PETALING JAYA, Oct 25 — The past two years have been filled with historic firsts for Asian musicians thanks to 88rising.

The hybrid music company was founded by Sean Miyashiro and Jaeson Ma in 2015 to catapult Asian talent onto the global stage, aided by the help of social media marketing and viral music videos.

It’s paid off so far, as 2018 saw 88rising signees Joji and Rich Brian becoming the first Asian artistes ever to hit number one on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-hop Albums chart and iTunes Hip-hop chart respectively.

Now, Malaysian artistes could have a shot at joining the 88rising crew next year as Miyashiro said that the company aims to recruit more talent from the South East Asian region in 2020.

This comes alongside plans to open localised 88rising offices in South East Asian and possibly Japan or Korea, in addition to their current hubs in Shanghai, Los Angeles, and New York.

"We want to make a concerted effort to be more aware of artistes from different countries that we might not necessarily have in our roster because to me, it is important.

"If we say, ‘hey, we want to represent Asian people to the world’, that includes all Asian people and it’s important to have different countries represented in our line-up,” Miyashiro told Malay Mail.

Four years in the making, the 88rising family consists of a rag-tag group of talented artistes whose origins span from Indonesia to China, a diversity that Miyashiro says unites them in their collective vision.

"Even though our artistes are of different ages or different races, one thing that’s shared among them is the understanding of what 88rising truly represents in terms of representing Asian people and making strides to put Asian faces at the forefront in a meaningful way.

"That is something that we believe in. It’s not just lip service and it’s something all of our artistes understand.

"That’s created a bond among us because we know that collectively, that’s the energy that makes up 88rising and that’s something that all of us continue to understand more and more as we move forward.”

Social media has played an integral role in 88rising's success in the West, resulting in major buzz around this year’s Head In The Clouds Music and Art Festival in Los Angeles which welcomed an audience of 25,000, more than triple the attendance of 7,000 last year.

The festival was created by 88rising as a way to celebrate genres that were previously dismissed as novelty fads, particularly Asian hip-hop, and prove that its artistes remain committed as ever to their creative visions.

"The popularity of hip-hop has been fuelled by many things over time, but the biggest element has been the music platforms and social media through which it is shared,” said Miyashiro.

"It would be difficult for people not to come across hip-hop and fall in love with some artistes and be inspired by them. When you become a fan of something, you’d want to delve into it too.

"Now you have people all across Asia writing lyrics, making beats, and rapping, which is a really cool thing.

"They’ve fallen in love with the art form and the message it’s trying to bring across.”