Kev Nish

Kev Nish

Far East Movement (abbreviated FM) is an American hip hop and electronic music group based in Los Angeles. The group was formed in 2003 and consists of Kev Nish (Kevin Nishimura), Prohgress (James Roh), DJ Virman (Virman Coquia), JT Rollerson (James Rollerson), and formerly J-Splif (Jae Chong). They signed with Martin Kierszenbaum's Cherrytree Records, an imprint of Interscope Records to release their 2010 single, "Like a G6" (featuring The Cataracs and Dev) which peaked the Billboard Hot 100, making them the first Asian-American group to reach number one on the chart. Their follow up singles, "Rocketeer" (featuring Ryan Tedder), peaked at number seven and preceded the release of their third album and major label debut, Free Wired (2010). It performed moderately on the Billboard 200. Their fourth album, Dirty Bass (2012) saw a steep commercial decline, although its lead single, "Live My Life" (featuring Justin Bieber) reached number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100. The group's fifth album, Identity (2016) focused on bridging Eastern artists with the group's Western dance music roots. Released independently, the album received positive reviews and spawned the single "Freal Luv" (with Marshmello featuring Tinashe and Chanyeol). Far East Movement has also branched out with a number of collaborations on labels Ministry of Sound, Dim Mak Records, and Ultra Records. In 2016, Far East Movement's company, Transparent Arts (TA), moved into artist management. TA manages seven artists of various genres, including Korean-American K-pop artist Tiffany Young, rappers Dumbfoundead and Year of the Ox, DJ producers Yultron, Autolaser, and singer Satica. The artists have garnered millions of social media plays, sold out national tours, and have released tracks through labels Owsla, Spinnin', Armada, and Universal. They launched a joint label, BredNButter, with YouTube channel Trap City. BredNButter's releases have amassed millions of plays in total in a little over a year of existence. They also founded Identity Festival, a festival celebrating Asian American Heritage with the City of Los Angeles on the steps of City Hall which gathered over 10,000 attendees in 2018 with headliners Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and K-pop singer Jay Park.

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