1: Kai is a progressive rock/experimental band from Japan. 2: Kai is a up and coming UK - london based - RnB singer and producer. totaling over 750,000 plays on myspace. it wont be long until he breaks out. 3: Kai is a Asian-American R&B/POP singing group from the San Francisco Bay Area started in 1992 and is currently on hiatus. 4: Kai was a DJ on the Manchester, UK underground club scene in the mid & late 1990’s, specialising in Mellow Hop, Hip Hop, Break Beat and Chill Out tunes. He was also a major promoter and organiser of club events around the North West at that time. 5: Kai is an up and coming, Belgium based, drum & bass DJ & producer. The group was formed when AC Lorenzo invited Andrew “Dru” Gapuz and Leo Chan (the group’s sole Chinese American member) to perform at a San Francisco benefit concert. Following, they began working as a trio and in 1995, added Errol Viray and Lorenzo’s cousin Andrey “Drey” Silva. Originally named APEX, the group changed its name to Kai, an abbrevated version of the Tagalog word “kaibigan,” which means “friendship.” They were signed to HB Records, a local studio and began working on an album. Their debut single, “Say You’ll Stay” was released shortly after and received strong radio play. This helped them get signed by Geffen in 1997. In 1998, they released their self-titled debut album on Geffen, making them the second Filipino American recording artist to release an album on a major record label (Jocelyn Enriquez was the first, releasing Jocelyn on Tommy Boy Records in 1997.). Their only charting single was the previously mentioned “Say You’ll Stay” which reached #59 on the Billboard Hot 100. In that same year, they were also featured in an issue of Vibe Magazine alongside rap group The Mountain Brothers in an article promoting up-and-coming Asian American talent in the music industry. In 2000, Andrew Gapuz left the group and was replaced by Johnny Misa, amidst a controversy that Misa was already slated to fill a vacated spot in the Los Angeles based a cappella group Ja’a. With Misa in the lineup, Kai released their second album, The Promise under C3D Records with with singles “Every Little Thing” and “It Might Be You.” They toured for the album with the backup band Deviation. In a similar fashion to other Filipino American recording artists, both of Kai’s albums were recorded in English and also featured many covers of songs which were prominent in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Also in similar fashion to their peers, they were known to sing Tagalog covers at their live performances, as well as other popular English covers that were more recent. Throughout their career, Kai also released exclusive songs not featured on their albums on various compilation albums. In 1998, “Last to Know” was featured on Serenade Volume 1, a compilation released by Filipino American record label Classified Records. Kai also contributed to two compliations released by popular social networking website AsianAvenue.com. A version of “The Promise,” which would later be modified before it became the title track of their second album, was released on AsianAvenue.com Plugged In Volume 1 in 1999 and a cover of Shai’s “Come With Me” featuring Deviation was released on AsianAvenue.com Plugged In Volume 3 in 2001. In 2001, Kai officially retired as a group. With the group’s lack of a consistent webpage throughout their career and popular sites such as MySpace or Wikipedia which are typically used by recording artists and their fans to convey information to a wider audience not developed yet, the circumstances surrounding their retirement remain a mystery. |
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