You might know him as Flux, Max Smart, Doctor Strange, Akira 8, or Emirc, but nowadays Hawai‘i emcee, Tassho Pearce, wants to be called by his real name. In addition to making a move away from his former aliases, Tassho is also taking on a new outlook on hip hop music and life: “I’m getting my grown man on.”

Tassho has been a pioneer for rappers in Hawai‘i since high school, but his first intro into hip hop was back in the second grade listening to Eric B & Rakim with his best friend. Pearce remembers the first show he went to, “ it was ZZ top, Run DMC, and the Beastie Boys; they played at Aloha Stadium. That was a real defining moment; I got really connected to hip hop music then.”

The half-Japanese, half-American emcee was born in Ishigaki Jima, Japan where his mother still resides. However, at the age of two, Tassho made the momentous move to Hawai‘i and has been calling the islands home ever since.

By the time he was a high school sophomore he began writing his own rhymes. Shortly after hitting the pen to pad, he started hitting up ‘hole in the wall joints’ and battle rapping whenever possible. Anybody in the battle rap scene knows of Tassho's skills on the mic. He’s now known as one of, if not, the best battle rappers in Hawai‘i. By his senior year, a bunch of his friends started a rap group called the Hoomanakaz, which would go on to open for all the major hip hop acts performing in Hawai‘i — Wu Tang Clan, The Roots and Pharcyde just to name a few.

Besides gigs with the Hoomanakaz, Pearce started his solo career in 2001 doing a bunch of personal projects and live shows. In 2004 he started his own independent label, Flipthebird Records, and released the track, “Honolulu,” which got love from local radio stations.

“That was a big milestone for me because in Hawai‘i not a lot of local hip hop artists were getting the coverage they deserved,” says Tassho. “That’s when I knew I could make a career out of this.”

Meanwhile, Pearce’s record company, Flipthebird, also started gaining momentum. He began using their signature bird logo to make some t-shirts to promote their label, but soon recognized the marketability of their original clothing designs. “I noticed that we would be selling a bunch of our tees at the shows, and now that has grown into a brand of its own,” says Pearce. By 2007 Flipthebird had caught the attention of Russell Simmons, CEO and founder of Def Jam Records. The result was a collabo of tees and shoes with Run Athletics. The shoes were a big hit, especially the elusive humuhumunukunukuapuaa shoe that many are still hunting for to this day.

Fish, birds, shoes, and Simmon's aside, Tassho’s A-list contacts haven’t just scored him hits in the design world, but also collaborations with Dilated Peoples as well. That’s how his single with Evidence, “Return to the Basics,” came about. “I opened up for Dilated Peoples when they came down and one thing led to another and that’s how the song came together,” explains Tassho. “Evidence drops a verse and produced the track. Being an opening act I got to make so many connections and meet so many people. It's helped me so much.”

Hence his album title, The Opening Act, dropping 8/08 (Aug. 8, 2008). Get it? It will be available on iTunes and at filpthebirdonline.com. “Hip hop is an art form to me. It’s not about the bucks or the looks, it’s about the music 100 percent,” says Tassho. “I’m just trying to push the boundaries of the music and elevate the art form. People know me as ‘the opening act and now it's time for the beginning of my story, it’s my opening act.”

You can check Tassho at the Pemberton Festival in Canada this summer along with Jay-Z, Coldplay and the NIN.


ジ・オープニングアクト
文　吉福　然

Emircとして知られているタショ・ピアスはハワイを訪れるヒップホップ界のメインストリームの前座をよくつとめる。最新のアルバムは“ジ・オープニングアクト”。フリップザバードというクロージングラインも持っている。このMC／実業家はあらゆる仮名を脱ぎ捨てて、本名タショ・ピアスを名乗ろうとしている。