Coming from Los Angeles, California are the very heavy, eclectic hip hop beats of TOKiMONSTA. However, it is very hard to describe the sound of 24 year-old Jennifer Lee. With a background in entertainment advertising, it’s puzzling how this “Jack-of-all-Genres” got to where she is today.
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Her passion for creating beats and enthralling remixes spawned from her love of music in general. Lee started off with an interest in Grunge and Alternative Rock. As she grew, so did her interest in underground and mainstream Hip-Hop. Her love of music of all different kinds has heavily influenced her music today. Just last year she released a Mix-tape album called “The Attention Deficit” with sampled tracks by MF Doom, Methodman, Royal Flush, Jedi Mind Tricks and my personal favorite, a remix of Lupe Fiasco’s “Kick, Push”. Her hypnotizing beats and brilliant samples put her on the map for Los Angeles’ underground experimental Hip-Hop scene along with critically acclaimed Flying Lotus and Nosaj Thing, all members of the Brainfeeder record label.
TOKiMONSTA started out her career by taking on a new hobby suggested by a friend. She began making beats in her college dorm, constantly buying new software and adding new synthesizers , drum machines, etc. to her collection. This hobby grew into something much more as she started competing in beat battles around Los Angeles…and losing. This made her bitter, but quitting was never a thought in her mind. “I felt really bitter about it because I thought they hated on me because I was a young, Asian girl. Eventually I realized it wasn’t just me — you have to earn your way into it and earn your respect.” says TOKiMONSTA to ChinaShop.
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As a woman in such a male dominated industry it was hard to make her name known and get her music out there. She has released numerous tracks that would blow most DJ’s out of the water. She has a soft and soulful approach to things, which makes her music so beautiful. “One thing that’s good is that I can get away with sentimental music. In the scene in LA, we are all derivative of hip-hop. We use electronic music, but we’ve got that hip-hop mentality whe
