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Dan Matthews is a rapper he was adopted from Korea when he was 8 months old. And he grew
up in Southern California as an American kid. But he was curious about his birth parents
so after many years of being on fence about finding them he wrote a letter to his adoption
agency. He just never thought he'd get this response. Dear Dan Matthews, I'm writing to
share the information of your birth family. As you may be aware your birth parents were
married and still married. They have one son and a daughter. You may also find that your
brother Ji Soo is actually your twin brother. WHAT! Dan started a Kickstarter campaign to
make a film about journeying back to Korea to meet them. Dan joins us now. Welcome. What
an incredible story and you have a twin brother and as you said when you learned that for
the first time. WHAT! So, what was going through your mind when you found that out. Oh my gosh.
All I could do was shake. You never really expect this to happen. You think that it might
be fun when you're little. But when it actually happens to you it's just something that very
shocking. It took you many years before you were ready to inquire about your birth family.
I suspect that's kind of common the stove might be really hot why reach out and touch
it. But in your case why did it take so long. I was going back for this conference a big
Korean adoption gathering in Seoul. And I figured as long as I was going back to Korea
this might be my only chance to be able to do a real birth search. And you've been to
Korea once before this wasn't the first time right. I'd gone about 8 years ago when I was
20 but at that time I just wasn't really prepared for it emotionally or at that point in my
life so this was about the time to do it. So you're American, I mean your parents are
not Asian, did you talk about your Korean heritage with your adoptive parents as a kid?
I did yeah my parents were very very supportive, they always instilled me with Korean history
when I was younger. We did this thing called Korean Christmas where my parents bought me
Korean traditional items the day before actual Christmas. It was always something they put
out there for me. So, you just came back from Korea. I mean just a few days ago. And you
met your birth family for the first time. Describe that first meeting. It's something
like out of a movie. I remember being at the agency and I open up the door to this small,
it looked like a hospital room and the moment that I walked in my birth mother just jumped
and grabbed me and started crying for about twenty minutes. Everybody else in the room
kind of just stood there stoically. And I just kind of looked around so it was very
very shocking, surreal moment. Just to look at people for the first time, that looked
like you. That you know that they are where you come from. So that's a very remarkable
thing to think about. And what about your twin brother, what was that like looking at
him? I couldn't stop looking at him. We did do a DNA test and we found out that we are
identical twins from the same egg but physically he's a little bit bigger than me. And because
he grew up in Korea I think he just looks a little bit different than I do. But honestly
there's so many similarities. He eats the same way that I eat. The way that he blinks,
the way that he talks, even though we grew up in completely different places there's
just so many similarities. Did you get to a point where you actually asked them your
birth family why they gave you up for adoption? I kind of was beating around the bush a little
bit. The answer that I believe is true is that I was put up for adoption because I was
very, very sick. I don't think that they believed that I was going to make it. And at the time
my family was in a lot of financial hardship. And so I believe that they couldn't afford
my medical bills. It was the right choice to maybe put me up for adoption at that point.
I didn't ever ask directly. There was never really a good time to do that. But it is something
that's on my mind. Now your brother your twin brother. He's a rapper as well that's wild
that you both ended up with that interest and performing. That was some of the most
amazing news that I received. He actually started rapping at the same time that I started
rapping and the thing that I found to be one of the most touching moments was when he told
me that he's really happy that I was able to pursue something that he couldn't pursue
because living in Korea he just went directly into studying. And he couldn't pursue rapping
as a profession. Did you share your music with each other? Do you like the same artists?
You have the same influences? We do actually. The first artist that both inspired us when
we were both in high school was Eminem actually. Which was very remarkable that he said the
same thing that I grew up listening to. So Dan as you said your in Korea to perform at
this annual international Korean Adoptee Association conference. I got to say that it's kind of
amazing that there is a conference for Korean adoptees. How many people were there and where
do they come from? There were about 400 people that were there as adoptees and then another
100 people that were family members. And from all over the world. A surprisingly large amount
of people from Denmark, Sweden, Canada just all over the world. The big thing in being
there around so many adoptees and being able to do my birth search at the time. Because
a number of other adoptees have gone through the birth search before too. And so to be
able to talk to them while I was going through something similar. Was just a really remarkable
thing to have as a support system for myself. Dan Matthews Korea American rap artist. He
goes by akaDAN. He's currently making a documentary about meeting his birth family in Korea. Dan,
great to speak with you. Thanks for joining us. Thank you so much.