Dumbfoundead

Dumbfoundead

Jonathan Park (born February 18, 1986), better known by his stage name Dumbfoundead, is a Korean American battle rapper originating from the Los Angeles Underground's Project Blowed. He is well known for his affiliation with the West Coast division of Grindtime and his participation in Jumpoff's 2007 World Rap Championships; both of which have given rise to his status as a strong web presence. He recently finished a stint as the opening act for Epik High's Map the Soul tour. Dumbfoundead is a member of the hip hop trio Thirsty Fish and the Los Angeles battle crew the Swim Team.

Early years and influences

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jonathan Park (name: Park Sung Man) moved to Koreatown, Los Angeles at the age of two. He was often seen as a class clown by his peers at an early age, and was exposed to hip-hop at 14 upon entering a community center in MacArthur Park and meeting Los Angeles "OG's" such as Mark Luv of Zulu Nation, Poppin' Chuck, Cre8 (RTN), and EZ Rock (Rocksteady). This first experience with hip-hop allowed him to develop the technique of freestyling and to educate himself on hip-hop's history and roots. A year later, he was taken to Project Blowed in South Central, LA by a high school friend. Here he would continue to hone his abilities as an emcee amongst the influence of "Blowdians" such as Otherwize, Riddlore, NoCanDo, P.E.A.C.E., and many others, eventually earning the title of "Blowdian" himself.

Career

Music career: Project Blowed

As a member of the Project Blowed collective, Dumbfoundead is also a part of the group Thirsty Fish along with "Blowdians" Open-Mike Eagle and Psychosiz, and a larger group, Swim Team, with members VerBS, Alpha MC, Open-Mike Eagle, Lyraflip, Psychosiz, Rogue Venom, DJ Zo, Kuest One, Dos Tres, and Uhuru. In 2007 Thirsty Fish released the album Testing the Waters, and in 2008 Swim Team released Ocean's Eleven.

Music career: Solo

Under an independent label, DFD has released two albums: Super Barrio Brothers [2005] and Fun with Dumb [2009].

Dumbfoundead frequently collaborates with other artists; including Epik High, a popular Korean rap/pop group. He is featured on two full length tracks on the Epik High album e, "Maze" [2009] and "Rocksteady" [2009], and was featured as the opening act for the USA Map the Soul Tour in 2009. Since its inception Dumbfoundead has been a regular performer at the annual Asian Hip Hop Summit. Dumbfoundead has performed with many other notable artists such as Atmosphere, E-40, Drunken Tiger, Jay Park, The Living Legends, Aceyalone, GZA, Jeru the Damaja, Pigeon John, WC, Abstract Rude, Del, Myka 9, KRS One, Busdriver, and many others.

He has also had cameos in several works including DJ Honda's "Let it Out" featuring Rakaa Iriscience, Money Harm aka Marvin Moore in 2009, Abstract Rude's - "Thynk Eye Can" (featuring Aceyalone & Myka 9) in 2010, "Al Bundy" by Intuition in 2010, and the Fresh Coast Documentary in 2008.

Non-music related features

In early 2009, Dumbfoundead hosted 'Kollaboration Hip Hop' and was also an interviewer during the R16 B-boy Festival in Seoul, South Korea. He has been featured on CNN, NBC Los Angeles, Fox 11 and Gizmodo for spearheading the LA Underground scene and creating such pieces as Jam Session 2.0 (released on January 20, 2010), which networked 8 artists in different locations to create one song. His ongoing youtube series, entitled "The Homies", features fellow artists and peers and allows them to showcase their abilities. Features include P.E.A.C.E. of Freestyle Fellowship, DJ Zo, Open Mike Eagle, and PK of Kollaboration.

Grindtime/KingOfTheDot/StompingGroundz

Dumbfoundead's first popularized Grindtime battle was with fellow Asian emcee Tantrum and received high praise—achieving some of the highest numbers of views for Grindtime battles of its era. Many have attributed his victory to his relaxed swagger and sharp humor that has become synonymous with his style as a battler.

"... he had the weirder eerie f***ing kind of wit... that weird dirty extra evil kind of f***ing punchline..." - Jamie DeWolf, one of the judges of the Tantrum vs. Dumbfoundead battle.

With the Tantrum battle being his debut of Grindtime, Dumbfoundead went on to battle Illusion-Z, F.L.O., The Saurus, and Pumpkinhead in the Grindtime circuit, losing only to two time World Rap Championship and Scribble Jam champion The Saurus.

Dumbfoundead also went to Toronto, Canada to battle in King of the Dot, often seen as the Canadian equivalent of Grindtime. He lost in a heated battle against Canadian rapper Kid Twist. It is still a highly debated battle, although he admits Kid Twist won.

Dumbfounded is known as a comedic emcee for his jokes, disses, and rebuttals in battle. His videos have become quite popular on media sharing sites such as youtube and diepnut.com.

Film

Dumbfoundead announced in one of his video blogs that he would have a small role in a film titled The Detention.

Discography

• Super Barrio Brothers (2005)

• (with/Thirsty Fish) Testing the Waters (2007)

• (with/Swim Team) Ocean's Eleven (2008)

• Fun With Dumb (2009)

• Clockwise (With Wax) (2010)

• Cut+Paste (With DJ Zo) (2010)

• Old Boy Mixtape (TBA)

• Untitled EP (TBA)

References

Footnotes

General sources

• "Livin' the Good Life," Nicole Balin, The Source.
• About Project Blowed ProjectBlowed.com
• JumpOff TV World Rap Championships
• Potholesinmyblog Potholesinmyblog.com
• Kevin Nottingham Artist Spotlight Kevin Nottingham
• Gizmodo Gizmodo.com

External links

• Official Site
• The Urban Decadence
• Project Blowed
• The Stomping Groundz
• Dumbfoundead @ Youtube
• Dumbfoundead @ Twitter

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