''The Chinaman'' is the first

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American rapper

Fresh Kid Ice Christopher Wong Won (May 29, 1964July 13, 2017), better known by his stage name Fresh Kid Ice, was an American rapper. He was a co-founder of the rap group 2 Live Crew, appearing on all of the group's albums from 1985 to 1998. Wong Won was born ...

(Christopher Wong Won) of the

2 Live Crew 2 Live Crew is an American hip hop music, hip hop group from Miami, Florida, which had its greatest commercial success from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. The group's most well-known line up was composed of Luther Campbell, Luke Campbell, Fr ...

. It was released on July 15, 1992 by Effect Records. Wong Won started to work on the album in 1992, because he was troubled with the direction 2 Live Crew member

Luther Campbell Luther Roderick Campbell (born December 22, 1960), also known as Luke Skyywalker, Uncle Luke and simply Luke, is an American rapper, promoter, record executive, actor, and former leader of the rap group 2 Live Crew. He also starred in a short- ...

was taking and wanted to stay away. It reached number 38 on the ''Billboard''

Heatseekers Albums Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

chart and No. 56 on the

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...

chart. The album was the first American hip hop album to embrace having an Asian heritage.

Production

Wong Won said he took on the project in 1992, because he wanted to distanced himself from

member

, who at the time had a beef with

Dr. Dre Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and ...

and

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, " ...

. He felt it was awkward and out of place since all previous interaction with them had been friendly, hence he suggested a solo project to his label, and started it without a budget. He also said, without taking an advance, all beats were programmed in his garage with friends and artists he produced, they went into the company's studio and recorded it and that it sold over 200,000 copies with very limited promotion. The singles were"Dick 'Em Down," "I'll Be There," and "Freak 'Em Down" (the clean version of "Dick 'Em Down"). ''The Chinaman'' is the first American hip hop album to embrace an Asian heritage. It inverts the

stereotypes In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

into prideful declarations of self-identity.

Charts

On the Billboard charts, the album peaked at No. 38 and stayed two weeks on the ''

'' chart. ''The Chinaman'' was also on the ''

'' chart for ten weeks, peaking at No. 56.

Track listing

Personnel

Executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

*Produced By: Fat Daddy and

for Ice Cold Productions except "Demon" and "I'll Be Here" produced by Eddie Miller for Lecture On Nothing Production, "Roll Call" produced by Shake G, Fat Daddy and

for Ice Cold Productions, "Kid Ice Groove" produced by DJ MadMan for Ice Cold Productions, and "Long Dick Chinese" produced by Shake G for Ice Cold Productions. *All scratches by DJ MadMan and DJ Domain *Additional vocals: "Roll Call" by Shake G and Fat Daddy, "Bad Boys Move In Silence" by Tesfa and Fat Daddy, "From The Botton To Da Top" by Fat Daddy, and "I'll Be Here" by GAME. *Engineered and mixed by Eddie Miller at Luke Recording Studios, Liberty City, Fl. *Mastered at Fullersounds Miami, Fl. *Graphics by Milton Mizell *Photography by Byron E. Small

Charts

References

External links

* * ''The Chinaman''at

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chinaman (album), The 1992 debut albums Fresh Kid Ice albums Hip hop albums by American artists