Dumbfoundead

Early life

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina to South Korean immigrants, Jonathan Park (Korean name: 박성만 Park Seong-man) was smuggled in along with his sister by his mother to Mexico, and then later settled in Koreatown in Los Angeles at the age of three. He was often seen as a class clown by his peers at an early age, and was exposed to hip-hop at age ten upon entering a community center in MacArthur Park and meeting emcees such as Mark Luv of Zulu Nation, Poppin' Chuck, Cre8 RTN, and Ezrock. 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, an open-mic workshop for artists, poets, musicians, dancers, and rappers located in Leimert Park in South Central Los Angeles, by a high school friend. There he would continue to perfect his abilities as a rapper and get the attention of many "Blowdians" such as Otherwize, Riddlore, Nocando, P.E.A.C.E. He soon would earn the title of "Blowdian" himself.

Park dropped out of John Marshall High School in his sophomore year, as a result of frequent truancy. After dropping out, Park moved into a one-bedroom apartment in the MacArthur Park area with his sister. Prior to initiating a full-time professional music career, he worked as a bail bondsman, among many other odd jobs.

Career

Park began growing a large web fan base, after video clips of his rap battles were posted to YouTube. In 2015, Park returned to rap battling to participate in Drake and OVO's event King of the Dot Blackout 5, and was complimented by Drake himself, who expressed his excitement in his return. Park competed against Wild 'n Out cast member Conceited, and the battle is currently the most popular English rap battle of 2015. In August 2015, Park has battled fellow battler Dizaster on Day One of KOTD's World Domination 5.

His first solo album, DFD, was released on November 1, 2011. His second album, Take the Stares, was released on October 16, 2012. In 2013, Park released his third album Old Boy Jon, and a single by the same, all produced by Duke Westlake.

Dumbfoundead has collaborated with other music artists, including Epik High, Traphik, Wax, Jay Park, Kahi, and Anderson Paak. In 2015, he was featured on josh pan's remix of Keith Ape's song It G Ma, alongside popular rappers Waka Flocka Flame, ASAP Ferg, and Father.

He has been featured on NBC for his viral video Jam Session 2.0, consisting of 8 different musicians from around the world sharing the spotlight individually via split screen but collaborating on one cohesive track. He has also been on Los Angeles Times, Last Call with Carson Daly, MTV Hive, and Mnet.

Park played a supporting role in Joseph Kahn's horror film Detention.

In 2016, he released the music video "Safe," which gained widespread attention for superimposing Park's likeness onto the faces of white actors in famous movie scenes. The objective of this was to call attention to the fact that there were no Asian or Asian-American actors at the Oscars, and that "the only yellow men were all statues." Furthermore, the music video was another call to "the obvious underrepresentation of people of color in Hollywood." Park was also a starring member of the 2016 documentary Bad Rap, which outlined the lives of four Asian-American artists trying to make it in the hip-hop scene.

Dumbfoundead is currently on his "We Might Die" tour to promote his new album of the same name, and has sold out the tickets for his stops in Vancouver, Washington DC, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

Style and influences

He is known for his affiliation with Los Angeles-based hip hop collective Project Blowed, he has participated in the West Coast division of rap battle league Grind Time, and in Jumpoff's 2007 World Rap Championships; both of which have given rise to his status as a strong web presence. He has also done a stint as the opening act for South Korean hip hop group Epik High's Map the Soul tour, and is also a member of the hip hop trio Thirsty Fish and Los Angeles battle crew Swim Team.

According to Beatroute, Dumbfoundead's philosophy on music, rap battles, and life in general can be summed up in the quote, "too often we fool ourselves into caring about [something] we shouldn’t, and into battling everyone and everything when the battle is inside of us—when all we want to do is just eat some [food] and make some music."