MP3 Monday is a weekly SmartShanghai column, serving up mp3s from bands living and making music in China (or coming to China, or thinking about coming to China, or whatever). Copyright holders: if you would like your song removed, please email us here, and we'll honor your request promptly.

Taking a break from that Satan rock and roll to highlight an up-and-coming local talent working in expanded hip hop terrain: Shanghainese producer, Ceezy. Here’s some sound samples ahead of his show this Saturday, playing on a bill that celebrates the one-year anniversary of the “Love Bang” party at Dada. First a little bit about Love Bang, and then more about Ceezy below.

Love Bang is a monthly from locally-based American DJ Heatwolves! and locally-based MC, One Consciousness -- a party, party, party platform that showcases local DJs and producers playing in new and emerging, or retro-minded and re-thunked, genres of alternative dance and bass music. Sounds are hip hop orientated, but spin out into anything from dubstep to baile funk to juke to UK Funky to crunk to grime to… yes… witch house. Previous guest DJs have been all your local supahstahs: Trix, Blaise Deville, Drunk Monk, ICT dudes, and more. If you haven’t done so already, you should check out Heatwolves!’s blog, which, along with hosting some DJ mixes and sounds samples of the kinds of thing they get up to, is also a good source of new, interesting music in general. From the heart of the American Midwest to your download menu -- anything from rock, punk, and pop to the aforementioned genres. New, new stuff. Old, forgotten stuff. Worth a bookmark, son.



So Ceezy is one of the guest DJs at Love Bang’s One Year Anniversary Party -- a young (22 years old) Shanghainese producer that has already amassed a mighty following on the Chinese social media sites (16,000 kids on Douban! Ladies and gentlemen, what a star.), and whom, to more than a few people around town, represents a possible future direction of hip hop in this city. Fresh sounds from the younger generation, that kind of thing. His most recent achievement was winning the “Battle of the Beats” competition at The Shelter a few weeks back.

Methodology is sampled vinyl re-arranged in Fruity Loops (or so I hear), and it’s something of a delicate touch. Plinky strings. Nylon strings. Broken up choral arrangements. Brushed drums, choppy piano lines … bossa nova-ish influences. Intelligent and subtle sounds. Comes from a background respect in classicist hip hop and turntablaism (he works with V-Nutz’ The Lab), but it also sounds preoccupied with wresting the funk from muzak, which is a pretty interesting thing.



He’s got a wealth more material on his Douban page. If you like what you hear here you should go there for more.

Not sure if he’s working on putting this stuff on more tangible forms and releasing it, but another DJ project he’s involved with is Otakrew, which see him joined by other, younger generation producers -- hBd and Cavia -- as well as Trix and Heatwolves. So keep an eye out for that as well.

Ceezy plays at Dada this Saturday for Love Bang. He’s joined on the bill by Heatwolves and Blaise Deville. From his side of things, expect warm-up selections in hip-hop, funk, and soul. No entry fee. Starts 10pm.

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