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Missionaries of Sound
Loading ...Hip hop might not be on top of Chinese playlists, but China’s hip hop culture is growing, fueled by the rips and rhymes of young MCs.
When British-born DJ DSK was growing up, there weren’t any hip hop schools or Youtube rap videos. You had to bring your own sound. Now he, and surprisingly many like him, are bringing their beats to China.
“In China you have hip hop schools everywhere teaching B-boying, popping, DJ’ing. That’s kind of crazy for me,” DSK said. “There is an exciting underground hip hop scene with some great talent ready to breakthrough.”
While 50 Cent and T.I. are staples of China’s club scene, underground artists like Sbazzo, Young Kin, and MC Ascension are creating new sounds in cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
DSK arrived in Asia in 1997, bouncing from country to country before settling in southwest China. His independent label, Unity Recordings, works to provide a platform for Chinese artists to produce “non-mainstream” music. The company recently released the first Chinese scratch record, providing local beats outside of the routine English-language samples while “for the first time, [allowing] Chinese DJs to give their routines and sets a genuinely Chinese flavor.”
“The scene in China is really split [between] MCs, DJs, B-boys and Graf (graffiti) writers,” DSK said. “As the younger generation get in more positions of income and power, there are more opportunities [in music and hip hop].”
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