Honored in 2010 by Governor David A. Paterson and the State of New York for his “legacy of leadership to the Asian American community and the Empire State," Taiyo Na is a singer, songwriter, MC, actor and educator. His critically acclaimed debut album Love is Growth (Issilah Productions, 2008) features the song “Lovely To Me (Immigrant Mother),” whose music video was heralded by MTV Iggy as “the realest thing seen in a while.” In 2010 & 2011, he released the albums Home:Word & Home:Word [Deluxe Edition] with hip-hop duo Magnetic North. The title track off those albums was released as a single in Japan in 2011 and hit #2 on their iTunes Hip-Hop charts while the latter album reached #3. The albums also included the music videos “Summertime,” “I Got My," "Fukushima," "New Love" and “Home:Word," which was directed by Wong Fu Productions. As actor, he was last seen as "Min" in Dennis Kim's play Tree City Legends directed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph at San Francisco's Intersection for the Arts and the National Performance Network in Philadelphia (2012).