TOKiMONSTA quickly became one of the top producers from the LA beat scene several years ago, rising with peers like Flying Lotus and Nosaj Thing. She’s since become more of an EDM icon, but her musicality remains as great as ever. However, last year we learned the Korean-American producer struggled with a brain disease called Moyamoya. Her experience dealing with the disease has been documented in the Netflix original show explained.
In the season finale of explained, TOKiMONSTA’s journey to recovery is shown through an intimate lens. The episode explores her recovery from her first brain surgery, after which she couldn’t understand normal speech. She eventually recovered, but realized she couldn’t recognize music, instead thinking it sounded like metallic noises. She underwent a second brain surgery, and then relearned how to produce music in just three months. That’s an incredible journey to recovery.
The episode itself is narrated by Carly Rae Jepsen, and includes footage of TOKiMONSTA touring and even performing with Anderson .Paak during her 2016 Coachella set. explained is a documentary series produced by Vox about how humans can create and value music. TOKiMONSTA’s story makes for a great finale, and reminds us even a great musical mind can suffer…but eventually recover.
Check out a clip from the show below:
I'm incredibly grateful to be a part of the season finale of "Explained". It's a truly amazing episode about music and our brains. Big thnx @voxdotcom for including me 💕🧠. Check it out now on @netflix pic.twitter.com/ZsrOHQLtCs
— T᷈O᷈K᷈iM᷈O᷈N᷈S᷈T᷈A᷈ (@TOKiMONSTA) September 19, 2018
