“Streetwear culture now is beyond all those cultures, though. I mean, we have Jim Jones doing ads for Stashhouse and Jay-Z buying Artful Dodger. And as Satchelofgravel pointed out, you have those dudes from LRG acting fools but still espousing this us vs. them brand image.”

~ LinYee

By Catzie Vilayphonh  |  Send to Friend

LinYee Yuan is everywhere. She probably doesn't remember this, but the very first time I met her, she was delegating tickets to participants at the East Coast Asian American Students Union in 2001. The thing with all these out-of-town student conferences is that its hard to separate the party kids from the ones that really wanna get their learn on, so they set up this system where you had to go to all the workshops in order to get your tickets for that night's big performance showcase. I skipped a couple classes, naturally, and tried to make up a story about not receiving all my tickets to her. Of course, being the official she is, interrogated me down to the core

"Oh yeah, you didn't get your tickets," she challenged. "Which class didn't you get a ticket from? What was it about? Who was facilitating?"

"Um, the short Asian girl was running the class?" I stammered. I wasn't a very good liar back then either.

She definitely kept her feisty-ness: Four years later, I ran into her when she was working a Fader afterparty for Kanye West. I watched her tell a bunch of but-I-just-added-my-name-to-the-list-two-hours-before-the-event-started party crashers to step aside and let the real guests in. It was amazing.

Originally from Texas, she now resides in Brooklyn, hosting tradeshows in Vegas and PR/marketing for Miami and Japanese-inspired streetwear companies, while writing for Asian culture magazines and posting on blogs all over the net. And doing it all very selectively, still. I got a chance to catch up with her while she was in Houston.

Catzie: So is being Asian in Texas as weird as it sounds?

LinYee: Yah, totally, I went to an Asian party last night here in Houston, all the dudes were in button-down shirts and awkward black shoes and they had fades! And the girls were wearing waaay too little clothing and blue contacts.

C: How were the Asian parties before you moved away from Houston?

LY: The same. Things don't really change. But there is a really big Asian population here in Houston, lotsa Chinese and Viets. And for my generation of Chinese Houstonians, our backgrounds are all very similar. Our parents immigrated to the U.S. for school or work for professional degrees -- mostly by way of Taiwan -- and established a community of Chinese churches and Chinese schools and Chinese youth camps during the summer.

C: Is there anything distinctly Southern-Asian like sweet potato moon cakes?

LY: Hmm, I dunno, but Sriracha Sauce is one of those weird things from California, right? I heard they don't even have it in Vietnam.

C: Do you know JimmyBoi?

LY: Naw, what's that?

C: He's an Asian rapper from Houston. He's done work with Paul Wall and Sean Paul [from the YoungBloodz], and Bun B, I think.

LY: Hilarious, I love it. Asians in Texas have their own subculture.

C: He's big in the Texas Mixtape scene.

LY: That's what's up. I'll look into him.

C: Yeah I think that Chops the producer (from Philly) was originally from down South too. Which is weird because he started out with the Mountain Brothers making underground hip hop during that golden era but now he's like the Southern Mixtape King, winning an award from the Southern Entertainment Awards.

LY: Yah, [Chops] been doing a lot of production stuff. I saw him at SXSW three or four years ago. It was weird 'cause I was like "Dude, you're from Mountain Brothers."

C: I feel like sometimes your life can't be confined to go one direction -- like you for instance, I knew you back in the days of doing ECAASU/Asian Student stuff at Columbia U, and now we are in this "streetwear industry" that somehow is related to other cultures -- music and skating and such.

LY: Yah, I think I've always recognized that my existence is kind of on the fringe. Streetwear started out as a fringe movement too -- independent brands, independent retailers, independent media.

C: In some ways, it's beneficial, because then you have these interesting little collabs. But then it gets harder to describe stuff because you have to add everything else a culture could possibly be related to.

LY: True. Streetwear culture now is beyond all those cultures, though. I mean, we have Jim Jones doing ads for Stashhouse and Jay-Z buying Artful Dodger. And as Satchelofgravel pointed out, you have those dudes from LRG acting fools but still espousing this us vs. them brand image.

C: Well, on one hand you're this little small guy trying to sell your idea on a T-shirt. If someone like Jay-Z comes along and likes your shit, you either remain humble or you "sell out" because you realize that after exposure like that you just cant be a little guy anymore.

LY: I mean, Artful Dodger wasn't really a little guy, but yah, we're at an
interesting crossroads for the industry.

C: So I know you used to work with "Fader," and now you're working with Kilo/Rocksmtih?

LY: I do marketing and PR. Kenshin and Erik, the partners in Kilo are what Erik likes to call "other southerners." Kenshin is a Japanese American from Tennessee. Erik is from Miami/Virginia and he's Cuban.

C: You also do a bit of writing and blogging?

LY: Yah, I'm part of the Worship Worthy and Masthead Blog ring on
riottt.com. And I do some freelance writing for Theme Magazine, an
Asian Cultural Quarterly

C: Why do you feel its some important for "creatives" to have their own "Myspace" -- a place for them to blog and share stuff with each other, when they could easily share it on a public forum and have everyone else in awe of their knowledge? I mean isn't it just
the same people preaching to the choir?

LY: Riottt's blogs are open to the public and I think its good to have a creative community where folks can learn from others. And share too.

C: You actually have to be invited to join the Riottt Club.

LY: Oh, yah? I didn't know that.

C: Weren't you invited?

LY: Yah, but I thought that was because it was in its beta stages.

C: So now you live in Brooklyn. How's that going?

LY: I love it, I have a slow smoker in my backyard.

C: A slow smoker? For bbq?

LY: Yes, ma'am.

C: You are a southern girl. So are there any special techniques one should know when it comes to cooking barbeque? I always thought if you put water underneath your broiling rack it keeps it tender.

LY: Yes and it takes the right wood and the right rub, low temperature, smoke for 1.5 hours per pound. Yummmy.

 

Thanks LinYeezy. I will see you somewhere, I know it.

Next Week: Fresh Melt Water talks about whats wrong with the street wear market and the so-called Philly boutique beef.