Hot off the heels of playing for an NBA halftime show in Los Angeles during Lunar New Year and in Brooklyn for the Nets’ halftime show a few weeks ago, Bohan Phoenix is surging. With his debut album set to be released over the summer, he released his first single, ‘New York Made Me.”

The first thing that is noticeable is the funk. This is not just regular funk, though. The bassline and the drums have that dirty New York City from the late-1970s feel to start. Bohan brings it right off the bat by singing a bit with some AutoTune before he starts laying down his verses. His first verse is in Mandarin, then he flips to English for the second verse. In that second verse, he drops the beat to just a bass player flicking those strings and it sounds wildly creative. When the beat jumps back in, it’s a little lighter and airy. In the end, he gets Slodown to sing us out.

The video begins as a normal day in Bohan’s life as he cooks dinner, does some home exercises, writes some rhymes, and then goes to the video shoot. It’s there he’s joined by all the people that have made him fall in love with New York every time he goes anywhere else. As he tries to figure out why he loves New York City so much, he finally realizes it’s his friends that he’s been around.

"The people that I call family, the people that have been there with me through thick and thin. It’s these people that I miss so dearly every time I leave New York, it’s these people who have shaped my experiences and carried me onward,” Bohan said. "This song is a dedication to all of them…a thank you…an I love you so much and that I couldn’t possibly be here without you. New York made me and New York made us."

Check out Bohan Phoenix’s ‘New York Made Me’ below.