolving and changing into a better artist.

How does your music fit in with what’s happening contemporarily in the industry?
The music industry is beginning to embrace new, irreverent voices. Artists are breaking all the rules now and it’s open season —Rich Brian as an Indonesian rapper, Mykki Blanco as a beloved transgender artist and Tierra Whack breaking open the visual album format. So many artists are changing the game and I want to be part of this movement too.

I want to bring a modern, collaborative approach to songwriting and speak loudly through my Asian identity. One idea I have is to geo-map an album so that the beats, instrumentation and even vocals change based on where you walk while you listen to it. And I want to create that using people’s escape routes from Vietnam during the war, as that is the beginning of my origin story. My parents met through a makeshift “talent” show on a refugee island when my mom sang in front of my dad. If you’re reading this and want to help make that, hit me up!

What is it that you hope people take away when listening to your music?
I want people to understand the vast range of stories and experiences that people who identify as “Asian” go through. I want 12 years old me — young, timid and caged by Asian stereotypes — to listen and think, “I can do anything.” And if my music can magically make someone understand their feelings better or gain a better sense of emotional intelligence, I could maybe die. My idols did that for me, and it has meant everything.

What has your journey through music been like thus far?
For most of my life, I was conditioned to minimize my creativity into just a hobby and minimize any Asian qualities about myself. But after moving to Brooklyn and going through a breakup, I charged headfirst into music to figure out who the fuck I am. My journey with music in the last year helped me investigate parts of myself I was really good at hiding, and to explode them out the world, like how untraditionally I express my masculinity, sexuality and Asianness.

Why would you say you are the best choice for the judges?

I think I’d be a great choice because I’ve got a story to tell in music that matters right now and I have the vision to set it free and realize it in a big way.

What will you bring to the stage that can’t be witnessed when listening to your music?

Without seeing me on stage, you don’t get to witness how I become Super Saiyan on stage. When you see me do my thing, you understand how much it matters to me that I’m even up there. On stage, I fully realize my identity as an American-Vietnamese artist and I become open, vulnerable, emotional and loud. You don’t often get to see people like me in that way.

If you were to win, where would you see your career going afterward?
I would use the credibility from this opportunity in two ways: to collaborate with established Asian artists and to elevate emerging Asian artists of any kind. My ego isn’t attached to my art, it’s attached to the total body of work that Asian artists create.

Momoko Ishiguro

Can you introduce and describe your art/music aesthetic to those unfamiliar with it?
My music is rooted in my commitment to the craft of songwriting, alongside lead vocal melodies and lyrics that can stick with people and standout through the generations in a way that feels utterly unique. I hope my production choices reflect the things that I’m interested in, as well, such as American songwriting, jazz standards, the history of electronic music, the intersection between pop and experimental music, minimalism and the special kind of intimacy created by bedroom producers. I often think about this thing a friend pointed out to me once, “Decades pass and production styles change, but what people ultimately remember are the songs.”

What was your earliest experience with music?
Plugging a mic into our home stereo that had a karaoke function which I would use to sing songs by Ella Fitzgerald, Mariah Carey, Brandy, Mya and Christina Aguilera…over and over again. Also, asking my dad to teach me how to play guitar. He played bass and guitar in bands in Tokyo during the ’70s and ’80s, right when American culture was all the rage in postwar Japan. Being an only child, I spent lots of time alone in my room dealing with this insatiable desire to make something.

What track or album informed you the most about how you create?
This is a tough one! Hard to choose one: Grace by Jeff Buckley, The Cole Porter Songbook: Night and Day by Tender Buttons, Broadcast and EP2 by Arca

Can you take us through the creative process for your lyrics/art – from pulling references to
Lyric-writing usually comes last for me when I’m making a song. I either start with a production riff or chord changes, then melody or structure and the lyrics. I’m constantly writing down ideas for lyrics and song titles in my phone because if the content is real, you can’t just make it up on the spot when the time comes to figure out the words.

I guess my lyrics can be put into two categories. They are lyrics about my life that help me figure out complex feelings through the process of writing  — which I hope lots of people can relate to — and lyrics based on history, cultural references and more cerebral concepts that I interpret into a song.

