Gangsta rap skills? Check. Asian allure? Definitely. Sex appeal? Practically oozing…
As a fan, meeting The Notorious MSG for the first time was surreal. They made quite a bit of an impression walking down Mott St. in their rock-star garb – reflective sunnies, denim cut-off jackets and signature hair-dos. Their personas are exactly the same as I’ve seen on media. They have a gift for turning innocent everyday quotes into sexual insinuations. However, instead of coming off as sleazy, their cheekiness is endearing.
The Notorious MSG are comprised of [Left to right] Down-Lo Mein, Hong Kong Fever, and Hunan Bomb.
On a warm Saturday afternoon, I met Hong Kong Fever and Down-Lo Mein in front of the Fair Video Arcade in Chinatown. I noted that the third member of their group, Hunan Bomb was absent, but the boys said they’d explain more over the interview. We proceeded to a Bubble Tea store in the vicinity for a quiet place to sit down and chat. While placing our orders, I asked Down-Lo Mein why he didn’t want any ‘bubbles’ in his milk tea. Hong Kong Fever is the ring leader of the trio, and he makes his Alpha Male status even more apparent by sometimes cutting into questions for his team members. “He doesn’t like the bubbles because it reminds him too much of testicles,” said Hong Kong Fever of the gummy little treats.
*Note: I’m not going to transcribe this interview into grammatically accurate English as previous interviewers have done so. I tell it as it is, otherwise it wouldn’t reflect the Notorious MSG’s originality. By putting it down word by word, you’ll also be able to get an idea of humorous these guys can be.
Chief Magazine: Introduce yourselves, hunks.
Hong Kong Fever: My name is Hong Kong Fever, Lord of Hardness, King-Pin of Crazy.
Down-Lo Mein: Down-Lo Mein, also known as D-Lo. The yello gigolo… With the muscle…
Nice.
Down-Lo: And the egg roll.
Egg roll. *Stifles laugh* (Remember… Tendency to drop sexual innuendos!)
Down-Lo: That’s the way we roll.
Who do you get to play the extras in your videos? Like, who was the gay ass mantra teacher in ‘Stress is for Suckas’?
HK Fever: Oh, that is actually our guitarist. He plays guitar with us. If you come to our show next Saturday, you will see him on the guitar.
Yeah… That video was kind of disturbing.
HK Fever: Well, you know. Cosmic jelly is something we all have to use. For those of you who don’t know what we’re talking about, we have a web series that you should check out. There are different episodes. Little lessons from the Chinatown hood.
Alright. So… HK Fever, you’re from Hong Kong, obviously, and Down-Lo Mein, you’re from Taiwan. And Hunan Bomb is from North Korea?
HK Fever: South Korea.
(Oops. Communism.) What language do you speak mostly with each other? Broken Engrish?
HK Fever: I think my Engelish is veli good! I don’t know what you talking about.
Down-Lo: See, we communicate no problem.
HK Fever: Maybe you don’t understand Engelish that’s too good. That the problem maybe.
The name of your band is catchy. How did you come up with that one? When you first started up, what were other options you considered for your band’s name?
HK Fever: Well, that was the name that people give us. When we worked in the kitchens, people would call us the Notorious Moo Shu guys. We were always up to no good. We no good motha-bitch. And then when we decided to start the band, we just take the ‘Moo Shu guys’ and shorten it; we call it M.S.G.
So you weren’t talking about the condiment? The one that Chinese chefs use to flavor their cooking with?
HK Fever: Because we so smart you see, it worked! Aha! Asian! Asian pride! Right?
Awesome! What’s your favorite American-Chinese food? And I mean American-Chinese food, not authentic Chinese.
HK Fever: General Tsao.
Down-Lo: General Tsao.
What’s the story behind the whole General Tsao thing? I never quite got that.
Down-Lo Mein: Well, General Tsao is actually a real General. Pretty famous in China, but not for his chicken. More for his war conquests. He win a lot of battle. So people in China, they don’t know what the hell is General Tsao’s chicken, but over here they think it’s a catchy name. Is a little spicy.
Can you guys cook it?
Down-Lo: I can cook it.
HK Fever: I can eat it. But I can make a Hong Kong Fever beef. You know?
Right. (Something told me there was more to this, but I wasn’t catching on.)
HK Fever: Is delicious. Just for the ladies.
I wanna try that.
Down-Lo: *Laughing* You want to try his beef?
Oh, he’s not talking about food is he?
HK Fever: *Also laughing* You want to try my beef? I make a good sausage too.
