Shanghai 2014 - Sandwiched in between a million concerts by everyone from the Rolling Stones to Children of Bodom to Lionel Richie, there's this free Red Bull Music Academy party and show tonight headlined by a producer called TOKiMONSTA from Los Angeles. She makes head-nod inducing electronic beats influenced by old-school hip hop and artists like DJ Shadow and DJ Krush among other genres like 60s rock. TOKiMONSTA , aka Jennifer Lee, studied piano growing up and started making beats while studying at UC Irvine when a friend gave her a copy of Fruity Loops. She came up playing sets at the influential LA club night Low End Theory and released tracks on Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label before releasing her LP Half Shadows on Ultra in 2013. Ahead of her Shanghai show, we sat down for an interview at a cheap xiaolongbao dumpling restaurant on Nanchang Lu that probably won't be there in two years. We discussed food in LA, going to hip hop nights in South Central, Korean TV dramas and bloody Hainan Chicken Rice. Let's start out with one of her tracks, "Darkest (Dim)"

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SmSh: Welcome to Shanghai, we're sitting here with TokiMonsta, real name…

Jennifer

SmSh: And we're at the xiaolongbao restaurant..

This is definitely different that eating at Din Tai Fung. It's almost ricey...

SmSh: What's the xiaolongbao scene like in LA?

Pretty good, there's three Din Tai Fungs. There's some other places that do it too but they're not as good. There's one in Glendale now, which is a huge outdoor mall for like, anyone, whereas the others were in more Chinese-populated areas. The Man Called Rhys: There's a big Chinatown in LA? TOKiMONSTA: Not like San Francisco. There's a bigger Korean community in LA actually.

SmSh: I've been to Chinatown in LA once actually; I got my hair cut by an auntie for . But that Chinatown is right next to Skid Row. You grew up in the suburbs right?

I grew up in Torrance, it's like south west of LA city, but still in LA county. It's pretty boring. Very suburbs, people just riding skateboards and chilling.

SmSh: I read that you started out by going to the precursor to Low End Theory, a hip hop night called…

Oh, Project Blowed

SmSh: And that was in South Central right? What was that like coming from the suburbs and going to South Central. A lot of people think South Central is really hood.

I mean, Leimert Park is not too unsafe or anything. It's right by a park, you're with a bunch of people that are just there for music - forward-thinking music - I didn't feel too out of place or anything like that. But it's not like I was in the deep, sketch parts. It can be really real down there but Leimert Park is pretty chill.

SmSh: In some of the hood movies, and in history, there's tension and racism between blacks and Koreans in LA, do you ever experience any of that?

You know, because of the LA Riots, that's sort of an old mentality. But every year they do a remembrance ceremony about it, and they always have members from each community do some kind of peaceful speech or talk or whatever. I think there is some animosity, Ice Cube has said some stuff and whatever, but that's all old school thought. None of the new school kids give a shit. Some of the kids don't even know, they're like "what's the LA Riots?" I don't feel the sentiment at all anymore. Maybe people have some resentment against their local liquor store owner, but I don't think it's a general populace kind of judgment.

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SmSh: So you do Low End Theory in LA?

Yeah, I played in December. I always play there like two–three times a year. I try not to play there too often - I just don't play in LA super often. I try to keep it special.

SmSh: Do you think you're bigger outside of LA?

No. There's a far reach everywhere but LA is still the city where I get the best response, the most people come out... In LA, I feel like kids are really aware of what's local, and they're super super proud of having artists from their own city play.

SmSh: Do you drive in LA?

Yeah, of course. But I've been taking the metro more and I take Ubers.

SmSh: What do you listen to when you drive?

When I drive I turn on 93.5, it's a station called KDAY, and all they play is old-school hip hop, which can vary cause they can play old-school as far back as KRS-One, to old-school as in like, Ying Yang Twins' "Windows To The Wall" cause that's considered old-school now [laughs]. So that's a station I like to listen to a lot, or KCRW, which is our local community radio, and they either play NPR or really forward-thinking [music]. All the DJs that play on that station have really good taste in music.

SmSh: So how did this whole Shanghai show work out?

It was through Red Bull, and they just brought Red Bull here for the first time and they're doing a launch thing. I have a history with Red Bull Music Academy, and I did that in London in 2010, so they invited me over to play. I'm super stoked on it.

SmSh: Cool, have you ever been to China before?

No, there's been a lot of attempts to come here on tour but they never worked out. I go to Japan at least once or twice a year, and I've been to parts of Southeast Asia and I've played in Korea, but this is the first city I've played in China.

SmSh: What's your first impression?

It's cool. I think all of Asia has the same sort of underlying theme, like everything is very extravagant or has a big statement, lots of advertising. I don't know, I guess there's something kind of familiar and something foreign to it. Definitely scared of the cars, but otherwise I like it so far. I really haven't spent a full day here yet. The dumplings have been great. I can say that much. I'm looking forward to how it is tonight.

SmSh: So you're gonna play tonight and then you're still here tomorrow?

I'm here till Sunday.

SmSh: That's cool because a lot of DJs are in for one night then they just duck out the next day. You can actually see what's going on here.

TOKiMONSTA: That was the main goal, because I'm playing in Manilla next but it's on Tuesday. I've been to the Philippines before so I wanted to spend more time here.

