Where are you from?
I was born in Korea, I'm not so sure where about in Korea I was born though.
Where did you your rap name from?
My rap name was gonna be Songkasian which was the combination of the words Songkae (my nickname) and Asian because thats the name I was using in HiphopLE. But people around me made fun of me because it sounded similar to Okasian plus I wanted my rap name to sound more feminine. At that point I happened to get a chance to change my nickname I was using at HiphopLE and Shawna was what I came up with. Where it came from is ridiculously simple. I chose the one that sounds like a bootylicious black woman might have (cuz obviously HiphopLE is a black music community.) Well I still kinda wanted to go for Songkasian and I did use that name for my very first song cuz my bros liked it better. But I'm thinking that it was a good thing for me to choose Shawna. Don't it sound badass lol?
How long have you been rapping?
It has merely been a month. I'm still trying a lot of different styles to find out which suits me the best.
What made you start rapping?
Hip Hop culture itself has been taking a big part in my life since I was young and I always wanted to rap cos it's just freaking cool. There's a bit of influence from my actual blood related brother. My brother used to rap and he once almost gave up on his schooling. So I thought me rapping was a bad influence I got from my brother, and me as well will give up on schooling eventually. Meaning, I thought I was not supposed to rap for my own good. I was scared and tried to stay with listening to others rapping and sorta getting involved to this game by working with HiphopLE. Now I think differently. Like who the fuck will give a single fuck about me rapping? Lol, petty but it's the truth. The person who made me think differently was a talented producer named B Bone, so big shout out to B!
You also work for HipHopLE.com tell us more about that. How long have you been working with them?
HiphopLE is the one and only web magazine that Koreans can really get familiar with black music. What we do is like literally being a wingman between black music and Korean listeners out there (if that makeS sense.) We translate black music related news, lyrics whatever video clips and we also interview those musicians or make our own content. Just like literally we do everything we can do. It has been about a year since I started working with them. My main job was to translating video clips but I also translate lyrics too. What is really special about us is that we don't do it for money. It's a non-profitable job, but our motivation is passion to music. A couple years ago, we also started curating Asian hiphop to Korean listeners. Now we have HiphopLE China and expanding it further.
Tell us more about your rapping style?
My rapping style has not been settled yet (at least I think it is.) One thing I know is that I love using more English than Korean. But as long as I'm continuing my career in Korea, I really want all the people to know the message that I have in my songs. Delivering what I wanna tell people is the main reason for rapping, and I think I do have some interesting topics to talk about in my songs that people NEVER have heard. So I am working on my Korean real hard too.
You are also part of a crew/group called Mighty Fine. Tell us more about it.
Mighty Fine is the crew that I am in. It was there even before I started rapping. The purpose was not music but we used to be a drinking squad. Cos ever since I came back to Korea (I have stayed in Canada for about 5 years and came back to Korea this June), B Bone and 1060 were the people I fucked with the most. 1060, rapper and current leader of Mighty Fine and I had a will to make this crew bigger and serious. The decision was nothing serious, we was chilling at B's studio and one of us was like, "Let's not waste time and make some music together." So B brought Duny, the female producer and it seemed like the four of us was becoming solid as Mighty Fine. B is not with us now, but we are like totally cool. We still hang and share thoughts about each others' music. So it's me, 1060 and Duny now and both of them support me doing music with their best. We have a lot coming up, so please stay tuned!
Where do you see yourself in five years time?
Ima be dropping at least five mixtape. My goal is not releasing an official album. I want people to hear my songs, and to make numerous ppl to bump my songs I'm willing to give up on making money. Cuz I can make money from some other things. Also I don't think independent musicians can make money out of this system we have in Korea. They need to be on TV, singing some shits they did not wanted to sing if they wanna make money. That's the best, fastest way to make a profit. Me personally, I don't wanna be on TV. It's not about attitude for me, but I'm just lazy LOL Well Ima have to think twice later if I become desperate for some money to make music. But clearly, for now, no I don't wanna be on TV.
