Chinese-American artist Khantrast has been making a lot of noise the past few years, and he’s definitely been on LiFTED’s radar ever since he dropped ‘Landed in Brooklyn’ in 2024. Around that time, he started to adopt a harder sound, based on New York Drill and darker Trap beats. Prior to that Khantrast had made a name for himself as an Anime rapper, dropping tracks regularly since his first popped up on Soundcloud in 2017. Songs like ‘ADD’ and ‘Lovesick’ have serious titles, but his rhyming style is ironic, and often leans toward the humorous. It’s a disarming combination, and he gets away with lots of non-PC terms and themes as a result. ‘ADD’ is a great example that talks about still being down to get with girls even if they’re ‘neurodivergent.’ What saves him in the bit is that he admits he’s slightly off-kilter, too.

Two months ago, Khan released ‘She Bugging’ with Mr. Flintstone. The video is pure comedy, and it has promo reels with New York street dancers that have gone viral. Even some big K-pop names [like Jay Park’s group LNGSHOT] are already making their own TikTok reels of the steps. He dropped his first album, Chinatown’s Favorite, in 2025, and his new album, Poster Child, is due out on August 21, so we figured it’s the perfect time to get him on the cover and chop it up with Khantrast.

I'm chilling. I'm just tired at the moment.

Just been shooting content. Like I ain't going to lie. I've been shooting content for like three, four months right now back to back for the album. No breaks at all.

I kind of grew up all over New York, we moved around a lot. I grew up in Chinatown, I grew up in Bay Ridge, and I grew up in Sheepshead Bay. Technically I was born in Manhattan, but I spent most of my time in Brooklyn.

I was probably like 11 or 12 years old when I really started rapping. But in the beginning, I was just rapping over songs that I really liked. And then a lot of people were like, "Oh, no. You kind of got the voice for it.” But technically, if we're talking about when I started writing, I probably started writing when I was like nine or 10 years old because it started out with poetry. I just really like writing. I kind of got into spoken word and then I was always into Hip Hop. So I was just kind of faking it. You know, I was into spoken word, I was into Hip Hop. Eventually, I just started to put the two two together, started rapping over beats. And I kind of just fell into it because most of my friends were into it, too. When you're in New York City, most of the people do Hip Hop so you kind of fall into it regardless.

In terms of early influences,, a lot of early Eminem stuff, like the Infinite era, even before Slim Shady. It was Em and other OGs like Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J…then, around 2012 or 2013 it started to be a mix of new school rappers like Odd Future, Joey Badass, and Capital Steez. The progression was very rapid.

I think I'm just a regular kid from Brooklyn. I ain't gonna lie. Because my story growing up it's like I don't even think it’s that special because it's a very common story that I hear when I meet other Asian kids out in New York especially Chinese Fujianese kids. A lot of Fujianese kids have lived the life I lived. Their parents worked in a restaurant or a laundromat and they were kind of forced to do basically child labor without getting paid because, you know, you're helping your family out. And their parents expected them to excel academically and then if you don't achieve it, they call you stupid. So yeah, I don't know. I think it’s definitely an Asian New York experience.

Yeah. And I was into it and also I ain't gonna lie I was broke and my parents were threatening to kick me out the house. I had to figure out something and I figured I was really into Anime at the time and then my friend was like, “Yo, bro. Just rap about it.” There was this beat on YouTube called ‘Naruto Bluebird-Type Beat,’ and I had known about it for a long time and then one day I just did it, and then from there I just kind of just took off.

I had been kind of following Drill for a long time you know, at first it was Chicago Drill, and then New York kind of slowly adapted to it alongside the UK. But I was into Chicago Drill first, you know, guys like D Herbo. And then UK Grime is out. So then when New York started adapting that sound, I caught like the early waves of it.

Even when I was doing my Anime shit I was always following it, I just didn't fully adapt to it because I had like a nice rhythm going on with the Anime stuff. Then the Bronx Drill came in hard. I was following this white kid with a ski mask, Master the Demon from The Bronx. It's just like aggression, bro. And everybody from New York got Rage. Just intense Rage deep down in us. So I think when we live in this room, it just unlocks a certain part of our brain.

You know, it's funny. I feel like a lot of people took those lyrics literally, like I was a literal immigrant that just landed in Brooklyn. But honestly it’s more a funny retelling of my parents coming to New York. It’s really just me talking about my experience, too. I mean obviously being Asian played a huge factor. I just always thought it was kind of funny because most of my friends were either from the hood or they were hood-adjacent, you know. But I never got into any of that shit. So the song was more of just like my general experience of being an Asian kid and growing up in Brooklyn and dealing with it in a funny way, you feel me?

It's pretty fire. I ain't gonna lie. But I mean, I've just been at music for so long, so a part of me feels like, “Ah!! Finally you feel me!” Like now they are finally catching on. But no, it feels amazing, though. I'm eternally grateful for all of it. There was this black girl that did a dance to ‘She Bugging’ and somebody made a Fortnite dance out of it. I think her rendition and Lord Heck were the best two renditions of the dance though in my personal opinion. But yeah, I'm crazy, bro. I can't even. It's just slightly overwhelming. And I thought like I was prepared because it landed, but this is crazy, it’s next level.

Poster Child is kind of like an ironic name, but I feel like, you know, when people listen to it, they'll probably understand it. I feel like it's very Asian. It's very New York. And I would say it's an album, for lack of a better term, for the rejects. It’s for the kids of immigrants in New York. I feel like that's kind of what they are in a sense. Because it's like in our parents' eyes, we'll never really be enough. So, we're kind of forever rejected regardless.

In terms of the tour, yeah, like I said, listen to the album and you’ll know what to expect. You'd have to just listen to it to really understand. It’s all there. That's kind of what this project is about. You know, it's like it's a little bit of rage. It's a little bit of truth, but it's also just a celebration of the people who aren't supposed to be in my position, right? Like somebody like me isn't supposed to be here, right?