Oxnard, California: Anderson .Paak is an American rapper, singer, and record producer of mixed African American and Korean ethnic background.
His mixed heritage has influenced his musical style, which blends various genres, including hip-hop, R&B, and soul.
Highlights
- Anderson .Paak is the son of Brenda Paak Bills and Ronald Anderson, born in Oxnard, California, on February 8, 1986.
- His mixed African American and Korean heritage has influenced his musical style and activates the past in the present to secure a future for Black music.
- His father served 14 years in prison, and his mother served seven and a half years of a 14-year sentence.
Anderson attended Foothill Technology High School and began producing music from his bedroom as a teenager. He started his performance career as a drummer at his family’s church.
Before becoming a renowned musician, he was fired from his job at a Santa Barbara marijuana farm in 2011, leaving him homeless with his wife and young boy.
He used the stage name Breezy Lovejoy and earned acceptance in the Los Angeles music scene in 2011. He was an assistant, videographer, editor, writer, and producer for Shafiq Husayn of Sa-Ra and Los Angeles–based rapper Dumbfoundead.
After releasing his debut mixtape, O.B.E. Vol. 1, on June 30, 2012, he changed his stage name to Anderson .Paak. According to him, the dot represents “detail”—the necessity of paying attention to details.
He released his first album, Venice, in 2014, followed by his second album, Malibu. Likewise, his third album, Oxnard, was released in 2018 and won two Grammy Awards for Best R&B Album, with his fourth album, Ventura, in 2020.
Anderson .Paak’s Ethnicity Is African-American And Korean Heritage
Brandon Paak Anderson, the son of Brenda Paak Bills and Ronald Anderson, was born in Oxnard, California, on February 8, 1986.
His parents raised him alongside his three sisters in Oxnard, a small city 100km from Los Angeles.
His family background is marked by resilience. Despite the hardship, he has become a celebrated artist.
Brenda Paak was born in South Korea to an African American man who was presumed to have been a soldier during the Korean War.
An African American family in Compton adopted her when she was abandoned in a Korean orphanage.
She was a strong woman with a business sense. She took over a small strawberry stall in Oxnard and built it into a modest organic strawberry business that supplies grocery shops and restaurant chains.
Brenda remarried and moved from a one-bedroom apartment to a five-bedroom mansion when Anderson was in high school.
Anderson had everything he wanted growing up but only wanted a good musical item: drums, a PC, and turntables. His parents supported his passion and helped with the items.
On the other hand, Ronald Anderson was an Air Force man who was discharged for drugs and ended up severely addicted to drugs and alcohol with traumatic consequences. He had an identical twin from Philadelphia.
Anderson is a silly person who likes to have fun and joke around, just like his father. But his father was from one of the most challenging places, and he hadn’t seen him smiling.
His parents met when his father relocated from Philadelphia to Southern California after joining the Navy. They met at a nightclub in 1982 and married in 1985.
Nonetheless, Anderson is rooted in tradition and activates the past in the present to secure a future for Black music.
There’s no way we could make this funk and bring it into the new age without [our audience] knowing that this is where it starts. Soul music was medicine for a wounded people emerging from the 1960s. For our parents and our grandparents, at least some measure of freedom could be found on the dance floor, at the rent parties and discos that gave way to the block parties and basement jams of hip-hop.
Anderson .Paak
Anderson .Paak’s Parents Were Arrested When He Was Young
Anderson .Paak’s father, Ronald, went to prison for assault and battery of Brenda Paak. The American rapper witnessed him beating his mother within an inch of her life.
The Paak siblings called the police officers, and they arrested their father. Moreover, he was found guilty of firearms offenses and went to prison for 14 years.
After the incident, Anderson talked a little bit to his father but never saw him. He was only seven years old when he experienced the beating. The last time he saw his father was when he was being buried in 2011.
Similarly, his mother, Brenda Paak Bills, was convicted of significant fraud when he started his senior year of high school. She served seven and a half years of a 14-year sentence.
Heavy rainstorms linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon ruined their strawberry crops for two consecutive seasons, and Brenda had to file for bankruptcy.
During this time, she developed a healthy gambling habit, and their family was in Vegas every weekend. The married couple were good and didn’t have to pay for anything in Vegas; everything was in the house.
However, Anderson’s luck changed again, as her mother and stepfather were arrested for not declaring their winnings and illegally moving securities. He was only 17 and knew nothing about the sketchy details.
They were making a bunch of money at the tables and not notifying the government – Mom was actually using it to pay back what she owed from the bankruptcy. But when people found out that she had paid others back but not them, they reported her.
Anderson .Paak
Furthermore, Anderson’s stepfather had an extramarital affair and was having a child with another woman.
Additional Information
- Brandon Paak Anderson married Jae Lin Chang, a music student from South Korea, and they have two children.
- Jae Lin Chang was his second wife, and in January 2024, he filed for divorce after thirteen years of marriage.
- In 2016, he founded the Brandon Anderson Foundation, a nonprofit organization that develops programs that encourage, include, and uplift the community.
- His net worth is estimated at $6 million.