*Laughing too* Oh my god… *Embarrassed silence* Ok, moving on! What happened to Hunan Bomb? You said you’d tell me.
HK Fever: Yeah, he ah… Had a little accident. Is very unfortunate. He overdose on the ‘extend tablet.’ You know the extend pills? He take too many and this make his egg roll too big. Is double the size: two inches now.
(Finally catching on) That would be awkward.
Down-Lo: He couldn’t leave the house!
He couldn’t walk?
Down-Lo: Yeah, is too swollen down there.
HK Fever: Right now he just walking around the house with no pants on.
Aww… That’s too bad. Well, send him my regards.
Ok, I know everyone’s kind of been tiptoeing around this topic, but the fans have gotta know the truth: what really happened to Funky Buddha?
(Hunan Bomb replaced Funky Buddha following the latter’s demise in 2005. Details shrouding his death have always been sketchy, and some even suspect it was a hoax.)
HK Fever & Down-Lo suddenly look somber and start shaking their heads. I don’t know whether to read this as grief or boredom from having to answer this same question in countless interviews.
I’m sorry… Is this a touchy subject?
Down-Lo: They always ask this one.
Well, everyone wants to know.
HK Fever: Funky was with us for quite some time and he would not want us to stop the band. He was making a delivery when he got jacked. Somebody put a cap in his ass. So he died. It’s very upsetting to us, but at the same time, we try to use it to make people realize about the situation in the Chinatown hood. Nobody really thinks about the lives of those who deliver their food, just trying to make a living. With what we do, we try to give a voice to our brothers.
Down-Lo: A lot of us immigrants, we came from nothing. So you’ve got to respect that.
Did you use to jam in college?
They both look at each other and then back at me with incredulous expressions.
HK Fever: College?
Down-Lo: What?
HK Fever: Band in college?
Down-Lo: We grew up in the streets of Chinatown!
HK Fever: Yeah, that’s where we get our education.
Okaaay… (They really stick to their stage personas at all times! Or could it possibly be the truth?)
Down-Lo: But it was our mutual love for music that made us want to start a band. When we first started, we were just kinda fool around.
HK Fever: Back then we were not really sure what we wanted to do. But hip-hop and rap music was easy for us because you just need a drum machine. We don’t have a lot of money so we started very basic.
Down-Lo: And I do a lot of the karaoke.
HK Fever: We practice the Lionel Ritchie. Uh… What else?
Down-Lo: George Michael…
HK Fever: Ok, maybe you don’t want to tell them that.
I like George Michael.
Down-Lo: Now, you see? I know how to work with the ladies.
HK Fever: We prefer Wham!
One thing I don’t understand about your supposed ‘conquest’. I quote this from your official website: If your music is meant to ‘incorporate Asian Americans fully into mainstream media’ but at the same time ‘disrupt flawed but persistent stereotypes about Asian Americans,’ why use Asian accents in your songs? Shouldn’t you try to be more ‘Americanized’?
Down-Lo: I think that’s all of the problem!
HK Fever: It’s that people will not accept you unless you are westernized. They have a problem with anybody who speak a different, who look a different… So what we try to do is to have people see…
Down-Lo: Highlight our uniqueness!
HK Fever: Not see it as a flaw, ok? It is not a flaw. It’s a powder. Rather than try to draw attention away from the fact that I’m Asian and trying to be, you know, white culture… Like how you jump on black culture and be a rapper or something like that, we have our own unique thing to bring. I feel like Black people, Latino people are doing it right now. They don’t try to walk down their roots; they don’t try to change who they are. They fly their flags proud. Asian people are the ones who have an identity crisis, you know? They are not sure where they fit in. We have that same issue. At some point you try to be like everybody else. You don’t want people to notice you or that you’re different, but we are about the opposite.
Opposite how so?
HK Fever: We are trying to start a revolution.
Down-Lo: Another thing is the Asians immediate role. It’s just kung fu. Or maybe you play the gangster.
HK Fever: Or the nerd.
Down-Lo: It’s very two-dimensional characters. We’re trying to show that other side. Show the Asians rocking the bitches on the stage. When do you get to see that? So we just trying to do what we do, and if people love it, you know, it’s great.
And you guys are doing an awesome job.
Both: Thank you.
HK Fever: Hopefully they will be more like us. We need more.
Any girlfriends now?
Down-Lo: Are you making a pass at us?
This is actually one of my questions! *Defensively indicates notebook*
HK Fever: Really?
*Laughing* Yeah! For the lady fans to know. (Including me.)
HK Fever: We are currently available. You can put that on the records.
