***
Guys I really tried to like soccer this time. I dragged myself all the way out to Heaven, dammit, to get the full-on football punter experience. I was really all in. I gave up and went home around 5am because NO ONE HAD SCORED A POINT. How do y'all do it? I'm a Daoist and I can't even hang with this shit. Do cool fights break out sometimes? Did I miss a spectacular show during the five-minute halftime? Does the rest of the world just have a strange, masochistic urge to be bested by the Germans on an international field of sport? Well I don't know but I know there's this hip hop show on Saturday that looks pretty cool:
***
Love Party Day. Off to a good start with a solid name. Lineup is stacked with MCs and DJs playing that "underground, old school, classic, hip hop, funk, soul." There will be B Boys. Also: "Open Mic、Cypher、Chinese Real Hip Hop Live、Classic Funky Music Time、All Night Long!"
Biggest name on the bill is probably Purple Soul (龙胆紫). There he is above in a Vans promo video. Quick side note: it's pretty awesome how hip hop stole the corporate image of skateboarding. It used to be punks right? Am I delusional? Like dudes with faux hawks skateboarding to Offspring tunes before taking a righteous Mountain Dew break? Now DJ Wordy's repping Vans and a bunch of dreadlocked Chinese rapper guys are ripping up half pipes. Well done, rap music culture. I guess punks in ads just wear Converse now?
Anyway, Purple Soul is legit. Old school hip hop, the message is the medium. I haven't dug as deeply into Beijing's hip hop world as I have other music niches — based on what I've heard from people in that mix, there's a lot of in-fighting and generational turnover so the "scene" lacks cohesion. But Purple Soul is pretty much universally respected. Here's a take of his jam "Poor Kid (穷孩子)" performed live at Aperture club in Xi'an:
***
Next on the bill is Huang Shuo, aka MC Shuo, aka N-Bomb. His stuff is more on the hardcore rap, angry young man tip. Gravel throat styles. He's been fairly prolific — by Beijing standards, at least — releasing three mixtapes since 2011. Unfortunately there's nothing available to embed here but you can click on over to N-Bomb's Douban for a taste. Recommend "Gonna fuck it (Re-recorded)". Oh, and as a bonus, here's N-Bomb's rap metal side project: Iron Fist
***
And here's David. Just David (or, in reverse translation, Dawei 大卫). This is one crazy motherfucker. He's a martial arts teacher, a poet, a filmmaker, a cultural radical, a mad rapper. Cui Jian is one of his biggest fans. He did this show at Dada around New Years that somehow included artificial snow and possibly illegal re-interpretations of vintage PLA propaganda. Also, erotic dancing:
Man, I don't know what this guy's even on about but it seems awesome. He's on some kind of simultaneously self-deprecating / self-aggrandizing Godfather in crutches trip, rags to riches and back again, WITH NUNCHUKS. I've seen some unreleased footage from this same series, dude has an entire hip-hopera planned out. Actually his debut album will just be a feature-length film or something crazy. David's on some next level business. One time Niurenku tried to interview him and he just gave them a freestyle:
***
On the decks for all this is DJ Jamming. Jamming's got the skills. Here he is at the 2011 DMC China competition:
Jamming's a regular collaborator with all the MCs on the gig, and many more in Beijing. Flick through his Douban page for tons of videos and burn away a few Monday doldrum hours on his endless page of mixes.
***
Catch the Love Party Day on Saturday, July 19 at Yugong Yishan.
