This is Rich Chigga.

He's a Chinese rapper by way of Indonesia,

and he's very popular on the internet.

This is Joji.

He's a Japanese-Australian singer

and he's also very popular on the internet.

Plus, Joji invented the Harlem Shake meme.

Let me say that again.

This guy, Joji, in the blood bathtub,

invented the Harlem Shake meme.

But we'll come back to that.

So, Rich and Joji are both signed to 88rising,

an entertainment company hoping to build

a lasting global brand that will outlive

singular moments of virality.

They primarily create content

combining Asian culture and hip-hop,

a formula that apparently pleases the internet gods greatly.

They've only been around for 18 months,

but they're already putting up major label numbers.

I think that we have an unprecedented

collective of talent.

A group of predominantly Asian artists,

you know, really like making waves globally,

which from an independent point of view as well.

88's founder, Sean Miyashiro,

cut his teeth launching

Vice's electronic music channel, Thump.

But quickly, Sean became interested in life

beyond dance music.

I knew that, after launching a whole content platform,

that I have kind of the ability

and the know-how to do it again,

but for what was the question.

So Sean moved to the Bronx to start over

and figure it out.

He couldn't afford an office space,

so he worked out of his car

at the top of a grimy parking garage.

Everything kinda started here.

If you look around, this is my environment,

this is my serenity, really.

88rising was built here.

Built on the grounds of LA Fitness residence

in a parking garage.

I was living in the Bronx and I'm just like,

damn, where the hell do I go?

So I just come up here and I like, you know,

I just kind of figure things out every single day,

being like, okay, what the hell is this thing?

(laughs)

Coming here was kind of like

my own kind of private office basically.

Like, to be honest, I would even go to the bathroom here.

I would take pisses here, you know what I mean?

Like, you know, it's just too far to go back down there.

When I need wi-fi, I'd spend a good part of the day

at Dunkin Donuts.

Hi, how are you?

Can I get a chicken snack wrap?

Before 88rising officially launched,

Sean caught a surprise break

in the form of a Twitter friendship

with a funny 16-year-old kid from Indonesia named Brian,

who taught himself English by watching

Rubik's Cube tutorial videos on YouTube.

Seriously, that's true.

I thought his Twitter was genius,

from the future, just crazy.

And like, just the shit that he was saying,

like the memes he was making.

But I didn't know that he rapped or anything like that.

I really didn't, and he came up with Dat $tick

like two weeks later.

♪ 12 in the morning, pop shells for a living ♪

♪ And berry gon' smell blood trail every minute ♪

Dat $tick was Brian's first ever attempt

at making a rap song, and it immediately went viral.

Everything was great about it,

but the one thing that I noticed

is the song was hard as hell.

Just like everything about it, man.

Just like, it was menacing, bro.

Soon after the video dropped,

Brian signed with 88rising.

I'll FaceTime with Rich.

Sorry for calling you Rich Chigga on my phone, Rich.

He gets, I mean Brian, he gets like super pissed off

that he's saved in my phone as Rich Chigga.

He's like, "Dude am I not a human to you?"

What's good, bro?

What's good, broda?

How you doing?

Doing great, I did the sound check.

How was it?

It was tight.

♪ Holdin' steel glocks ♪

♪ But you been a bitch, suck a thick cock ♪

So, Brian could definitely rap,

but some viewers understandably took offense

at a Chinese kid satirizing rap cliches

and calling himself "Rich Chigga."

But if a group of well-known rappers saw the video

and genuinely liked it,

that could at least help validate Brian

as a legit hip-hop artist.

Plus, it could be really funny.

It was just kind of an idea that kind of

I just had on the spot.

Everything that rappers say is better and funnier

and smarter, and wittier.

You know, it's just more entertaining.

We just edit it as tight as possible, put it up,

and it really worked.

(shouting)

Yo, this nigga got a pouch on, a Reebok pouch.

