Witness' Biography

Taiwanese hip hop artist, Witness (AKA Jeremy Huang), was born in Boston, Massachusetts, but spent most of his life growing up in Houston, Texas. His interest in music began at the tender age of 6, when he would listen to his older sister's vinyl records. This was often done in secret as he was afraid of being caught and experiencing his sister's wrath. Asked what he listened to back then, he responds: "Everything from Run DMC, Prince, Morris Day to Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, etc. Basically, whatever was around or what I could get my hands on."

In addition, at the time, his household was one of the few to have MTV thus, exposing him to the performance aspect of music early on. Although he was learning piano at the time, he was more interested in the music coming from his sister's vinyls and from his neighbor's boombox. "My next door neighbor was a break dancer and he and his friends would lay out a huge, flat piece of cardboard on his driveway and practice all afternoon," he says. "I would just sit and watch them from my window, more interested in the music they were playing than their dance moves." This was his earliest exposure to hip hop, and his fascination and interest in the culture only continued to grow.

By the time he was 13, he purchased his first mixer and established his own mobile DJ company. It was during the next few "growing years" that he honed his skills on the decks while providing entertainment at local parties and school dances. He continued to DJ throughout his educational career and eventually established residencies at popular clubs in the Houston and Austin areas, while attending the University of Texas.

After he graduated from college, Witness decided to further pursue his music career by going to Asia. Although he considers himself American, he has always been proud of his Taiwanese heritage and often visited the country in which his parents grew up. It was during one of these trips that he noticed that there was no local hip hop scene in Taiwan. The only hip hop available was either from America, Europe, Japan, or Korea.

Given his background in DJing and a love for writing rhymes and poetry that began when he was in middle school, he decided to explore the possibilities of releasing a Mandarin/English hip hop album in Taiwan. So he first moved to Los Angeles, where other Asian-Americans had already come back from being artists in Asia. One of these artists was John Lee, former member of Solid, one of the most popular Korean R&B/hip hop/pop groups of all time. Lee had since moved on to producing and after being introduced to Witness by a mutual friend, agreed to put together his first demo.

For the next 3 1/2 years, Witness traveled back and forth between LA and Taiwan, while working on music with Lee. Realizing that if he was ever going to accomplish his goal of getting signed to a label and getting his music heard around Taiwan and the rest of Asia, he needed to stay in Taiwan more long-term. So in 2001, Witness moved to Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan.

In 2002, his bold move seemed to pay off as he was signed to a major Asian label, Rock Records. He then subsequently released his first single, "Life Goes On," composed and arranged by Lee. The lyrics were written by Witness and spoke of a true story in which he had lost someone close to him. "Life Goes On" went on to win the award of being one of the 10 Best Singles of 2002, with much of the public eagerly awaiting his first full-length release. However, after releasing a second single, "Don't Cry" in 2003, Witness became exposed to the seamier side of the music industry. Between the years 2003 to 2005, he had to overcome several obstacles in both business and personal relationships. However, throughout this time, he continued to write and never gave up hope in seeing his album go into full scale production.

Once again, his resilience paid off as Rock Records allowed him to executive produce his album in 2004. By this time, several local hip hop acts had released their own albums, as hip hop culture had grown exponentially in a short amount of time. However, this did not dissuade Witness from his own music. "A lot of the hip hop that the local artists were doing was either really battle-oriented or dance-oriented," he says. "I knew I was doing something different in that I basically just wrote about what I had experienced in life. Basically, everything I wrote was either a true story or based on my opinions or beliefs. For me as a writer, that's the only way I know how to write... In a way that's true to me and hopefully, to others as well."

For his debut, he once again teamed with Lee for half the album, and for the other half, he teamed with one of Taiwan's best known hip hop producers, Johnny Wu. Between 2004 and 2005, Witness once again found himself traveling back and forth between America and Taiwan. Also once again, he was faced with several frustrating obstacles and snags during the production process. However, the album was finally completed, and was released on October 18, 2005. "It's been a tough four years," he says. "The most permanent thing that has been with me all this time has been my suitcase," he jokes. When asked if the completion and planned release of his album has made all the hardships worth it, Witness responds, "You know, I can definitely say that I've learned a lot about myself through this whole process, and a lot of the lessons were pretty painful. But as far as it being worth it? Well, since the release of 'Life Goes On', to this day, complete strangers will come up to me and tell me how the song has changed their lives in some way. But what really stands out is this one stranger who came up to me and told me how he had been contemplating suicide, but after hearing 'Life', decided not to go through with it. Now, that in and of itself, is what makes it all worth it."