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Tokimonsta

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TOKiMONSTA
TOKiMONSTA (top) performing at Coachella 2016 with Anderson .Paak
Background information
Birth nameJennifer Lee
Born (1987-01-26) January 26, 1987 (age 37)
Torrance, California, U.S.
Genres
Occupations
  • Record producer
  • DJ
Years active2008–present
Labels
Websitewww.tokimonsta.com

Jennifer Lee, known professionally as Tokimonsta (stylized as TOKiMONSTA), is an American record producer and DJ based in Los Angeles.[3] She has collaborated with artists such as Anderson .Paak, Earthgang, Isaiah Rashad,[4] Selah Sue,[5] and ZHU. Additionally, she has done a number of official remixes, a few being Beck,[6] Duran Duran,[7] Olafur Arnalds,[8] Disclosure, Sia, the Netflix show Squid Game and Odesza.[9]

In 2019, TOKiMONSTA was nominated for "Best Dance / Electronic Album" at the Grammy Awards for her album Lune Rouge.[10] She was the first female Asian-American producer to receive a nomination in this category.[11]

Early life

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TOKiMONSTA grew up in Torrance, California.[12] Her parents immigrated to the US from South Korea; thus, she is second generation Korean American.[3] She was raised by her mother who ran a small business to support their family.[13] As a young child, her mother tasked her with classical piano lessons. Lee has noted disliking lessons as a child, though she appreciates the structural foundation it created for her approach to composing and producing.

She graduated from University of California, Irvine.[14] While studying, she first began producing music, using the Fruity Loops Studio digital audio workstation (DAW). She later progressed to producing using the Ableton Suite as her primary DAW. She participated in beat cyphers and battles at Leimert Park's Project Blowed and Low End Theory.[15] Upon graduating, she worked for a video game publisher while continuing to make music and perform as a hobby. She would later be laid off due the US economic recession, and would decide to pursue music full time.[16][15]

Career

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Lee was invited to attend the Red Bull Music Academy in London in 2010.[17] She was the first woman to sign to Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label and released her first album, Midnight Menu, in November 2010 on Brainfeeder.[18] She was rated the number one Hottest Los Angeles Lady DJ by LA Weekly in December 2010.[19] She released the EP Creature Dreams, also on Brainfeeder, in 2011.[20] The next year, she released Boom, an 11-track collaborative project with Suzi Analogue as Analogue Monsta.[21]

In 2013, her second album, Half Shadows, was released on Ultra Records.[22] In 2014, she released Desiderium on her own Young Art Records.[23] She returned to the Red Bull Music Academy that same year as an alumni lecturer.[24] She produced Gavin Turek's You're Invited in 2015 on Young Art Records.[25] On September 9, 2015, she announced on Twitter the release of her solo album Fovere and she will be out on tour in support of her new album starting November 9, 2015.[26]

Lee was profiled in the 2020 documentary film Underplayed, in which she elaborated on the issue of diversity in the electronic dance music industry.[27]

In December 2022, Lee performed at the inaugural LA3C festival at the Hot Import Nights stage alongside EDM artists Freya Fox, DJ Peach, Meirlin, DJ Accia, Lucid Lolo, DJ Rose Gold, and many others.[28][29][30]

Name

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The name TOKiMONSTA was originally a screen name for Lee. It combines the Korean word for rabbit (tokki), which she took from a Korean's children's song "San Toki",[31][32] with a colloquial spelling of the word "monster." In an interview with Tonya Mosley, Lee said that "I can't take it back 'cause this has been my name now for many years," but also suggested that the juxtaposition of "tokki" as something cute and "monsta" as something scary "shows very much in the music that I make. There are moments where my music is very quiet, and then I have [...] moments where my music is loud or beautiful and disturbing or light or heavy. And now, more than ever, I do feel like I identify with my name, and I'm proud to have it be a part of my life."[33]

Personal life

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Lee was diagnosed with Moyamoya disease in late 2015. After undergoing two brain surgeries, she briefly lost language and comprehension skills. Once these were regained to a degree, Lee eventually began work on her 2017 album Lune Rouge, despite not being able to fully understand music while recovering. She has noted that this album was her most personal piece of work due to the difficulties she experienced prior to making it.[34]

She discusses surmounting these challenges in Vox's Netflix series, Explained (season 1, episode titled "Music")[35] and the Great Big Story miniseries Soundwave.[36]