This is the hardest nigga of all time.

He said when you come for a chigga like me.

That was dope.

This is lit and I think people will take is as a...

People will take is as a joke at first,

but it's like,

if he ran with that and kept doing more videos like that,

shit's lit.

You know, I had never been to America before

and all of a sudden it's like I see like

all the rappers that I listen to reacting to my stuff

and I was like, 'What?

How did this happen?'

The reaction video also went viral

and even led to a remix of Dat $tick

featuring Wu-Tang's Ghostface.

I'll get on that track.

You know what I'm saying, yeah.

Really, on the remix?

Yeah, yeah, oh, you know him?

And, yeah, the remix went viral too.

Brian has since acknowledged the misstep in his name

and claims he made changes,

but for the time being,

he's still Rich Chigga to his fans,

an ever-growing global audience

hungry for more releases

from emerging talents from around the world.

I didn't know that it was gonna

be this impactful and this important to people

and I'm very thankful and blessed that it has,

and every day now that I wake up

it's like, you know, just a new mission every day.

A major part of that mission

involves Joji.

Remember the bloody bath guy?

He's a former YouTube personality

in the middle of a career transition.

The sound of this song, Will He,

it's like a trap song that you can slow dance to.

Awkward prom shit.

You know what I mean?

I used to do crazy, episodic internet videos.

It was going well and one day

it was me and a few friends just in a room.

We were casually chilling

and then someone plays the song

and it's brand new at the time.

I happened to have a lot of costumes laying around,

so I told the other guys,

I was like, get in these costumes

and let's just dance to it.

Like who cares?

We were like, okay, let's just go crazy at the drop.

So that video goes up,

I go to sleep

and the next morning everyone was doing it.

Like next morning.

("Harlem Shake")

That taught me a lot about the internet.

How people wanna just be a part of something.

And from that point on

something changed

and I was a little better at understanding

demographics and people and what they want to see

and what they want to hear.

I was friends with a couple other artists

who were affiliated with 88

and then I also started to realize that 88

is the bridge between Western and Asian entertainment

and I really wanted to be a part of that.

Joji just released the In Tongues EP,

his first project as a serious artist.

Joji's In Tongues record

came out a couple weeks ago.

It's number two in the world on the R&B chart,

which is crazy for independent release

and he's like a brand new artist.

And the success is even more impressive

knowing he went from creating something like this

It's just Taco Bell,

what could possibly go wrong?

(screams)

To creating something like this.

The newest music video for his song Demons.

♪ The demons told me everything ♪

♪ They whisper in the night ♪

♪ This is not a threat, I promise ♪

Tonight Rich Chigga has a show

in New York City.

Tickets sold out in an hour.

I came here, I'm first on line,

I came here at one.

I was the third person in line.

So, why'd you get here so early?

Cause I wanna see Rich Chigga.

(yelling)

I wanna touch him.

(laughter)

What do you guys think of Joji?

He's hot, bro. Oh my God.

That's my dad, son.

That's my dad, son.

You guys copped the new EP?

Yeah.

I woke up at six in the morning

just to cop that shit

and then I listened to it

and that shit started made me cry, fam.

This is actually kind of exciting.

Every time...

This never gets old, like,

you live online in social media,

but there's nothing like this.

Being with the people.

(cheering)

Ten, nine,

Eight, seven, six, five,

four, three, two, one.

(screaming)

♪ Back on my bullshit, man you can't believe it ♪

♪ Who the fuck just said I should quit ♪

More often that not

viral success happens by accident.

And then after an appearance on Ellen

or Jimmy Kimmel

the creator's star power fizzles out.

But 88rising has figured out

how to turn potential gimmicks into brands

with an actual following

that keeps coming back for the next thing.

Oh, shit.

So keep an eye out for 88's next move.

More than likely,

it won't be covered on network television

or terrestrial radio.

Although, as they've already proven,

nowadays that really doesn't matter.