For the latest Shots Fired, we welcomed The Far East Movement, the LA rap trio most famous for “Like a G6,” “Girls on the Dance Floor,” and for being the first Asian-American rap group to ever realize mainstream success. This site and reader tastes usually run counter-clockwise to pop music, but I think you should listen to this episode. Far East Movement are consummate craftsmen, gifted entertainers, and underground heads as well-versed in Def Jux as anything to come out on Def Jam. They have a compelling story and are some of the most intelligent, generous, talentedm and down to earth musicians I’ve encountered in my six years covering LA music. (I wrote a Sunday Calendar cover story on them in 2009 for the LA Times, if you’re into that sort of thing).
With the exception of maybe “Harlem Shake,” there is no such thing as an accidental #1 hit. If you listen to this episode, I’d hope you’d walk away with a newfound respect for the group, who paid their dues for almost a decade before their breakthrough. Their new video, “The Illest,” with Riff Raff is absurd, funny, catchy, and below the jump. So is their latest EP, Murder was the Bass, a collaboration with none less than Kurupt. The episode is there too, but you already figured that out.
