TOKiMONSTA

Jennifer Lee (born January 26, 1988), known professionally as Tokimonsta (stylized as TOKiMONSTA), is an American record producer and DJ from Los Angeles. She has collaborated with Anderson Paak, Isaiah Rashad, Selah Sue, and ZHU. She has also remixed tracks by Beck, Duran Duran, Olafur Arnalds and ODESZA. In 2019, she was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Dance / Electronic Album for the album Lune Rouge.

Jennifer Lee grew up in Torrance, California. She is of Korean descent. She graduated from University of California, Irvine with a degree in business and later worked for a video game producer.

Lee was classically trained as a pianist. She first started working on electronic music while in college, when she participated in workshops by Leimert Park's Project Blowed and Low End Theory.

Lee was invited to attend the Red Bull Music Academy in London in 2010. She was the first woman to sign to Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label and released her first album, Midnight Menu, in November 2010 on Brainfeeder. She was rated the #1 Hottest Los Angeles Lady DJ by LA Weekly in December 2010. She released the EP Creature Dreams, also on Brainfeeder, in 2011. The next year, she released Boom, an 11-track collaborative project with Suzi Analogue as Analogue Monsta.

In 2013, her second album, Half Shadows, was released on Ultra Records. In 2014, she released Desiderium on her own Young Art Records. She returned to the Red Bull Music Academy that same year as an alumni lecturer. She produced Gavin Turek's You're Invited in 2015 on Young Art Records. On September 9, 2015, she announced on Twitter the release of her solo album Fovere and she will be out on tour in support of her new album starting November 9, 2015.

Name

The name Tokimonsta originates from the Korean word for rabbit (tokki), which she took from a Korean's children's song "San Toki"

Lee was diagnosed with Moyamoya disease in late 2015. After undergoing two brain surgeries, she briefly lost language and comprehension skills. Once these were regained, Lee eventually began work on her latest album Lune Rouge, despite not being able to fully understand music. She has noted that this album was her most personal piece of work due to the difficulties she experienced prior to making it.

She discusses surmounting these challenges in Vox's Netflix series, Explained (season 1, episode 20).

Albums

• Midnight Menu (2010)
• Half Shadows (2013)
• Desiderium (2014)
• Fovere (2016)
• Lune Rouge (2017)
• Oasis Nocturno (2020)

Extended plays

• Bedtime Lullabies (2008)
• Cosmic Intoxication (2010)
• Creature Dreams (2011)
• Los Angeles 8/10 (2011)
• Boom (2012)
• You're Invited (2015)

Singles

• "USD / Free Dem" (2010)
• "Mileena's Theme" (2011)
• "Darkest (Dim)" (2012)
• "Go With It" (2013)
• "The Force" (2013)
• "The World Is Ours" (2014)
• "Realla" (2014)
• "Steal My Attention" (2014)
• "Drive" (2014)
• "Pinching" (2014)
• "Saw Sydney (Pharrell 'That Girl' Flip)" (2015)
• "Hemisphere" (2015)
• "Surrender" (2015)
• "Put It Down" (2015)
• "Don't Call Me" (2017)
• "We Love" (2017)
• "I Wish I Could" (2018)
• "Strange Foot" (2019)
• "Dream Chorus" (2019)
• "Love That Never" (2019)
• "Fried For the Night" (2020)

Remixes

• Shlohmo - "Hot Boxing the Cockpit" (2010)
• Suzi Analogue - "NXT MSG" (2010)
• Eight and a Half - "Scissors" (2011)
• Take - "Horizontal Figuration" (2011)
• Andreya Triana - "Far Closer" (2011)
• Swede:Art - "I'm a R.O.B.O.T." (2011)
• Daedelus - "Tailor-Made" (2011)
• Kidkanevil - "Megajoy" (2011)
• Hundred Waters - "Thistle" (2012)
• Jodeci - "Freek'n You" (2012)
• Stan Getz & João Gilberto - "Corcovado" (2013)
• Felix Cartal - "New Scene" (2013)
• Justin Timberlake - "Suit & Tie" (2013)
• Tinashe - "2 On" (2014)
• Elizabeth Rose - "Sensibility" (2014)
• Kilo Kish - "IOU" (2014)
• Jessie Ware - "Keep On Lying" (2014)
• Mariah Carey - "Heartbreaker" (2014)
• Lupe Fiasco - "Superstar" (2014)
• Yacht - "Where Does This Disco?" (2015)
• The Drums - "There's Nothing Left" (2015)
• Gavin Turek - "Frontline" (2015)
• Lil Uzi Vert - "Team Rocket" (2016)
• Beck - "Wow" (2016)
• Maroon 5 - "Girls Like You" (2018)
• George FitzGerald and Lil Silva - "Rollback" (2018)
• Odesza - "Falls" (2018)
• Olafur Arnalds - "they sink" (2019)