Asia Rising: The Next Generation of Hip-Hop (2019) is a documentary directed by Jonathan Lim, which explores the rising success of Asian hip-hop artists over the past few years. The film features artists Rich Brian, Keith Ape, Higher Brothers, Suboi, Jin Dogg and Awich. It highlights their cross-cultural rise to fame around the globe and their collaboration with the 88 creative family.

In the film it was quite evident that these artists were strongly influenced by Westernised hip-hop/rap music, particularly from American artists. The South Korean rapper Keith Ape said in the documentary “the internet influenced my music style a lot, I focussed on making it sound like music from the West”. He then went on to release a song in 2015 called “It G Ma” that went viral in the West, especially America. I’d say that the rise of this song is connected to the fact…