In honor of AAPI Month, Billboard speaks to varied artists and executives on how the music trade can higher serve their group.
From left: Annie Chen, Joyce Wrice, Sailorr and Monica Kran.
Illustration by Lyanne Natividad
As hip-hop and R&B proceed to evolve right into a melting pot of various nationalities and backgrounds, for AAPI Month, Billboard explores the impression of Asian Individuals and Pacific Islanders.
With high-ranking executives like Mass Enchantment’s Annie Chen and Amazon Music’s Frankie Yaptinchay serving as cornerstones for his or her respective firms whereas representing their AAPI group, this brings immense pleasure to their lives.
“It offers me an immense degree of gratitude seeing increasingly more members of the AAPI group rising into outstanding positions and making an impression throughout the trade,” Yaptinchay says. “Having the chance to characterize our group is an incredible honor that I don’t take as a right. In 2025, I’m impressed to see the following technology of AAPI leaders breaking boundaries to carve new lanes for the AAPI artist and creator communities. I’m enthusiastic about new avenues for collaboration and international progress throughout the trade. It’s inspiring, and we’re solely getting began. We’re all making an attempt to make our mother and father proud!”
AAPI artists are additionally carving out their lanes with their indelible abilities and charisma. Earlier this month, Sailorr launched her debut mission, From Florida’s Most interesting, after the success of her breakout single “Pookie’s Requiem.” Past her uncooked lyrics and radiant charisma, the Vietnamese-American singer honors her roots by symbolic expression — like her black-dyed tooth.
“Method again when, plenty of Southeast Asian girls would dye their tooth black utilizing numerous issues, it is dependent upon the place you come from. My grandma had black tooth,” she instructed Billboard in February. “The very childhood of my life, when my mother and father had been working, I used to be being watched by my grandma. She was my first have a look at what femininity is. It was an homage to her, but additionally, rising up in Florida, everyone has grillz. It’s an ideal intersection of the place I come from after which the place I come from.”
See what different executives and artists stated beneath.
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Monica Krat
Expertise Partnerships at Snapchat
What does it imply to be an govt in 2025 as a member of the AAPI group?
It means so much: I take into consideration the youthful model of myself — who didn’t usually see individuals who seemed like me in positions of affect — and I really feel proud to be a part of a staff the place I may also help individuals change that. Within the first quarter of 2025, Snapchat reached 460 million individuals daily, and it’s vital that our group sees themselves mirrored not simply within the content material, however within the individuals supporting them behind the scenes. Being a part of these high-level conversations with a perspective formed by my id and lived expertise is one thing I take severely. On the finish of the day, I’m a storyteller — and I’m lucky to get to champion and amplify the voices of different storytellers, particularly those that haven’t all the time had a seat on the desk.
How can the music trade higher serve the AAPI group?
I’m a first-generation Khmer American, and like many AAPI artists, I carry the burden of my household’s journey. Our mother and father and grandparents made unimaginable sacrifices so we may have the liberty to create and dream larger than they ever may. Merely present — and creating — in these areas is a testomony to their resilience. When the music trade uplifts AAPI artists, it’s not simply concerning the music. It’s about honoring the layered histories, cultures, and communities that formed us. Our tales are rooted in migration, sacrifice, pleasure and survival. There’s a lot depth and richness in these narratives, and so they should be seen, heard, and celebrated–not simply throughout AAPI Heritage Month, however all the time.
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Annie Chen
VP of Advertising and marketing at Mass Enchantment
What does it imply to be an govt in 2025 as a member of the AAPI group?
For me, being an AAPI govt in 2025 means exhibiting up with intention. It’s about utilizing the seat I’ve earned to not solely contribute strategically, but additionally to characterize and create area for others in our group. It additionally means difficult outdated narratives. We’re not right here to suit a mould, we carry perspective, innovation and international consciousness that the trade wants now greater than ever.
There’s an actual alternative for the trade to proceed to develop and acknowledge the range inside the AAPI tradition. Additionally it’s not concerning the visibility throughout one month, it’s about long run dedication and funding, which means constructing ongoing collaborations with AAPI expertise, creatives, behind the scenes groups and executives.
How can the music trade higher serve the AAPI group?
It’s about increasing the AAPI tales as there are such a lot of completely different layers to the tradition.
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Frankie Yaptinchay
Music Trade & Tradition / Amazon Music
What does it imply to be an govt in 2025 as a member of the AAPI group?
It offers me pleasure. It offers me an immense degree of gratitude seeing increasingly more members of the AAPI group rising into outstanding positions and making an impression throughout the trade. Having the chance to characterize for our group is an incredible honor that I don’t take as a right. In 2025 I’m impressed to see the following technology of AAPI leaders breaking boundaries to carve new lanes for the AAPI artist and creator communities. I’m enthusiastic about new avenues for collaboration and international progress throughout the trade. It’s inspiring and we’re solely getting began.
How can the Music Trade higher serve the AAPI group?
The trade is altering and turning into increasingly more international than ever earlier than. In my view the trade has been extra inclusive and supportive in embracing collaboration, change, and new concepts. I’d love the trade to proceed to look past conventional norms and spend money on underserved genres, creators and communities earlier. I look to the trade to suppose larger. Let’s proceed to construct bridges throughout borders, languages and cultures to carry visibility to AAPI artists throughout the globe. There’s a world of immense expertise that wants this platform this trade can present. This may forge progress for improvement, illustration and financial alternatives for AAPI professionals, artists, and creators throughout industries all over the world.