As for the visual concepts, I work in the art world for my day job at a magazine/nonprofit called Triple Canopy, which creates work at the intersection of art, literature, politics, and technology largely for the web. I studied art history in college and almost became a scholar in the history of postwar Japanese photography. So the contemporary art world is always on my mind in the background when I think about visuals for music, and I’m a pretty visually-oriented person in general. Like, I know a song is doing something when it conjures a very clear image and visual mood. I also think studying art history has given me a toolkit for understanding and interpreting visual culture, so I think a lot about what’s out there in terms of music videos, visuals, graphic design, and fashion, alongside ways to push those spaces and help fill in what’s lacking.

How does your music fit in with what’s happening contemporarily in the industry?
I think the cold hard truth today is that music artists can’t just be musical anymore. In so many cases, they also have to be their own label, creative director, manager, publicist, tour manager, etc. And the ones who succeed, often have a whole universe of references and values behind their actual songs. There has to be a thesis statement that can’t be carried in the songs alone — something that I think is very particular to music and can be very powerful. I like working with collaborators and managing projects, so I’m excited by the idea of making this my craft.

What is it that you hope people take away when listening to your music?
The greatest hope I have with my music — and music generally  — is that it becomes a platform for empathy, which I think is the most important thing that culture can provide for us right now. I think what’s special and exciting about the medium is that two people can listen to the same Cardi B song on the New York subway and might otherwise have very little else in common than that. I want to devote my life to basically help with the obvious next step, which is to find ways for those two people to interact and learn more about each other IRL. I really think that those kinds of interactions and relationships are sorely needed right now.

Live shows are a great space to think about this stuff. In the future, I would also love my music to be an avenue for people to think a little differently about the world, but I’m still working on developing an approach that doesn’t feel too didactic or contrived, which is really hard!

What has your journey through music been like thus far?
My journey over the past five years — rooted in the time I’ve been living in New York — has been all about bringing what use to be a bedroom-producer project out into the world, while bringing other people in. This solo project used to be this very quiet, solitary thing. It was just me in my room working on songs that no one else knew about. During that period, I really just wanted to become a better producer and understand what I wanted my relationship to production to be.

Over the years, it’s been amazing to see how much more fun it is to do this with other people! New York is filled with amazingly creative people, and I’ve loved learning how to work with different kinds of artists and creators — including other musicians and producers, directors, choreographers, actors, graphic designers, set designers, etc. The collective effort is really important to me. When I collaborate with others, I try to stick with two principles. First, find people you trust, and then just stay out of it and let them do what they do best, and second, figure out ways to compensate people as fairly as I can. Creative work is too often expected to be free, no one needs more of that.

It’s funny, but I also think that — after working on songwriting for almost a decade and a half — I just recently really locked in on the exact kind of music that I want to be making. It’s so much easier to have a clear intention when you’ve been doing something for a while. The process is a lot more about decisiveness for me now, about finding the exact word that fits in a phrase or the exact riff that takes us into the next part of the song. Being decisive about collaborators is important to me, too. I’m excited to keep going and keep growing of course!

Why would you say you are best the choice for the judges?
I think I have a point of view that could add value to the musical landscape today. I have ideas about how music can help break social and political boundaries and the role that musicians have in shifting people’s perspectives. I have a lot of ideas about how a multimedia practice centered on music can help activate new ideas, and the scope of what I’m imagining extends far beyond what I can show in this performance. I think it’s especially important, as a woman and a person of color, to project these ideas in the public sphere.

What will you bring to the stage that can’t be witnessed when listening to your music?
Live performance is almost an entirely separate craft from songwriting…I’m so fascinated by it! There’s an entirely different kind of magic that happens when you connect with people IRL from onstage. You truly give a little bit of yourself away to the audience with each performance. I hope that my live performance fills in some of the blanks about the person behind the songs. I want live performances to be a space that concretizes my relationship with my listeners and makes our connection more people-oriented, instead of being focused on files and follower counts. I also want to bring a kind of attitude that helps underscore the kind of artist and person I am through a sense of conviction and self-determination that can only be physically embodied.

If you were to win, where would you see your career going afterward?
As I noted above, I have a lot of ideas about all the things I want to do with music. I think I have a strong sense of the kind of work I want to make in a 360-fashion. It would be a dream to one day have the resources I would need to take it there, but I’ve also understood, from a young age, that in order to do it the right way, the way that feels best for you, you sometimes have to take things step-by-step. So my goal has been to keep upping the resources I have access to with each project, so I can do more and more.

I hope that the exposure provided through this competition will help me get to the next step I’m envisioning, so I can reach the next level and keep making things that get better and better as time goes on.

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