SmSh: Are people back home talking about Shanghai as a spot to come for music?

Some of the people I know say it's great in China, Shanghai especially. Most people talk about Shanghai and HK a lot. But I've never played here before so I don't know what it's like. Everyone always has these stigmas about Asia and indie music..

SmSh: Really?

Well, like "how big is the crowd?" "how many people are really gonna be there?" That's any country though, I shouldn't say just Asia. But I've heard great things regardless, and [having] already met the people I've met, it seems like it will be dope regardless.

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SmSh: What's it like playing in Korea?

I played there for the first time last year, and I played three different types of places: one was a festival, one place that's basically like Low End Theory, called Cakeshop, and then I played this place called Listen Super Lounge, which is like a posh lounge with bottle service. They're all really different. Two were unannounced because I was playing that festival and I wasn't supposed to play anywhere else, but I wanted to see what it was like. I got to experience a lot. Cakeshop was cool, it's mostly expats, probably a similar crowd to tonight…

SmSh: Ehhhhh. I don't know, I think tonight will really be half and half. Do you speak Korean?

Yeah I do. Ummm, definitely not on a level where I could talk politics, but I can hang out with the homie, I can get places, communicate…

SmSh: Are you into any K-Pop?

I try to stay aware, but when I think of K-Pop I think of it like how everyone outside of Korea [thinks about it] - I'm fascinated by it, and it's kind of like, cool and foreign, and different. I don't consume K-Pop like I'm an actual Korean person living in Korea, where it's like K-Pop is regular pop music. But there's some cool cats out there doing stuff.

SmSh: Yeah?

There's this dude G-Dragon who was on the cover of Hypebeast magazine recently, and there's this girl CL. The people associated with this label they're on, they're cool, they're into being more of their own musician vs. being manufactured, which I think is really cool. They're huge regardless, but they still have their own take on what they do without being modeled to look like ten other girls in the group.

SmSh: It's really big here.

That's what I hear, and the Korean soap operas too.

SmSh: So big here…it's crazy. Do you watch any of that?

I mean, my mom does. I'm aware of this one that's really popular right now, I haven't watched it, but I know the guy is supposed to be an alien or something. That one's really big right now. Something from a star or something…the male lead is not human. He looks human but he's not. I read some article about the actor coming to China and he was paid like half a million dollars or 0,000 to do a really brief appearance, and they paid that same amount to fly him here in a private jet and have him in a nice hotel with like a hundred security guards. That life does not seem very appealing to me, but it's fascinating to think you're that big from a TV show.

SmSh: I can hear my girlfriend's roommates crying when they watch that shit. Everyone gets together and cries. So umm, I read in another interview you talked about "stationary drinking"? What is that?

It's a really Korean thing. Or I guess in [all of] Asia. You just get some food and sit and drink for like four hours. So instead of going to a bar where you have to stand or only get cocktails, you sit while you drink and eat a bunch of stuff, and play drinking games with your friends. That's when I chill with my homegirls or close homies, that's the stuff I like to do - eat fried chicken and drink beer.

SmSh: Dope. There's a Koreatown here with some bomb chicken, but overall the fried chicken game in Shanghai is…

I'm more trying to get on my dumpling game.

SmSh: Yang's. Really dope.

I'm pretty open-minded; I can eat nearly anything. I just don't wanna come back with…you know sometimes you have to acclimate to eating the food. That's the one thing I'm really fearful of - not getting used to it and going too hard too fast. That's why when I had my Hainan chicken today I'm like "I don't think I can go straight into eating raw chicken today…"

SmSh: So you got Hainan chicken in your hotel this morning and sent it back?

Yeah…I mean, it's like not fully cooked. Kinda cooked but the inner parts are bloody. You know Hainan chicken has some bones in it, and that area was like, pretty bloody and I'm like, I don't think I can eat this..

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SmSh: Yeah not before a show especially. I guess this brings me to a question I always like to ask - what was your worst show ever and why?

Umm…I played this show at South by Southwest, the very first year I played it. I played three times, but the very first show was this thing for a really big magazine in the US. I don't wanna say who it is, and I was only supposed to play for an hour, but the people running the show were all press people and they don't know how to do a show, so they just got drunk and left me on stage and I'm like "what the fuck?" I was really mad. And then someone came up and told me to play Nelly and I'm like "what am I doing here? this is like, really bad." And I said no and she looked at me like, "what a bitch." I'm not gonna play Nelly, go away! I don't take requests. A lot of times I'm playing halfway between a live set, with DJ aspects.

SmSh: How long were you playing?

I was only supposed to play for an hour and I was up there for almost two and half or three hours. I was like, I didn't prep for this, I'm gonna start playing all my songs backwards [laughs].

SmSh: So what can people expect from the show tonight?

TOKiMONSTA: I like to play what I like. That means a lot of different types of music - anything from old school hip hop, to house, to Jersey beat, to trap, to beat, to old psychedelic 60s rock. So it's not gonna be like "a whole night of minimal techno" or "a whole night of beat" or whatever. It's usually a transition - I try to make my sets like a story. I don't like to play a lot of just my music, I like to play stuff I like and play my music too.

SmSh: Cool, anything else you wanna say?

Thanks for the dumplings!