Discography

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Albums

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  • Midnight Menu (2010)
  • Half Shadows (2013)
  • Desiderium (2014)
  • Fovere (2016)
  • Lune Rouge (2017)
  • Oasis Nocturno (2020)
  • Eternal Reverie (2025)

Extended plays

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  • Bedtime Lullabies (2008)
  • Cosmic Intoxication (2010)
  • Creature Dreams (2011)
  • Los Angeles 8/10 (2011) (with Mike Gao)
  • Boom (2012) (with Suzi Analogue, as Analogue Monsta)
  • You're Invited (2015) (with Gavin Turek)
  • Come And Go Remixed (2020)
  • Get Me Some Remixed (2020)

Singles

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  • "USD / Free Dem" (2010) (with Blue Daisy)
  • "Mileena's Theme" (2011) (for Mortal Kombat)
  • "Darkest (Dim)" (2012) (with Gavin Turek)
  • "Go With It" (2013) (with MNDR)
  • "The Force" (2013) (with Kool Keith)
  • "The World Is Ours" (2014)
  • "Realla" (2014) (with Anderson Paak)
  • "Steal My Attention" (2014)
  • "Drive" (2014) (with Arama)
  • "Pinching" (2014) (with Iza Lach)
  • "Saw Sydney (Pharrell 'That Girl' Flip)" (2015)
  • "Hemisphere" (2015) (with Gavin Turek)
  • "Surrender" (2015) (with Gavin Turek)
  • "Put It Down" (2015) (with Anderson .Paak)
  • "Don't Call Me" (2017) (feat. Yuna)
  • "We Love" (2017) (featuring MNDR)
  • "I Wish I Could" (2018) (featuring Selah Sue)
  • "Strange Foot" (2019) (featuring Ambré)[37]
  • "Dream Chorus" (2019)[38]
  • "Love That Never" (2019)[39]
  • "Fried For the Night" (2020) (featuring EarthGang)[40]
  • "One Day" (2020) (featuring Bibi and Jean Deaux)[41]

