{"id":259390,"date":"2026-04-09T13:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259390\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T13:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:55:10","slug":"rapper-dumbfoundead-unapologetically-represents-k-town-in-memoir-spit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259390\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapper Dumbfoundead unapologetically represents K-town in memoir \u2018SPIT\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

This\u00a0story<\/a>\u00a0first appeared on\u00a0The LA Local<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Koreatown-raised entertainer Dumbfoundead tells it straight: \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m just Korean or Korean American. I\u2019m more Koreatown than both of those labels.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Korean American rapper, born Jonathan Park, moved to Koreatown at 3 and has lived there ever since. He\u2019s often called the \u201cmayor of Koreatown,\u201d a title he proudly embraces.<\/p>\n

The neighborhood sits at the center of his memoir, SPIT: A Life in Battles,<\/a> which he promoted at a book launch in early April hosted by the Los Angeles Korean Festival Foundation.<\/p>\n

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Set to be released Tuesday from Third State Books and co-written with Donnie Kwak, SPIT traces Park\u2019s childhood through his late 20s. He chronicles coming up in the music scene while dealing with racist stereotypes, problems at home and addiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the culture I grew up in, in the neighborhood, and that\u2019s what made me who I am. If I didn\u2019t grow up in a neighborhood that proudly had Korean letters on menus and signs and I could be unapologetically Korean, I would not be able to battle rap in confidence and be able to have thick skin to fight opponents verbally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Rapper<\/p>\n

Rapper and actor Dumbfoundead (Jonathan Park) at Love Hour in Koreatown on March 26.<\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

Brian Feinzimer<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

The LA Local<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

Park, 40, was born in Argentina to Korean parents. He and his younger sister later crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with their mother, eventually landing in Koreatown. The neighborhood didn\u2019t have much of a hip-hop scene but provided the young Park a space to find his voice.<\/p>\n

Enter the hip-hop scene of nearby Leimert Park. Old, grainy YouTube videos show him performing at Project Blowed, where rappers gathered for open mic sessions that could run late into the night. He would skateboard there as a teenager, then head back home late. With his immigrant parents working long hours to support the family, the lax supervision allowed him to roam the city freely and build his street cred.<\/p>\n

Seth Eklund, executive director of the Koreatown community and resource center Bresee Foundation, remembers the teenage Park from those early years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do consider him like a son, one of my many sons from over the years,\u201d Eklund said. \u201cI started at Bresee in 1996, he started coming in 1998 when we were still up on the third floor of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his memoir, Park describes the Bresee Foundation as transformative for his childhood. He started going there when the center served mostly Black and Latino youth. Park, his sister Natalie and their Korean friends Andy and Mimi \u201cstuck out like sore thumbs,\u201d Eklund said, but they quickly became regulars, spending most afternoons at the center.<\/p>\n

Eklund remembers Park getting into music and media production. He even went to Leimert Park to watch Park freestyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou had guys out there that were gangsters from all over L.A.,\u201d Eklund said. \u201cIt was a really cool cultural scene. And there were really angry battle rappers, gangster rappers, all sorts of people, and he was always the funniest of everyone that would pick you apart with laughter as opposed to angst.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sociology professor Oliver Wang from Cal State Long Beach has researched Asian Americans in hip-hop and said the kinds of community spaces Park was part of were critical to him being able to \u201ctake off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wang also points to how closely Park has tied himself to Koreatown. He said hip-hop, from its earliest days, has always been rooted in a sense of place, but especially with someone like Park, grounding himself in Koreatown helps listeners understand he is coming from a particular place and, therefore, a particular perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for Asian American listeners, the fact that he comes out of Koreatown, an Asian American ethnic enclave, that completely matters,\u201d Wang said, \u201cbecause it\u2019s tied into a larger sense of Asian American-hood when you\u2019re naming your Asian American hood, no pun intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even after growing up and leaving the Bresee Center, Park stayed connected to them, something Eklund says he really appreciates. Park returned to the center for a few summers to run workshops for younger kids, teaching writing and music production. He would also bring his artist friends to teach DJing and graffiti art.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a couple summers, our center was just flooded with not just kids from this neighborhood but kids from all over L.A. to learn from him and participate,\u201d Eklund said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\u201cSPIT: A Life in Battles\u201d<\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

Courtesy Third State Books<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a multicultural artist. He\u2019s an L.A. artist. This is what L.A. is, it\u2019s a melting pot of people of different traditions coming together, and that\u2019s why I think people resonate with him,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Paul Kim, Park\u2019s longtime friend and founder of Kollaboration, a nonprofit that helps grow Asian American talent, remembers seeing Park performing as a teenager.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could tell he was just different,\u201d Kim said. \u201cSo witty, so funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim notes that Park always stayed true to his roots.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s performed at almost every Koreatown nonprofit gala, he\u2019s supported so many different organizations, he\u2019s performed at all the student associations, the cultural performances,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was always rapping about real-life situations. He\u2019s just very raw and authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n

That authenticity is what drew 23-year-old Johnny Nguyen, originally from the Bay Area, to become a fan of Dumbfoundead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was 13 and I was looking for Asian American rappers because I wanted to support the community and stories that weren\u2019t represented,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a regular guy living in Koreatown trying to live life like everyone else in the neighborhood,\u201d Nguyen added. \u201cHe\u2019s not living in a mansion far away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Park agrees that\u2019s all part of his approach to making art.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think hip-hop is just authenticity,\u201d Park said. \u201cWhen I was growing up, I had a lot of songs that were super nerdy. \u2026 The other Asian rappers were pretty gangster, and then they saw this dude named Dumbfoundead. He looks scraggly, he skateboards, and he\u2019s rapping about not getting girls while everyone else is rapping about getting girls. Hip-hop is about being unique and standing out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Park says his book is about \u201ccapturing Koreatown\u2019s legacy, Asian American history and entertainment, all just told through my lens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Touring made him more aware of how specific his experience was \u2014 and how lucky he was for it. In other parts of the country, he said, he would meet Korean American fans who did not grow up around a large Korean community.<\/p>\n

After one show in Wisconsin, he said a young Korean fan came up to him and begged him: take me with you.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo us it doesn\u2019t mean anything because we can get great Korean food and we just gotta choose between 10 options,\u201d he said about growing up in Los Angeles. \u201cI think we take it for granted a little bit that this is a place where you can have confidence and be unapologetically Korean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Park has never left much doubt about how he feels about Koreatown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really do thank the neighborhood in that way,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that that played a big part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Park is scheduled to appear in conversation with chef Roy Choi at Barnes & Noble at The Grove on April 16 and at the LA Times Festival of Books on April 19.<\/p>\n