Marcelo Chung-Hun Ortiz, who goes by Mars, is one half of the independent hip hop duo The Halfbreeds. The Korean/Mexican emcee, and recent UC San Diego graduate, has been hard at work with his partner Dan Frapalappa creating music. They’ve been long time friends and have had a mutual love for hip hop music and culture. Recently, while still in college, Mars won Freestyle Champion at UCSD’s first student freestyle battle in 2009. The duo released their first album of material titled Mixed Tape! a few months ago. The album can be downloaded for free at their official website. HalfKorean.com had a chance to catch up with Mars and ask a few questions to find out about himself and The Halfbreeds. So Mars, what is your mix? Where were you born and raised? What is your current occupation? So, tell us who are The Halfbreeds? How did you guys come up with the name for the group? So, how did you guys connect? We were only together for a few years (6th – 9th) when he moved to the Los Angeles County High School for Music and Arts (LACHSA) and I moved to Clark Magnet High School. Even though we pretty much never went to high school together we remained the closest of friends and began rapping and recording music just for fun during our junior year and have been at it ever since. What kind of goals do you have as a group and also for you as an individual and part of the group? One important note is that we have never been in it for the money. Dan is a registered nurse and anesthetist and I am a college grad from a well respected university (I could care less for my university, but many people tell me it is a really good school). We hold down regular jobs and are not planning on becoming rich from our music. Dan always says that when you are making music for a deadline, or for an A & R, or making music to pay your bills, the creative juices get sucked out of it and that is what usually forces many groups to split up or end badly. We enjoy the fact that the music is more of a hobby and not a career. For myself, I want to make songs that can express true lyricism, like tongue twisting, alliterated type “rewind-that-part-back-i-need-to-decipher what-he-just-said” type of flow. I also want to move into a bit more of a political tone as well as do more songs to reflect my mixed heritage. I would LOVE to make a song one day in which I rap in Spanish and Korean, though my Korean is a bit sketch so I need to study up a bit more on that one. Overall, everything I want to make still has to maintain that level of happiness and making people smile. What kind of response have you received from people who have checked out Mixed Tape!? Have you guys done any or plan to do any live shows? Are you guys recording new material and when do you plan to release new songs, videos? So being that you guys are fellow mixed folks, what was your experience like growing up? Mars: I didn’t really realize I was mixed until I got to school and some girl asked me if I was oriental, to which I checked if my fly was down and said, “I don’t know, am I?” Boy was that kinda stupid. As I got older it was harder to fit in because all the Asian people would look at me and say “oh you’re Korean? Do you eat kimchee?” Then I would say yes and that was about the end of it because the only thing they could see in me was the Mexican. The same went for the Hispanic people in school, except they would just think I was el chino. This lead me to hang out with pretty much everyone else, mostly Filipinos, southeast Asians (I guess because we looked more similar), and the few black people in the neighborhood. After my first trip to Korea I had a better understanding of what it was to be Korean, even though I experienced A LOT of racism in Korea. During high school I began to connect more with my Korean friends and acceptance was much easier to come by. All in all, I felt like the outsider when I was younger, but now that I’m older I get a lot of love from both Hispanics and Asians because of my mixed heritage. They love the fact that I know and enjoy the foods, speak the languages (my Korean is not so great), and have traveled extensively through both countries on several different occasions. So even though it may have sucked when I was younger, I wouldn’t change it for anything. The best part about being raised mixed was the food. I would go from eating chapchae (잡채) and bulgogi (불고기) with chopsticks to eating tamales and empanadas in a heartbeat. I should have made that Kogi Truck first, I’ve been making those meals since I was a kid! If there was one artist you could work with who would it be? Any final words to everyone? Thank you to Mars for his time and sharing more about himself and The Halfbreeds. We hope that he continues to pursue music as he has a real passion and love for it. For more information regarding Mars and The Halfbreeds, please check out their official website, Facebook and Twitter. Back to Spotlight |
The Halfbreeds – “We Play Golf” (Images courtesy of Mars Chung-hun Ortiz / The Halfbreeds) |