On his latest podcast Fun With Dumb, Korean American host and super OG battle rapper Dumbfounded titled the episode ‘Why The Clickbait Asian Rapper Trend Needs To Stop.’ In the quote making the rounds, he said, “Every Asian rapper I see seems to have some sort of Asian prop nowadays. You’ve got one holding a samurai sword, another one holding a straw hat, another holding a bowl of noodles – every stereotype we’ve heard in the past. It’s one step forward, two steps back.”

Dumbfounded could have been talking about Khantrast, a Brooklyn Drill rapper making waves with his release ‘Landed in Brooklyn.’ In the video, he wears a straw hat and has a plate with chicken wings he’s eating with chopsticks.

In a One Take performance of ‘Landed in Brooklyn,’ he does it in a Chinese restaurant with a lazy susan filled with Asian delicacies.

And in his latest, ‘Where the Hoes?’, Khantrast brings back the straw hat and even has a goat in the video for some reason.

Dumbfounded has been literally battling these worn-out Asian troupes for more than two decades. But for new rappers, the best way to blow up on TikTok and Shorts is to show the wildest sh*t possible in the smallest amount of time. While this may be turning Asian rappers into caricatures, it’s also blowing up a lot more Asian rappers. Truth be told, Khantrast is a pretty dope rapper who probably doesn’t need all the gimmicks to get his shine.