Tokimonsta


Jennifer Lee, known professionally as Tokimonsta, is an American record producer and DJ from Los Angeles. She has collaborated with Anderson Paak, Isaiah Rashad, Selah Sue, and ZHU. She has also remixed tracks by Beck, Duran Duran, Olafur Arnalds and ODESZA. In 2019, she was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Dance / Electronic Album for the album Lune Rouge.

Early life

Jennifer Lee grew up in Torrance, California. She is of Korean descent. She graduated from University of California, Irvine with a degree in business and later worked for a video game producer.
Lee was classically trained as a pianist. She first started working on electronic music while in college, when she participated in workshops by Leimert Park's Project Blowed and Low End Theory.

Career

Lee was invited to attend the Red Bull Music Academy in London in 2010. She was the first woman to sign to Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label and released her first album, Midnight Menu, in November 2010 on Brainfeeder. She was rated the #1 Hottest Los Angeles Lady DJ by LA Weekly in December 2010. She released the EP Creature Dreams, also on Brainfeeder, in 2011. The next year, she released Boom, an 11-track collaborative project with Suzi Analogue as Analogue Monsta.
In 2013, her second album, Half Shadows, was released on Ultra Records. In 2014, she released Desiderium on her own Young Art Records. She returned to the Red Bull Music Academy that same year as an alumni lecturer. She produced Gavin Turek's You're Invited in 2015 on Young Art Records. On September 9, 2015, she announced on Twitter the release of her solo album Fovere and she will be out on tour in support of her new album starting November 9, 2015.

Name

The name Tokimonsta originates from the Korean word for rabbit, which she took from a Korean's children's song "San Toki"

Personal life

Lee was diagnosed with Moyamoya disease in late 2015. After undergoing two brain surgeries, she briefly lost language and comprehension skills. Once these were regained, Lee eventually began work on her 2017 album Lune Rouge, despite not being able to fully understand music. She has noted that this album was her most personal piece of work due to the difficulties she experienced prior to making it.
She discusses surmounting these challenges in Vox's Netflix series, Explained and the Great Big Story miniseries Soundwave.

Discography

Albums