The 18th annual Iron Mic is happening tonight. What’s the Iron Mic? Only China’s longest running Chinese rap battle, going on nearly two decades, back to when it was called Battle Grounds/Blazin' MCs. We wrote a long piece about it a few years ago. Back then, the founder said “Hip hop is very much a socialist movement.” In the intervening years, the TV show The Rap of China happened and completely changed the field for hip-hop in China, adding mainstream credibility (and money) to a very underground past time. Many stand-out contestants on the TV show were, in fact, Iron Mic veterans. If you are at all interested in hip-hop in China, you want to be there. Ticket info here.