Jonathan Park, known professionally as Dumbfoundead, is an American rapper and actor. He began his career in the 2000s as a battle rapper in Los Angeles and has since become one of the most prominent Asian-American rappers in the United States, known for his witty and socially conscious lyrics.
Early life
Park was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina to South Korean immigrants. He has one younger sister. When he was three years old, Park's family immigrated to the United States by crossing the Mexico-United States border without green cards. His family settled in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Park began rapping when he was 14 years old, inspired in part by the rappers he saw perform weekly at Project Blowed, a local open mic workshop. Park dropped out of John Marshall High School in his sophomore year and moved into a one-bedroom apartment with his sister and a roommate at the age of 16. Before becoming a full-time rapper, he worked as a bail bondsman, among other odd jobs. Park became a U.S. citizen when he was 19 years old.
Career
Park began growing a large web fan base, after video clips of his rap battles were posted to YouTube. In 2015, Park returned to rap battling to participate in Drake and OVO's event King of the Dot Blackout 5, and was complimented by Drake himself, who expressed his excitement at his return. Park competed against Wild 'n Outcast member Conceited, and the battle was the most popular English rap battle of 2015. In August 2015, Park battled fellow battler Dizaster on Day One of KOTD's World Domination 5. His first solo album, DFD, was released on November 1, 2011. His second album, Take the Stares, was released on October 16, 2012. In 2013, Park released his third album Old Boy Jon, and a single by the same, all produced by Duke Westlake. Dumbfoundead has collaborated with other music artists, including Epik High, Traphik, Wax, Jay Park, Kahi, and Anderson Paak. In 2015, he was featured on josh pan's remix of Keith Ape's song It G Ma, alongside popular rappers Waka Flocka Flame, ASAP Ferg, and Father. He has been featured on NBC for his viral video Jam Session 2.0, consisting of 8 different musicians from around the world sharing the spotlight individually via split screen but collaborating on one cohesive track. He has also been on Los Angeles Times, Last Call with Carson Daly, MTV Hive, and Mnet. Park played a supporting role in Joseph Kahn's horror film Detention and would later appear in Kahn's 2017 film Bodied as battle-rapper Prospek. In 2016, he released the music video "Safe," which gained widespread attention for superimposing Park's likeness onto the faces of white actors in famous movie scenes. The objective of this was to call attention to the fact that there were no Asian or Asian-American actors at the Oscars, and that "the only yellow men were all statues." Furthermore, the music video was another call to "the obvious underrepresentation of people of color in Hollywood." Park was also a starring member of the 2016 documentary Bad Rap, which outlined the lives of four Asian-American artists trying to make it in the hip-hop scene. He also played Dylan Shin in the Starz drama Power. In April 2020, Peacock began development on a half hour comedy television series based on Park's life entitled Big Dummie.
