Armenia is a small country of fewer than four million people sitting in the south caucus region of Asia and landlocked between Turkey, Azerbadjian, Georgia, and Iran. You should know this because Los Angeles is in fact home to one of the largest Armenian immigrant enclaves in the world. Celebrities Serj Tankian and Kim Kardashian (who both grew up in Los Angeles) have each made a powerful impact on their respective fields of alternative music and reality television, introducing disparate and unique takes on Armenian identity into American pop culture. And now, with lyrical prowess and melodious flow, Los Angeles-born, overtly-Armenian rapper R-Mean is bringing word of his mountainous ancestral republic to one of our biggest cultural expressions of all: hip-hop.
