Kevin SAER Leong

I get mistaken for Kevin “SAER” Leong at least once a month.

We’ve known each other for over 10 years. And being that we’re both Asians who started our careers in ’90s hip hop, him at Phat Farm and me at Blaze/Vibe, we moved in similar circles. He was the more visible one and after his appearance on 20/20, I couldn’t walk down my old neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn without someone asking me if I was “that Asian Phat Farm guy.”

Sometimes we’ll be at the same event and people will just start having a conversation with me and I have no idea who they are. Then I realize they’re continuing a conversation they had with Kevin. That’s when I point and say, “Kevin is over there.” When an unfamiliar face starts talking to me in a familiar fashion, I try hard to remember where we may have met. But then at some point one of the following comes up and that’s when I realize they think I’m Kevin: Phat Farm, his current or ex girlfriends, fashion line.

I try to be nice and explain that it happens all the time. For the most part, people are apologetic. And in case you’re wondering, it’s mostly black people and a few white people who make the mistake, never Asians.

We took these photos over the years because we think it’s funny. For two of them, we are wearing each other’s glasses. I have the photos on my phone to show people that we don’t look alike. We’re just two Asian guys with shaved heads who wear glasses. Plus his fashion sense is much better and louder than mine.

Hopefully this will forever settle that I am not Kevin “SAER” Leong…unless it’s a real cute girl who thinks I am…