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Finding Soul in the Big City

admin | 28 September, 2006 00:23

Today, I stopped by GigLive (As I do almost every Wednesday night) and checked out a few live bands. The second band's music, "Georgia Sam Blues Band", really spoke to me. Besides the sound of their blues hitting my heart with waves of depth, feeling and bass, I heard their intense lyrics. Their "bluesiest" tune has this great line in it, and it goes a little something like this:

"Why do the rich not rememeber what it's like to be free?"

Money, power and freedom. Sounds very American to me, but then in Shanghai, the former two are the most pertinent to this city.

I spoke with my boy Nathan from Gibson a(props to you for checking out my site and finding it on Google!) nd we discussed hip-hop and how its changed (in) China over the last few years. He said its developing, but it's the grafftti that's made the most change, because its so visual. Good for that form of hip-hop, but as for the music, it's still monopolized by super young, wannabe cool people that have no idea what hip-hop is and what its gone through to get where its at. There's a lot of money to be made from it all... but where's the progressiveness of the art form? It's truly lacking.

So this bring me back to money, power and freedom. PR for hip-hop out here is amazing, but there are few deep forms or music that is well represented for its capacity to contain a sense of freedom, and not fall into the trap this cookie cutter fluff. To me, that stuff is pop, and when it comes to cookie cutter fluff, China's got it everywhere.

Let me know what you think.


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Interview with Syncity

admin | 19 September, 2006 12:13

It's been a long time. I've been try to chat it up with hot DJ's that would never in my life give me the time of day. =)

Yeah, we are deciding on whether we are getting married in Times Square or on The Bund...

Anyway... I caught up with DJ Syncity for an interview with Shanghaiist.com talking about China, Hip-Hop and life. Check it out...



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Wow, I Need to Get Out West!

admin | 08 September, 2006 23:32


create your own China map

East is where are the more trendy costal cities are, but its more traditional in the West. Many development centers and places like that are spreading out over there. Apparently the fiurthest out west I've been to is Yunnan. It's got natural scenery, beautiful land and it's the home of my boy DJ DSK.

They say that China money is made in places like Shanghai, but the future, like the San Fransisco Gold Rush of '49, lies in the west.


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DJ DSK @ GoKunming.com

admin | 04 September, 2006 23:26

Check out the interview with my boy DJ DSK @ GoKunming.com. He'll be rocking the next Back to the Roots Block Party on September 23rd at Blue Ice Club. Peace!


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Guiyang: L-J's stomping ground.

admin | 04 September, 2006 20:36

My boy L-J (see first paragraph) hooked me up with this one...

Check out more pics from this trip to Guiyang with The Lab Crew, Dragon Dance Crew and Yin T'sang.

'Nuff love to the doc crew for filming all the real deal local hip-hopperz!

LJ, enjoy London!!


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BACK TO THE ROOTS V.3!!!!

admin | 04 September, 2006 00:49

This is the third installment of The Lab's Back to the Roots block party. After this show, I'm taking a break from all this performing stuff to record the Redstar album, write news and spread the word over the "airwaves" on hip-hop in China...

Tell everyone, even your sister (especially your sister), about this show. It will be big and my UK brother from another mother DJ DSK will hit up the ones and twos. Don't sleep!


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Qbert Post Event Wrap-up

admin | 03 September, 2006 15:27

QBert - "A deadly DJ, who speaks with his hands"

Last night, Bonbon was jam packed, wall-to-wall with people all waiting to see what the fuss was all about . Bonbon strategically set up tv projectors throughout the club so for EVERYONE, particularly those behind customers with big heads and tall bodies, could see the master at work.

The evening began with a lot of pop/mainstream hip-hop and Andrew Ballen on stage. It was ok, but it seemed like the DJ just threw on whatever he wanted to throw on with no care for his audience. Maybe he ran out of music to play and just thought "through on anything full of energy, even crap, cause QBert's starting late." Andrew did his crowd-hyping thing, but, as an mc myself, I would like to see the brotha rhyme more, rather than call out the crowd. He did it once, let's hear it again. Show the skillz, man. I'm all about that.

QBert took the stage, and the floor was totally packed. Lights were on, cameras were out and people were feeling it. However... a lot of QBert's set were real old school breaks. The stuff was "too hip-hop" for the crowd. If I didn't spend the latter part of my teenage years doing 6-steps and freezes, I wouldn't know anything QBert played last night. Most folks in Bonbon aren't hard core hip-hoppers or bboys/bgirls, they are out to have fun. They saw the skills of QBert, but I think for a lot of folks there, the music was above their heads. I can't blame them, this is Shanghai. Hip-hop is still under development.

Breakers were invited to get down during the party, but the crowd wasn't there to see that, they were there to see QBert and have a good time. MC's were invited up. Ronin (Guandii's Primetime MC/bachelor), Tangking (Shanghai's Prince and second place Iron Mic Champ) and yours truly blessed the mic for 16 bars each, but I think for a lot of folks, it was hard to grasp. Firstly, with QBert scratching and the rapping from these (talented and original) MC's combined cause a lot of noise all together. Then again, half of the crowd knows who we are, and the rest are like (ok, they should be done with this mc stuff real soon...)

In the end, QBert made some crazy scratches, but with QBert's deep-dish hip-hop style with Bonbon's juggernaut "super-happy-fun" party style, there was some odd chemistry going on. On top of that QBert wasn't up long enough... Strangely enough, I was feeling the flow of the Jazzy Jeff show more because he can hit the general crowd, but QBert is for the real deal, hard-core, underground, true-to-life, eternal hip-hop heads.

Some tips: Don't force bboys to dance unless it is some sort of planned event. If they feelin' it, a circle will happen. Period.The best things in life come naturally.

MC's rapping over scratches and vice versa are a big no-no. Solos are solo's for a reason. MC's are meant to be heard, and so are scratches. Too much sound can be sensory overload for both perfromers and audience. (Unless its a beatbox with a simple scratch. My specialty.)

Lastly, and this is for all the people who want to understand China (and let's not forget, Shanghai is still a part of China! It's still DEVELOPING!), Underground/original music is needed in Shanghai, but it has to some slowly and in small ways (i.e. once a month Back to the Roots Shows). It gives people the opporunity to feel the music more and think about it when they leave. We can't just do it and make it hot for the moment. Who's gonna rememeber that??? Think Eternally.

Qbert's style, which is what make him a reknowed dj, is really deep, and its like another language for peeps out here. Shanghai is getting better, but it needs more time before we can get some real good true unerground ish out here.

So for all those that read this post and aren't hip-hop savy, I'm sorry if I'm hitting you at a weird angle with this theoretical hip-hop jargon, but hip-hop is a big part of me and how I live. And I want to make it dope out here. Let's grow.

'Nuff love to Dan Washburn and Shanghaiist for throwing this up. Please, don't say "neat-o" or "swell" in any of my posts, or we will have problems.


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QBert - the world's greatest turntablist... @ BonBon

admin | 02 September, 2006 09:14

Tonight is DJ QBert. Will you be there? This will be pretty dope. Arguably the greatest turntablist ever. In my lifetime, in Shanghai, at BonBon. After a crazy hard week of work, should be worth it. I'll hit ya'll back with the outcome...


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I been around the world and I-I-I.. I can't find my baby...

admin | 01 September, 2006 00:28


create your own visited country map

Actually, I found my baby in Nanjing. Sorry, I lied, but the song is dope! What's next? Phillipines? South Africa? Australia? Brazil? Taiwan?


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