Before they were hanging out with the girls on the dance floor, Far East Movement doubted if Asians could make it in rap.

"When we were younger we didn’t have a lot of Asian-American representation, other than, like, Mr. Miyagi and Bruce Lee. So something like being a musician or an actor… didn’t seem like an achievable goal," remembers Kev Nish (Kevin Nishimura), who teamed up with friends Prohgress (James Roh) and J-Splif (Jae Choung) to form Far East Movement. Launched in 2003, the crew spent two years cutting their teeth on live shows before adding respected radio deejay DJ Virman (of L.A.'s Power 106) to the mix. By 2006, the quartet had released two albums of sample-heavy underground hip hop: Audio-Bio and Folk Music.

This year, the 27-year-olds are getting national radio airplay with their single Girls On the Dance Floor, a throwback dance cut that bridges the gap between '80s freestyle and newer acts like LMFAO. The rest of the album, Animal, is also jammed with club bangers like You've Got a Friend, a collaboration with Lil Rob and Baby Bash. Sound weird for a rap group that got started with soul loops and scratchy drum breaks? Not to Prohgress: "We are influenced by where we live. Los Angeles is a cultural melting pot. You can go up one block and be around Latinos in South Central, then go to Little Ethiopia, and go up a little more and it's historic Chinatown. Our music is everything we experience."

Catch Far East Movement on Starburst & mun2 present: Sweet Contrudictions, a live concert featuring Larry Hernandez, Los Horóscopos de Durango and Flex on Thursday, September 24. You can also stream Far East Movement's new single, "2 Is Better," featuring Ya Boy, on the group's MySpace.

See: myspace.com/fareastmovement

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