Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Hi! Did you miss me?! Don’t lie. I know you did.
For those of us who are Korean hip-hop fans, there’s one label out there right now that stands out as the most talked about, the fastest growing, and the most fuckboy producing mainstream label: AOMG.
Well, the company’s artists embarked on a US tour this April that traveled clear across the country, hitting a whopping eight stops within the US alone. It’s one of the largest tours to hit the US from South Korea, and it brought Jay Park, Simon D, Loco, Gray, and DJ Pumkin to a sold out show at The Wiltern in Los Angeles on April 14.
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Every time I cover a show at The Wiltern, I am amazed at how packed the place can get, and boy did AOMG bring it for the rowdy crowd! The show was divided into three sets of heart-pumping, panty-disintegrating beats and rhymes from our favorite no-chill crew.
Simon D started the show off with his version of Pharoahe Monch‘s “Simon Says“, then hyped the crowd with Simon … Simon Dominic … Simon D-O-M, I-N, I-C-O-O. He then took the time to give the crowd a Korean lesson by teaching them how to say “fuck” and “fucking”, and followed that by plowing through a mix of his older tracks and new releases, which ended with the classic “Dang Dang Dang“.
This isn’t my first time seeing AOMG live, so I’ve started to notice the guys have quirks on stage. Simon D, for example, likes to stick his tongue out and eyeball the girls in the pit. He’s dangerous like that! He flirted with the audience to the point that the girls around me were screaming bloody murder in my ears! As for me, no, of course I didn’t scream! Okay … maybe a little.
Simon D next called out Loco and they performed “High No More” together before Simon D disappeared and Gray magically took over the stage. His buttery voice coupled with Loco’s smooth rhymes turned the entire venue into a massive dance party as they started their set. With tracks like “Dangerous“, “Respect“, “Summer Night“, and “Hold Me Tight“, they owned the stage.
But no amount of hype could be compared to when Jay Park stepped out. The audience was already way too hyped when he started with the controversial “2nd Thots“, and as he paused to greet the audience, women screamed “Take it off!” at him. Jay responded with “Damn! Slow down we just started!” as he held the mic and paced the center of the stage. “Ya gotta buy me dinner first at least,” he chuckled.
Jay preempted his set with an apology, as apparently he had a cold and felt bad about any cough he may have during his singing. Of course, the entire audience awed at his apology, before that quickly turned into screams when he rolled right into “All I Wanna Do“.
Things somehow got even more nuts when song “Solo” started and the dancers Purplow hit the stage. I think I might have been more excited to see Purplow live than anyone else on this tour, and other fans had been begging Jay through social media to bring Purplow to the states ever since “MOMMAE” dropped. Well Jay came through for fans and the girls straight lit the damned stage on fire! They were two of the finest Korean women I’ve ever seen, grinding hardcore to the beat … like how?! The crowd went just as nuts for the them as they did for any rapper on this tour.
Speaking of fans going nuts, Jay was smart and dressed in layers, and that allowed him to strip those layers off with every other song he performed. By the time “MOMMAE” hit, Jay was completely shirtless and swinging those hips while Honey J and Ri-Hey twerked like champs to the beat.
Jay Park performed a full set of 15 songs total, with a cold, and never coughed once. He made girls around me cry with “Joah“, which the entire audience sang with him.
He freestyle rapped and brought the entire crew, including a surprise Cha Cha Malone, back out on stage for “You Know” and “Success Crazed“. He then surprised the audience with “BO$$“, which was a song produced by Yultron, a producer and local DJ in Los Angeles. Jay even brought Yultron out on stage to perform the track with him, which ended up being surprisingly intense.
The show ended with the entire crew performing my favorite track, “No Manners“, and the ultimate summer jam, “I Like To Party“.
Say what you will about the ridiculousness that comes with Jay Park as an artist, but he can put on a hell of a show, even hopped up on DayQuil.
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Oh yeah, here’s a final parting souvenir from your friendly neighborhood fangirl.
When Jay Park decided to get up close and personal with fans, I was so busy shooting the stage that I didn’t see him run past me until he was up the stairs behind me and into the general admission section. I turned around and aimed my camera at him, snapped a few pics of him in the audience, and then got the fright of my life. A wave of fangirls bumrushed him from behind and he came flying down the stairs right at me and we collided dramatically. My poor camera pressed so hard into his chest that it left a lens ring imprint.
Oops.