Remixes

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References

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  1. ^ Li, Christina (June 28, 2012). "L.A. Beatmaker TOKiMONSTA: "People Think I'm Some Cutesy Anime Princess"". SF Weekly.
  2. ^ Wunsch, Jessica (April 9, 2013). "Exclusive: TOKiMONSTA Talks Keeping Up With Boys Before Half Shadows Album Release Party". Vibe.
  3. ^ a b Kakaire, Christine (September 28, 2010). "RA: Breaking through: Tokimonsta - Interview". Resident Advisor.
  4. ^ "TOKiMONSTA, Isaiah Rashad, Joey Purp, and Ambré Team for New Song "No Way": Listen". Pitchfork. 9 September 2017. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  5. ^ "TOKiMONSTA's 'I Wish I Could' Video Will Have You in Tears: Watch". Billboard. 30 January 2018. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  6. ^ "Beck – "Wow (TOKiMONSTA Remix)"". Stereogum. 2016-10-14. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  7. ^ "TOKiMONSTA Shares Duran Duran Remix of "Last Night in the City"". HYPEBEAST. 9 March 2017. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  8. ^ "Premiere: Ólafur Arnalds ~ they sink (TOKiMONSTA remix)". GoldFlakePaint. 2019-07-18. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  9. ^ "ODESZA - Falls feat. Sasha Sloan (TOKiMONSTA Remix)". Dancing Astronaut. 2019-01-25. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  10. ^ "Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee: TOKiMONSTA". GRAMMY.com. 2019-01-18. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  11. ^ Tan, Emily (3 February 2019). "Life after brain surgery includes a Grammy nomination for Tokimonsta". NBC News. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
  12. ^ Benson, Kristin (May 25, 2011). "Tokimonsta: Draw From The Opposites". L.A. Record.
  13. ^ "TOKiMONSTA makes story-telling beats. Her own story includes beating a life-threatening disease". The FADER. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  14. ^ Bain, Katie (April 4, 2013). "Tokimonsta Leaves the Nest". Los Angeles Weekly.
  15. ^ a b Schiewe, Jessie (21 June 2015). "Tokimonsta Mixes Hip-Hop and EDM for the EDC Masses". Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  16. ^ Cliff, Aimee. "Five things you should know about TOKiMONSTA". Red Bull Music Academy. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  17. ^ "Red Bull Music Academy". Red Bull Music Academy. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  18. ^ Deviant (November 7, 2010). "Review: TOKiMONSTA - Midnight Menu - Sputnikmusic". Sputnikmusic.
  19. ^ Benson, Kristina. "Top 5 Hottest L.A. Lady DJs in 2010". Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  20. ^ Diver, Mike (May 18, 2011). "BBC - Music - Review of TOKiMONSTA - Creature Dreams". BBC Music.
  21. ^ Martin, Andrew (July 25, 2012). "Album Premiere: Analogue Monsta "Boom"". Complex.
  22. ^ Weigel, Maxwell (April 11, 2013). "TOKIMONSTA: HALF SHADOWS". In Your Speakers. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
  23. ^ DeVille, Chris (September 19, 2014). "Stream TOKiMONSTA Desiderium (Stereogum Premiere)". Stereogum.
  24. ^ "Red Bull Music Academy". Redbullmusicacademy.com. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  25. ^ "Listen to TOKiMONSTA and Gavin Turek's Slick Mini LP 'You're Invited'". Vice. 28 August 2015. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  26. ^ "T᷈O᷈K᷈iM᷈O᷈N᷈S᷈T᷈A᷈ on Twitter". Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  27. ^ Alisha Mughal, "TIFF Review: 'Underplayed' Highlights EDM's Diversity Problem — and Shows Why It's So Important to Fix It". Exclaim!, September 16, 2020.
  28. ^ "LA3C Festival: Fans go wild for K-pop group Seventeen, Snoop Dogg and Lil Baby". Redlands Daily Facts. 2022-12-11. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  29. ^ Brown, Kirsten Chuba,Evan Nicole; Chuba, Kirsten; Brown, Evan Nicole (2022-12-10). "Inside the Inaugural LA3C Festival: Lil Baby, Snoop Dogg, Maluma Hit the Stage for Two-Day Event". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2022-12-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  30. ^ "Lil Baby, Snoop Dogg, Maluma, Seventeen And More At LA3C". Los Angeles, CA Patch. 2022-10-06. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  31. ^ "TOKiMONSTA on Instagram: "The "toki" part of my name is based on a Korean children's song called "San Toki"—which means "mountain rabbit." I commemorated this song…"". Instagram. Archived from the original on 2021-12-24.
  32. ^ "Quick catch-up: TOKiMONSTA". Dummymag.com. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  33. ^ Mosley, Tonya (October 2, 2023). "Brain surgery left TOKiMONSTA unable to understand music. Now every song is precious". NPR Fresh Air.
  34. ^ Geffen, Sasha (September 12, 2017). "TOKiMONSTA Lost Speaking and Musical Abilities After Brain Surgery. This Is How She Regained Them". Pitchfork. Retrieved December 16, 2018. That's not to say that this is a happy album, but the whole process of creating it was very cathartic for me. It's my most personal piece of work.
  35. ^ "Tokimonsta reveals full extent of her recovery from brain surgeries and relearning music on final episode of Vox's Netflix series, explained". Dancing Astronaut. 2018-09-25. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  36. ^ "Losing And Finding Music After Brain Surgery". Great Big Story. 2019-02-07. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
  37. ^ Bein, Kat (March 1, 2019). "TOKiMONSTA recruits Ambré for the chill 'Strange Froot': Listen". Billboard. Archived from the original on May 18, 2019. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  38. ^ "Dream Chorus by TOKiMONSTA on Spotify". Spotify. 3 May 2019. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  39. ^ Corcoran, Nina (December 7, 2019). "TOKiMONSTA shares new single "Love That Never": Stream". Consequence of Sound. Archived from the original on December 7, 2019. Retrieved December 23, 2019.
  40. ^ Whyte, Devin (16 January 2020). "Tokimonsta and Earthgang Collaborate on "Fried For The Night"". Mixmag. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  41. ^ Bein, Kat (February 21, 2020). "Tokimonsta, Bibi & Jean Deaux's 'One Day' honors the fighter in all of us with stunning video". Billboard. Archived from the original on February 27, 2020. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  42. ^ Middleton, Ryan (2018-10-25). "Moby, Tokimonsta, DJ Tennis, DJ Seinfeld contributing to George Fitzgerald 'All that Must Be' remix album". Magnetic Mag. Archived from the original on 2018-12-14. Retrieved 2018-12-14.
  43. ^ Peacock, Tim (2019-07-19). "Ólafur Arnalds' TOKiMONSTA Remix of 'They Sink' Is Out Now". uDiscover Music. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
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