Mountain Brothers were a hip hop group from Philadelphia, PA that became the first Chinese-American rap group to sign with a major record label. The group formed in 1994 after all attended Penn State University in State College, PA. There was an electronic music lab at Penn State which they took advantage of by using it as their recording studio. Mountain Brothers’ goal was to get signed to a major label so their music could be known nationwide. Their method was to send their demos to a variety of music labels; somewhat anonymously. Chops stated, “We didn’t want people to prejudge based on us being Asian so we would send a demo and a letter saying, ‘We have a picture, but it doesn’t matter what we look like if you don’t like our music.’ People that knew music, it was their job to like music, so they loved our music and then we sent them our picture; their mind was blown!
The group became the first Chinese-American rap group to sign with a major music label when they signed with Ruffhouse Records in 1996. Ruffhouse released them in 1998 after only releasing a promotional single. The group disbanded in 2003 after the release of the album ‘Triple Crown’.