Ever hook up with groupies?
HK Fever: That is not something we ah… do. I think our drummer, Noodles is the one that gets all the action. He’s a Japanese fellow. He likes to do that.
Down-Lo: Yeah… I keep my ladies on the down low.
HK Fever: Yeah, we like to keep that on the down low.
Yeah, alright.
HK Fever: But we are not against that concept.
Down-Lo: Please, come talk to us.
HK Fever: By all means.
K, random question. Who would win in a fight: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Ultraman?
HK Fever: That’s a really Asian question.
Down-Lo: I’m more familiar with the turtles than Ultraman.
HK Fever: I feel like um…
Down-Lo: I think the turtles.
HK Fever: He-Man could take them both.
He-Man?
HK Fever: Yes. With the power of grey skull. Did you watch a lot of cartoons?
I think I was like, from a different time. I’m more into Spongebob.
HK Fever: Ok. I feel like Spongebob could probably do pretty well in that too. Yeah, but I would put my money on the turtles, just because there are four of them.
But Ultraman can supersize himself.
HK Fever: Size isn’t always important.
Hmm…
*All burst out laughing*
HK Fever: Some ladies may argue with me on that.
What do you think of Obama?
HK Fever:
Down-Lo: I think it’s too early to really make a judgment. But what he’s doing for the country, he’s really trying.
HK Fever: He says all the right things.
Down-Lo: It’s great to have somebody that’s a little more intellectual. But overall, I think it’s a great step for diversity and a millstone to have a non-white president. Somebody who comes from a very multicultural background. He was raised for some time in Indonesia, born in Hawaii. More people can relate to him because of his mixed upbringing.
Do you guys follow politics?
Down-Lo: Not so much.
HK Fever: A little bit… You know. I think it’s important to be aware of what’s going on.
What do you think about downloading music online?
HK Fever: I feel like people need to adapt to that format. Musicians that complain about it… There’s no point in complaining about it anymore. If it wasn’t for the internet, I don’t think people would know who we are right now.
Down-Lo: I mean it is an issue for us in how we’re getting paid. The people at the top are the ones that are complaining, but they’re the ones making the most money. The people at the bottom have a chance to reach a wider audience, but at the same time, they have one less way to make money.
HK Fever: What I have a problem with is downloading pornography. It’s because you always get the virus every time you do that. They need to have virus-free pornography.
Why don’t you just buy X-rated movies then?
HK Fever: Why buy it when you can get it for free? It’s like giving somebody a free apple, and inside is a worm inside.
That’s a good one. You’ll be performing at the Bowery Ballroom next weekend. What can we expect from that?
HK Fever: I feel like you’ll have a lot of uh… pain in the posterior regions.
Down-Lo: Tell them to wear diapers.
HK Fever: Yes. You know… You’ll leave a little stain in your underwear.
Down-Lo: Don’t eat a heavy meal beforehand. There will be some shooting out.
A lot of new songs?
HK Fever: We have a few new songs. We starting to put the finishing touches on our album which is coming out. It’s got rock ballads. It’s a little heavier than our other ones, which is why we call it ‘Heavy Ghetto.’ We will play a few songs from there.
The first time I heard your music was when a boy serenaded me with ‘Dim Sum Girl.’ So I’ve always had a soft spot for your songs.
HK Fever: It gets them every time.
Down-Lo: If you’re there on Saturday, we might serenade you.
HK Fever: Yeah, we will touch that soft spot. We will find that soft spot and we will caress it.
:) Is there anyone you’d like to acknowledge for offering financial or emotional support?
HK Fever: Actually, it’s been a really hard journey for us to get to even where we are today. We have a lot more to go and we would like to thank ourselves because we really are the ones that financed ourselves. Ultimately, no one else has got your back. A lot of people will say they have your back, but you really find out as the years go by not many people do. You have to understand that. People who complain and get upset that nobody has their back, you should not expect that. That should be the bonus when somebody helps you out. You should be helping yourself first. So… Thanks to D-Lo.
Aww…
No response from Down-Lo.
HK Fever: What? You not gonna thank me?
Down-Lo: What to thank you for? I do all the work!
Alright, that’s about it. Thank you so much, you guys…
Both: Of course.
HK Fever: How was that? Pretty good? Did you forget to hit record?
*Laughs* No, I got it!
- End -
The Notorious MSG will be performing at The Bowery Ballroom this Saturday night. Click here for more details and to purchase tickets. You really can’t miss this!
Interview by Sammy Lim
Photos courtesy of the Notorious MSG
Awesome, as always