mp3: TANG REN TI zi nue (self-abuse)
mp3: TANG REN TI shanliang de xin (good heart)
after a long period of hesitation, i finally took the plunge last weekend and once more attempted to delve deep into china’s alternative music scene. previous attempts have led me down dark alleys of doom metal or coughed up enough bad trance to keep parachute pants in vogue for centuries. fortunately, gokunming.com proved to be something of a salvation, and started a journey that i’ll share with you over the next few posts.
hu xuan has also dabbled in metal in his time – fortunately, his repertoire now extends well beyond that, as evidenced on last year’s album ‘jazz rap is in the city now’ (described by gokunming.com as “arguably one of the more interesting albums released in china in 2006”).
producing under the alias tang ren ti, hu raps in kumning’s regional dialect, kungminghua and also performs as one half of local hip hop duo, rap republic. . whilst it seems that much international hip hop can be born of gangsta lyricism, hu keeps it’s locally real. “one thing I like about hiphop is that it’s a way to discuss your surroundings. but chinese don’t need to talk about selling drugs and killing – these guys [chinese rappers] didn’t grow up in that kind of environment.”
check three more downloads at gokunming.com. ‘jazz rap is in the city now’ is apparently available at stone love clothing store on the east end of wenlin jie near the intersection with cuihu bei lu. when you’re in kunming this weekend, can you pick me up a copy? cheers.