Appreciation: Kai
Bon bon kids. Welcome to another Appreciation post, it’s been a minute since I’ve done one. To catch past entries in this vein, click here.
Now that we got that out the way, let me bring you to Summer of 2000. I was less than two months removed from college graduation and working my very first real world job, which was pretty much nothing like the real world. I was a staffmember at the Organization of Chinese Americans, and was spending two weeks in Atlanta for the annual National Convention. It’s crazy that I was 21 and in charge of mad shit for real. But I can look back and appreciate that my experiences at my first job out of college - stressful though it was - really instilled me with a lot of confidence in my abilities to get stuff done. And that time in Atlanta was also interesting because 4 separate dudes I met there offered to set me up with women they knew. No wonder they call it HOTlanta.
Irregardless, that summer was also the first time I met the R&B group Kai. The name was short for kaibigan, the Tagalog word for “friendship,” and as you probably expect, they were 4 Filipino cats from the Bay plus - as you may not have expected - one Chinese dude who sang bass. They were signed to a major label, I think it was Geffen.
Although I had been taking performance poetry kinda serious for like a year or two by then, they were kinda next level for me because I had actually bought their CD single when I was in college. Maybe that seems like small-time nowadays because of the way that buying music has changed, but at the time, it was pretty big news that I could walk into Media Play in rural farmland Hadley, Massachusetts and buy a Kai CD. You young’ens might not get it, but Kai was as big API celebrities as we could imagine at that time, aside from maybe Margaret Cho. But she sucked anyway.
So Kai was set to perform at the Convention and I was helping my homegirl Cindy Tong produce the gala event where they would be featured. So I met dudes in a hotel room like a couple nights before, and I played it cool, but inside, I was pretty fuckin amped. What was so eye-opening for me was that they were such regular guys. And no doubt they could sing, like really really blow. And they ended up killing it during the show a couple nights later, with dance routines and a cappella joints and just mad talent. It was truly a joy to see them get open in front of a crowd with a not insignificant portion of 60+ folks. And everyone - straight up - loved it.
But what makes this memory so special is how it wrapped up. It’s too long to tell in detail, but here’s the basics: an A/V presentation I had created and was in charge of running malfunctioned. (I have a theory on who is responsible, but we won’t get into it.) The problem was that all the visual stuff was going forward, but somehow all the sound had disappeared and the assembled 1000+ guests sat in silence and could verily hear me whispershouting “F— Sh– F— F—!”
So what should happen?
The guys from Kai grabbed the microphones they had used during their set and started singing! Not only that, but they sang to match the visuals, not just some random shit they felt like singing. They took all the eyes off me and saved me from utter humiliation.
This cannot be overstated. Kai saved my ass that night.
They retired within the next year or two, with some members going on to form the R&B group 6th Day, and some returning to the daily grind of grinding daily.
But I’ll never forget that generosity they showed. Shit, some performers finish their set and bounce as soon as they can, but they stayed in the room and - more importantly - paid strict attention. I mean, they must have been paying attention to think that quickly.
So it’s no wonder that in 2006, my bride and I shared our first dance to Kai’s biggest hit “Say You’ll Stay” as sung by Vudoo Soul. (By the way, when I asked Vu to sing that song, he blurted out: “That’s my favorite Kai song!”)
I appreciate that they were some of the first to pave the way for all of us API performers to have an audience, no doubt, but even more, I appreciate what they did for this 21 year-old kid having his first brush with real world humiliation that night. Of course they deserve props on the macro level, but for me, they earn even more respect because of what they did for me.
You can call it self-centered if you want, but I don’t care what you think. Those dudes put me on their back that night, and I ain’t about to forget it.
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Tags: Appreciation, Commentary.
Props!
yo man, why is it hella easy to pick out which one the chinese dude is? and mad ups to performers that actually watch the rest of any show- i remember saul williams was on the phone during my set- not that it should matter, but yeah-
the Chinese guy’s name was Leo Chan. I can get down on some bass too, but not no michael mccary boyz II Men type smoovness.
good story man, they performed as Apex in 96 at this high school youth violence prevention conference I was at, but of course like anyone 14-17, ain’t nobody paying attention.
damn, even that image looks old, like you cut it out from a magazine and scanned it.
i remember ’say you’ll stay’ had radio play on 92.3 the beat, and it blew out all the laws i had about asian r&b singers being on the radio–specifically the law that said asian r&b singers can’t be on the radio. good stuff.
randomly saw this tonight and had to post. that ish was awesome! but dear god for the life of me i cannot remember what they actually sang. help! i feel sad and old.
i gotta go listen to the acapella version of say you’ll stay now.