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Zeena Koda
Vice President, Co-Founder Asian American Collective (AAC) + Advertising and marketing @ Common Music Enterprises
What does it imply to be an govt in 2025 as a member of the AAPI group?
It means being true to my phrase. I take the accountability of this so severely — in case you ask my husband, in all probability too severely! It’s having the ability to characterize and replicate a perspective wanted in rooms we haven’t historically been in. It’s placing on the following technology of creatives + taking the time to mentor and sponsor them. It’s dedicating the time to be the perfect I might be at my profession but additionally to maneuver the group ahead, in each small and monumental methods.
How can the music trade higher serve the AAPI group?
By inclusion. Deliver us into your conversations. Worth our opinions. Don’t blindly misappropriate our tradition, carry us in to do it proper. Acknowledge our abilities as multifaceted and permit us to make an impression and have a voice in areas different than simply Okay-pop. We’re already on the market in each style, you don’t need to look far.
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Austin Thach
CEO/Founder The Forefront Group
What does it imply to be an govt in 2025 as a member of the AAPI group?
It means main with delight, function and the accountability to create area for others. As an AAPI govt, I’m not simply representing my tradition; I’m pushing for visibility, fairness, and possession in rooms the place we’ve traditionally been neglected.
How can the music trade higher serve the AAPI group?
By investing in AAPI expertise at each degree; not simply artists, but additionally executives, creatives and decision-makers. We create significant illustration. It’s about constructing lasting infrastructure that uplifts our voices year-round, not simply throughout cultural moments.
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Sunkis
Artist
What does it imply to be inventive in 2025 as a member of the AAPI group?
To be an American-born Chinese language artist in 2025 means expressing my id by creativity — utilizing artwork to inform my story and replicate a group usually susceptible to erasure. It’s additionally about giving voice to the tales which have been silenced all through historical past. My inventive outlet is how I navigate and talk the complexities of my third-culture id and the continuing seek for stability inside it.
How can the music trade higher serve the AAPI group?
Elevate AAPI voices in A&R, manufacturing, advertising and marketing and label management to make sure selections replicate our communities from inside. Help various genres and narratives — not simply what’s trend-driven or simply marketable. The Asian American diaspora is extremely various, and plenty of tales, particularly from underrepresented teams inside our communities, stay untold. Media and mainstream platforms have the ability to carry these voices ahead.
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Yung Kai
Artist
What does it imply to be inventive in 2025 as a member of the AAPI group?
It means the world to be an affect to my fellow artist. I keep in mind once I was youthful, wanting as much as artists reminiscent of Keshi, Wealthy Brian and The Larger Brothers, now I get messages and feedback from individuals saying they give the impression of being as much as me. It feels surreal, however I’m very grateful.
How can the music trade higher serve the AAPI group?
The quantity of Asian illustration within the music is rising very quick and it actually makes me very completely satisfied. I imagine that repeatedly supporting Asian artists whereas additionally normalizing their artistry within the mainstream market is how the music trade can higher serve the group.
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Daju
Artist
What does it imply to be a inventive in 2025 as a member of the AAPI group?
It means every thing to be a inventive within the AAPI group. It’s one thing to be pleased with particularly inside the previous couple years, areas with a platform have been permitting us to voice and amplify our tales. As a Black/Filipino artist rising up in Hawaii, I really feel extra represented and seen.
How can the music trade higher serve the AAPI group?
Proceed to assist and create packages for up and coming artists in AAPI areas whereas rising present ones. Exploring extra outreach in underdeveloped areas with AAPI presence.
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P-Lo
Artist
What does it imply to be inventive in 2025 as a member of the AAPI group?
Being a inventive within the AAPi group means every thing, having the ability to characterize and pave the way in which for the following technology is what retains me impressed.
How can the music trade higher serve the AAPI group?
Simply proceed to pave the way in which and usher within the subsequent technology. Additionally serving to the following technology navigate the music trade.
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Sailorr
Artist
What does it imply to be inventive in 2025 as a member of the AAPI group?
Being a inventive in 2025 as a member of the AAPI group is fairly cool as a result of rising up I really feel like I didn’t get to see plenty of illustration in plenty of TV, media or music. Now that I get to principally set the precedent for the way I specific myself, it’s fairly cool to see. So I’m glad that individuals have given me an area and a platform to have the ability to specific myself authentically.
How can the music trade higher serve the AAPI group?
I really feel just like the music trade serves the AAPI group in a very cool method by giving us that lane to simply present up.
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Joyce Wrice
Artist
What does it imply to be inventive in 2025 as a member of the AAPI group?
Being a inventive in 2025 as a part of the AAPI group means proudly owning your story and your voice greater than ever and difficult the narratives which have boxed us in.
How can the music trade higher serve the AAPI group?
The music trade can higher serve the AAPI group by creating extra of a tradition of real inclusion. I’d like to see the trade transfer past tokenism and supply extra platforms all yr round. I imagine it’s additionally essential for extra AAPI voices to be employed behind the scenes. Illustration isn’t solely about who’s on stage but additionally who’s within the room when selections are being made.
