Fooligan Kevs Is 'Bringing Asian Hype And Pride' To Australian Music

JDP, short for Jaemie Dela Pena, is a content creator making waves in Western Sydney. Under her new moniker, Fooligan Kevs, Dela Pena is putting together drill/hip hop music with a callback to rave culture. She pulls from all her content-creating experience in comedy, filmmaking, rapping, and running a viral TikTok account under the character of Fooligan Kevs.

The new single from Fooligan Kevs has arrived, a satirical take on a “fantastical world that’s almost a little bit misogynistic, but it’s all tongue-in-cheek, so it’s poking fun at those attitudes,” she says. And the cheeky music video for AZN E$hays is certainly not meant to be taken too seriously. The character of Fooligan Kevs in AZN E$hays is someone the boys aspire to be while girls find him funny. Or conversely, the boys find him stupid, but a lot of guys like him.

The music video was filmed at the Ni Hao Bar in Sydney, a restaurant that offers reimagined Asian cuisines and an abundance of cocktails, so it made sense to hold the single launch there. “[The Ni Hao Bar] is a well-known spot in the community, if that makes sense,” JDP begins. The owner of Ni Hao Bar, Howin Chui, also has experience running the Sydney nightclub OPM. For Sydneysiders watching the clip, they can identify the restaurant and with the Asian Australian community.

“Maybe I’m jumping the gun, but there are not many Asian people, specifically in Australian music, representing their heritage,” JDP notes. “So, I thought it through, like, maybe it’s not cool to showcase your Asian heritage. And I was like, ‘Well, I wonder why that’s happening.’ That’s why I thought I’d bring something out, especially for the Asian community, which is almost a quarter of the population of [Western Sydney] right now.”

Fooligan Kevs’ content directed to JDP’s community has led to a ton of hype: the character has been playlisted on Spotify’s Drip & Local Hype, playlisted on Amazon Music’s Brand New Music compilation, playlisted on YouTube’s beats & waves AUS/NZ, and the AZN E$hays music video currently sits at 29k views, just two weeks after its release.

“That’s the insane thing – my idea has come to life, and it’s such a weird idea as well,” JDP laughs, thankful that audiences like a song and video that’s half a joke. “Seeing people take that seriously, not as a joke, and actually liking the music and seeing it as a song is awesome.

“I'm so glad that, like, I guess being from my background being a comedian quote, unquote, people actually found me funny,” JDP adds, sort of feeling like her foray into music had to be funny. “If I started making serious music, I think people would have been like, ‘Where is this coming from?’ So, it’s a song that you can laugh to, but it’s a party song, essentially,” she says, aware that she’s providing the perfect song for her 18-19-year-old neighbours having their first house parties.

It's weird, Dela Pena notes, that party music hasn’t evolved from the EDM music she listened to maybe five years ago. Her neighbours are listening to the exact same tunes she remembers – has party music peaked or stagnated? Will it evolve again?

Aside from the drill genre taking over in Sydney, Dela Pena doesn’t think EDM has evolved since Avicii’s days. “When prime party music came out in, like, 2012 to 2015, I don't think the music sonically has evolved that much in the party sense,” she says. But JDP has a bigger mission than changing the world of party music: she’s here to represent her community.

“To represent, that’s why I’m doing this. That’s why I’m doing what I do,” she assuredly shares. “I feel like my community is so under-represented. It's such a huge demographic, and it's so highly under-represented in the industry in Australia. I feel like I'm responsible for – I don't know if this is cool, but quote, unquote – bringing the hype and bringing the pride.”

As an artist making music, Dela Pena feels like her music can be part of a soundtrack. “When you play it, I want you to feel like someone,” she says. “You know when you play Viva La Vida [by Coldplay] and feel like you’re climbing a mountain? That’s what I want people to feel.” Dela Pena continues to explain the context of those feelings by circling back to AZN E$hays.

When deep house producer Christian Joseph sent Fooligan Kevs the beat, she wanted to hear something that went hard. “I was playing the beat, and I was just imagining what the person listening would feel like – like, a king!”

The ultimate goal for Fooligan Kevs is to take her character to television, in the vein of Lil Dicky’s television series, Dave. “Dave is exactly what the big goal is,” JDP exclaims, recalling how much she loves everything about that series. “It’s just like that journey of being a funny rapper who’s the hardest guy, but people will think I’m cute and tiny instead. I want to bring Asian culture to the forefront and use music and humour as a way to fly the flag.”

So, what does 2023 hold for Fooligan Kevs? “The Australian music industry is very homogenistic, in that the same types of people get put in the spotlight,” she notes. “You fit a certain mould; then you get put in the spotlight. I hope that in 2023, [someone in the industry] sees different types of creators out there and says, ‘That’s different.’

“I hope there's another wave of [artists] even more different to what you're used to, which is probably Asians, Indians, Middle Easterns or anyone that hasn't got their share of the spotlight.”

Fooligan Kevs is capping off 2022 by performing on the WhatsLively stage at NYE In The Park in Sydney. The line-up features Flight Facilities, Lime Cordiale, Cut Copy, and many more. Find more details here.