k-critique

Aziatix. Besides the sick name, I can assure you the members are nothing but talent and charisma. Aziatix is a Korean-American group comprised of 3 members: Nicky Lee, Eddie Shin and Flowsik. All 3 are Korean-American and are in charge of vocals and rapping respectively.

I saw Aziatix yesterday on Korean singer Brian Joo’s tweet, and I saw G.NA retweet it. I had no idea who they were until I saw another tweet by Soompi this morning. Feeling curious, I clicked in and boy am I ever glad I have. That’s because I am a fan of Nicky Lee…also known as 李玖哲! 

Nicky Lee

It just so happens the other day I was just randomly thinking about Nicky, and wondering if he knows any Korean musicians since he’s Korean himself. For those that don’t know, Nicky Lee is Korean, but after debuting in Korea, he went to Taiwan to pursue his music career and has achieved decent results. He has such a nice and smooth R&B voice and I have sooo many of his mandarin songs in my iPod. If you haven’t listened to him, shame on you! you should DEFINITELY go check him out. These are some of my favorite songs (song titles translated to English) - R&B/ballad songs: Baby it’s Me, Love Doesn’t Need a Reason, Relief; More upbeat songs: Reluctant to Let Go, Hurry and Love Me!

In Taiwan, he is a solo singer, but also part of Taiwan’s group, the godfather of Taiwan hip-hop, MACHI (also one of my faves). So you can imagine how happy I was to see him back in the Korean game. A bit off topic, but…Nicky reminds me of Big Bang’s Daesung. Both are Korean, both are “small-eyed brothers”, both are always smiling/happy and super hilarious…and most importantly, both have amazing vocals! According to Koreaboo, Nicky is still a part of MACHI, but his involvement with AZIATIX is just a side label used as a route for international debut in the US market.

Eddie Shin - is new to me. Apparently after some quick browsing and research, he debuted under Cube Entertainment (which is probably why G.NA knows him and RT Aziatix). Looking through some of his old songs, he also seems to sing R&B pretty well, though I personally prefer Nicky’s voice. He also has written songs for Ivy, Wheesung, and many other Korean artists.

Flowsik - name says it all. A rapper who’s flow is sick. Or sik. I first learned about him when he was featured in JYJ’s The Beginning album - Micky Yoochun’s song, I Love You. I saw lots of non-JYJ fans commenting and praising him so I decided to check him out and he is definitely an impressive rapper. Flow, lyrics, voice/tone, he’s got it all. I’m reeaally looking forward to his new songs with Aziatix. 

For those wondering, the group AZIATIX is also under the music label with the same name. The founder is Jae Chong, who is also the same founder of MACHI Entertainment of Taiwan hip-hop. Jae has worked with many top artists in Taiwan and Korea, a lot of them my favorites - Taiwan’s Elva Hsiao, Jolin Tsai, Vanness Wu, etc. and Korea’s Hyori, JYJ, Boa, etc. It seems to me their vision is to showcase the best of Korean-Americans with AZIATIX as they personally said that they feel there isn’t enough Asian presence in the US music industry at the moment (I couldn’t agree more). With the success of Far East Movement, I genuinely hope AZIATIX is able to mirror their success. To me, it seems they’ve garnered quite a fanbase already since the 3 members has gained a lot of fans individually before forming this group. And with their fluent English, impressive talent and good quality music and experience, they are a strong candidate. 

So what about it? Are you an “Aziaddict” yet? I sure am! Check out their official website, Facebook and Twitter and be sure to grab their debut single, “Go” on iTunes!

Check out my sources from Koreaboo and Soompi for more detailled info on each member!

Sources: Koreaboo - Article 1, Article 2, Soompi