Fresh Kid Ice | |
|---|---|
 Fresh Kid Ice in the early 1980s | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Christopher Wong Won |
| Also known as | The Chinaman |
| Born | May 29, 1964 Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago |
| Died | July 13, 2017 (aged 53) Miami, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1984–2017 |
| Labels |
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Christopher Wong Won (May 29, 1964 – July 13, 2017), better known by his stage name Fresh Kid Ice, was a Trinidadian-American rapper and a Miami bass pioneer. Wong Won was born and spent his early childhood in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, before emigrating to the United States. In his early twenties, Wong Won was in the United States Air Force and he co-founded 2 Live Crew while he was stationed in California. Early 2 Live Crew singles gained so much traction in Florida that they relocated there. By 1986, the group released the single "Throw The 'D'"; it is now considered the blueprint of Miami bass.
Later in 1986, 2 Live Crew released their debut album, The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are. The album established the group's signature style of comical sexually explicit lyrics. After a slew of successful releases the group met with considerable controversy as a U.S. district court ruled the album legally obscene. They were prosecuted, but all later acquitted. After the group's first separation in the early 1990s, different incarnation of 2 Live Crew took place for their subsequent albums, Wong Won is the only one to appear in all of them.
Wong Won was the first prominent Asian and Asian American rapper, releasing his first solo album, The Chinaman, in 1992. In the 2000s, he continued touring and releasing singles with 2 Live Crew. Wong Won's last projects, before his death in 2017, were his autobiography My Rise 2 Fame (2015) and the compilation Breaking Glass Ceilings Volume 1 (2017).