The Immersion: Meet the West Coast’s Most Underrated Emcee, One-2 Posted by Dharmic X on 01/10/13 | Filed under Opinion, The Immersion, One-2

According to dictionary.com, the word “immerse” means “to involve deeply; absorb.” The Immersion involves absorbing a lifestyle from the surrounding environment. It involves listening to the lyrics and the beats of society’s underdogs on repeat, to the point where these songs are etched into the fabric of the attire. What does it mean to immerse yourself into the hip-hop culture as the son of Indian immigrants? This is my story...

In the hip-hop world, first impressions tend to leave an impact. Trinidad James is a perfect example. With “All Gold Everything” he presented himself in the public eye as this exotic, over-the-top figure that one either adores or abhors. There is very little middle ground when it comes to what someone thinks of Trinidad, and as a result, he has millions of people talking and a deal with Def Jam Records.

Meanwhile, my fascination for Crooked I, perhaps coupled with his in ability to put out a complete body of work (especially if its name was B.O.S.S.), drove me to instantly digest every track that featured his presence on it, whether it was a Slaughterhouse track or a feature for some random rapper I might have never heard of. On some occasions, I would simply fast forward the song to the part where Crooked started rapping, not wanting to labor through inferior product.



So of course, Crook’s appearance on “Machine Gun Rap Flow,” albeit just a quick intro, allowed One-2, the Iranian-born, European-bred, and LA-residing emceee of Armenian descent, an opportunity to leave a good first impression on my ears. Instead, he blew me away with a staggering display of flow and delivery, packing syllables with intricacy and a powerful vocabulary that could not be denied. I was instantly a fan, and began following the frequent leaks as they led up to roughly four or five mixtapes of his own.

You can see the influence of Crook on One-2 in a song like “Machine Gun Rap Flow,” especially when it came to subject matter. A song like this, more lyrical exercise than full-blown composition, has the emcee referring to stereotypical West Coast gangsterism, albeit in a far more clever manner than was typically heard on the radio. It’s a reflection of the life both emcees lived, especially in the streets of LA. I for one cannot deny them that identity.



But where One-2 separated himself from other MCs, even from Crooked I, was his ability to tap into one of the crazier backstories in the rap game. This was a man who was born as an ethnic minority in Iran of all places. Afraid of persecution, his family fled the country and wandered throughout Europe, and his father died when he was eleven. The family finally settled down in inner-city Los Angeles, and the boy who became One-2 grew up broke and struggling throughout his childhood. One-2 was able to internalize the history of his ancestors, his own personal experience with this turbulent history, and the unique environment of the streets he grew up on and channel it into records that could strike chords with people from a multitude of backgrounds.

In “Immigrant,” One-2 tackles the perception many Americans have of foreigners to the country (or even the children of immigrants), with their typecasting, condescending, and insensitive attitudes. He starts by detailing the line of immigration and wandering of his family and his ancestors, recognizing a deep history of persecution that has affected society before the concept of “America” even existed. He speaks on being looked at as a terrorist in the song (even though he is technically of Cacuasian descent), something which still affects Hindus and Sikh people in 2013 (see the Gurudwara shooting in Milwaukee that occurred in August and the recent incident of a woman killing a man by pushing him into an oncoming Queens subway car).

It’s a feeling of being an outsider that I’ve experienced in ways both petty and serious. In high school, I received the taunts and teasings of students mocking my religion, background, and vegetarianism; white kids from West Roxbury who were too immature to appreciate anything but the beer they were about to get “scwasted” with on Friday night. Meanwhile, coming home after school meant taking public transportation, which sometimes felt like being a walking target. Once, an old lady already on the train when I boarded, decided to bustle off on the very next stop, but not before staring in my direction and clutching a rosary, muttering aloud in rapid, fervent tones.

It is One-2’s sincerity, his complexity on both a lyrical level and in his subject matter, that made him one of my favorite emcees coming out of the West Coast. His version of “My Piano”, might be the best verse over the Hi-Tek instrumental, high praise considering the line-up on the original track. On the song, One-2 opens up about the sincerity he applies in his craft of being an MC, a testament to the struggle he’s had to endure before finding the pen and pad to serve as therapy. As he puts it, “They wonder why I play my piano: because sometimes the streets is more than I can handle.”



Meanwhile, the “Intro” to Mick’s Tape, a compilation album from Treacherous Records, is probably my favorite song from One-2, a pure combination of everything I appreciated from him. Quotables from Uno display a wide bredth of knowledge while spotlighting his personal struggle: “caught a case as a young’n, now I have bad karma; became a man on my own without a damn father, because I’m harder than all of y’all, like Sun Tzu One-2 bringing the Art of War.” The amount of description packed in also makes an impact: “God set me free and tied my arms with the Devil’s rope, a sun shining from afar through your telescope.” “Intro” is three minutes of One-2 just spitting his heart out, with no hooks and no filters.

The story of One-2, and quite honestly, the entire Treacherous Records roster, and their interaction with the digital age, is quite the saga. In One-2, you’re looking at an MC who has collaborated with the vast majority of California’s emerging rap scene, be it Crook, or even the West Coast’s prince himself, Kendrick Lamar. And yet, despite the features, despite the powerful records that feel timeless to me, despite the unbelievably inspiring story, One-2 remains the most slept on artist in California. It’s a shame, and something I simply don’t have the answer for.

I do have the records though.

See Also: The Immersion: Journeying to the West Coast With Crooked I