Below is a really interesting short doc on hip hop here in China, direct from native Chinese folks involved in hip hop culture. What really struck me was the common ground that the US and nascent Chinese cultures shared: musical identities defined by region, divergent individual perspectives on the genre, a self-confidence rooted in self-awareness.
Hip hop, at least what I’ve been exposed to here in Shanghai, has visibly morphed into somewhat of a “scene” that has fleshed itself out incredibly since I first got here 5 years ago. Now, enterprises like this one have come in and seemingly tried to commoditize a culture that originated in the US and to this day is pretty impossible to consolidate and package into one overarching thing. What ends up happening is surfing and parkour commercials that play on the back of taxis, with a menacing G-Unit type beat playing in the background, that always ends up leaving me and my friends wondering what the hell any of that had to do with hip hop. Hopefully, it’s the artists shown in the video above who are really trying to explore and create and take ownership of something new that will prevail over branded and manufactured identity. But who knows, this is China, anything goes.
(h/t to Rich at All Roads lead to China for the video)
