Today we’d like to introduce you to Asol.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am a Hip Hop Artist/Entrepreneur. I grew up in East LA and like most kids on this side, I was out at very early age. I must have been 11 years old when I went to my first house party in Boyle Heights. I actually got laughed at. This little short kid or must I say a child entering a world of bad things waiting to happen. Indeed it did. I started drinking alcohol smoking weed, doing and selling noz even throwing my own house parties by the time I was 14. I was fortunate enough not to get arrested during the party raids and even getting curfew bids. Around that same time, I got into making music. As I got more serious with music, I got away from being out in the streets on weekends to being at rap shows. My first show was at a phora show in DTLA. I was 15 years old. At that time, phora had about 50 people at a show. The following year I got to work with his touring management and joined the request your city tour 2012/2013. Now at the time, the tour had about 300-500 people a show. I started releasing music videos and started getting what modern generation calls “clout” getting fame. Eventually, I got the idea just like house parties to throw my own rap shows. I got together with another artist Mike Theory to throw our own tour. The Family Vacation tour. I was 17 years old headlining my first show in San Fernando Valley. We ended up pulling close to 200 people that night. As an underage kid, I felt on top of the world. But when you’re living too fast especially since a very early age of 11… Things do happen.
Just a month after my 18 birthday, I end up in the hospital with a collapsed lung. Chest tubes in my ribs. I had developed air bubbles and thinned out my right lung. The doctors weren’t able to trace what had caused that to happen. I ended up going into surgery where I was almost falling into cardiac arrest post lung surgery. My rap career was over or it definitely felt like it at that time. Recovery took nearly two years to start feeling what seem to be normal. Not knowing what my future held, I ended up becoming a father at the age of 19. As time went, I started getting back into the studio but it just was never the same. I would air out halfway down my first verse. As rap no longer seemed like an option, I started trying to begin any sort of business to make some money. Where the entrepreneur side really came out. I tried opening a taco stand in East LA. Where I quickly got shut down since a neighbor called the cops. With hope lost, I got a warehouse job. Two years of my life getting paid minimum wage where I went from making hundreds even thousands on rap shows and merch. My life had changed from the night to day. I was no longer Asol the hip hop artist from East LA but just a civilian now. Definitely a humbling time in my life. Now after years of recovering things slowly started to change. Now an LLC owner of my own company with my still girlfriend the mother of my child. We have turned an idea to a full-time job. PICA MUNCHIES LLC. Going viral on TikTok, we have managed to create something that can one day be generational wealth to our grandchildren.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Having to go through two procedures of chest tubes and one lung surgery at the age of 18. Recovery was 2+ years.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a hip hop artist/entrepreneur. I make music business owner of my own LLC movie actor, cartoon voice over and many other creatives. I am most known for being a pioneer in the new wave of Mexican American hip hop artists coming out from the East Side of LA. I am most proud of being sponsored by SHAKA WEAR a clothing brand of white and black t-shirts I have been wearing since a teen. So that hits home. I’d never imagined growing up the shirts I wear on a daily would pay me and come to East LA to have me model out their clothing. What sets me apart is, even through lung surgery and being out in the streets as a child at the age of 11, I beat the statistics of a brown minority growing up in East LA almost losing my life. I turned it all into something positive.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
What I like best about my city is the culture. The Mexican food the low riders the elotero passing in the front of the house when you craving a snack. What I dislike least of the city is the funding we get. As East LA is not an actual city but part of the county of LA.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.picamunchies.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eastlosfinest/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/RwKvoqzqfMw
- Other: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdX2JMN3/
Image Credits:
Only 1 for the Animated cartoon image. credit: “Hella Black Mexican”
