How Jhené Aiko, Yeek & More Rep Their Asian Heritage
Representing your culture is one beautiful thing and Jhene Aiko, Yeek and Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast have been able to do so through and through. In honor of AAPI Heritage Month, Billboard and Nissan are taking a look at the ways in which some of our favorite AAPI music creators have shed light on their heritage through their art, interviews and more. Whether it be a nod in a music video or a detailed reveal about moments and figures from their childhood, the ways in which these stars have put a spotlight on their culture is specific and personal to each. Take a look below!
Jhené Aiko
More from Billboard
Growing up, Aiko was all too familiar with the ask, “What are you?” Alongside her sister, Mila J, the R&B siren didn’t entirely grasp the understanding behind her mixed background, especially after being badgered so frequently. Their mother is of Spanish, Dominican and Japanese descent, while their father is African-American and Native-American. In a sit-down interview with Billboard, the sisters spoke about their culture, where Aiko reflected on her diversified heritage and passing that along to her own daughter, Namiko Love, 13. “I think it’s important for people to share their stories in general and that we should share them in order to learn about each other and not judge,” Aiko said during the chat. “We love ourselves, we love our family, we love our roots and everything that makes us who we are.”
Aiko’s mixed heritage has been evident in her music and team-ups with organizations like The Asian American Foundation. Most notably, she dropped a separate music video for her 2018 release, “Never Call Me,” where she appears as a Japanese goddess.
Just last year, Aiko also paid tribute to her Japanese grandfather amid the surge of hate circulating the AAPI community. “Today, I can’t help but think about him and what he stood for,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “I can’t help but think about the discrimination he faced daily having a black wife and 6 bi racial children (and 20+ mixed race grand and great grandchildren.) Grandpa Teddy fought for his family and his community until his dying day and I owe it to him to continue to fight for justice and equality for my communities as well. It is up to ALL of us to make a change. To choose love over hate. To choose understanding and compassion. Getting to know each others’ stories, we learn we are more alike than different. Not until we understand this will we truly see each other. Not until we truly see each other can we truly stand together.”
Yeek
Yeek’s music exists somewhere at the intersection of trip-hop, indie rock and R&B, while still being entirely unique. Born in New Jersey, the budding DIY star spent most of his early years surrounded by his Filipino community. That changed when his family moved to South Florida. On the brink of his teenage years, his adolescence saw him feeling isolated as the only Filipino-American in his school, only to find community with other kids who enjoyed making music and then eventually in Los Angeles in his early twenties. Soon after came his 2015 debut album, Love Slacker, followed by a handful of projects up until 2021’s Valencia LP. In and out, the components of R&B serve as a crucial part of Yeek’s sound, something that he credits to his Filipino upbringing, specifically family karaoke parties and the YouTube rabbit hole of Filipinos performing R&B covers on acoustic guitar and ukulele.
While he is long from his days of learning to perform gems by Musiq Soul Child, Lyfe Jennings and Destiny’s Child, the singer/songwriter still feels oddly similar to his time in South Florida, but he’s ready to fix the problem at hand. “I just feel like in entertainment, we don’t have that representation,” he told Office Magazine in 2021. “And like whether I have to play that role or like play a part in the role of opening the doors for that, I think I don’t mind that.” Part of that role has seen him recruit his family, namely his cousin, Kevin Halasan, to produce on his 2021 LP. “My music reaching the Philippines is very exciting to me,” he admitted during another interview last year. “That is where my family and roots are from. I want to represent a new demographic of Filipinos and Americans who can show the world what they can do.”
Japanese Breakfast
Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast’s display for culture is hard to miss. In fact, the frontwoman of the indie rock collection paid homage to her late Korean mother through their shared connection to food in her New York Times bestselling book, Crying in H Mart. The appropriately titled book was also an obvious nod to her love for the Korean-American supermarket chain. The project was something that Zauner had strayed away from for a long time in fear that her story and identity as Korean-American would, to some extent, would be popularized due to a diversity quota over merit.
“It’s frustrating to me because I don’t feel like white people ever have to think like that,” the singer told Billboard in 2021. “They’re there because they carved it and grabbed it for themselves with their craft and work ethic. And I’m here because I’m maybe fulfilling a diversity quota? I’ll never be comfortable feeling like I’m here because I worked to be here. There will always be a part of me that has this curiosity of the role my identity plays. That is one of the major anxieties I feel personally as an Asian-American, and that’s why for so long, I never wanted to write or talk about that experience.”
Even though Zauner has come a long way from the adolescent shame she felt for being Asian in a predominantly white neighborhood, her pride for her culture couldn’t be stronger. Crying in H Mart is being turned into a film. Japanese Breakfast’s live stage shows are said to be filled with nods to her Asian descent, where she’s accompanied by a gong, and it’s spread out even on the merch table. And then, of course, there’s her visuals like “Everyone Wants to Love You,” a rebellious clip that sees the star binge-drink, dance and trek her way through the city in the traditional Korean hanbok that her mother wore to her wedding.