INTERVIEW: DJ EFN Talks Finding Hip Hop Talent In Vietnam

Originally posted on HipHopDX 3/21/2017

While in town premiering his new Hip Hop documentary, Coming Home: Vietnam at the Los Angeles Film School, Drink Champs co-star DJ EFN stopped by the #DXLive set to discuss the film. 

“Coming Home: Vietnam is the fourth film in a series I’m doing where I travel to countries and explore global Hip Hop,” exclaims EFN. “Cuba is the first one. I went in 2012 and it aired in 2013 on Revolt. We went to Peru then we went to Haiti. We went into the slums of Haiti. It was an amazing, humbling experience. Then we went to Vietnam and in Vietnam, I went to the base that my dad fought at during the Vietnam War. So part of the storyline there is going on behalf of veterans and family of veterans. It [premiers], on Revolt TV, March 23rd.”

On the different people he met in Vietnam:

“I met some of the illest artists. I met this one female MC named Suboi. Shortly after we left Vietnam, Obama went to Vietnam as one of the first sitting Presidents in 40 or 50 years to go to Vietnam and he met a bunch of people and one of the people in the audience was Suboi. They introduced her as a rapper and he did a beatbox for her. She rhymed and that went viral. She’s in our film. We met incredible B-Boys. We tried to find all the elements of the culture and [to] see if all of the elements exist [there]. [We try to see] how the culture is transforming, what their influences are, if we [Americans] influence them [or] if we don’t. I’m trying to study all of that. It’s not a documentary about their entire Hip Hop scene because that’s not fair to them but it’s us learning about their culture through Hip Hop. I like to say [we are the] Anthony Bourdain of Hip Hop because he does it for food. We do it through Hip Hop culture.”

Aside from Vietnam, EFN has also trekked through Peru, Haiti and Cuba. Elsewhere in the interview, The Drink Champ also discussed the upcoming business developments for his intoxicating show and podcast with his co-host Noreaga.

“We’re negotiating right now,” the Miami DJ explained. “We’re at that time in our contracts for both CBS and Revolt and we’re trying to figure out a better situation with our partners. We’re not going to abandon our partners but we’re trying to work it out. Nobody thought when we started Drink Champs that we’d be where we’re at. Nobody thought that a bunch of drunk motherfuckers would reach millions of listeners a week.”

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