Asia Society looks at underground hip-hop in mainland China

For those of us that try to keep abreast on hip-hop in Asia (I’m not talking about you 2NE1 teeny boppers), you don’t hear alot about what’s going in China, hip-hop wise. Now China is not Japan, where underground hip-hop has flourished and has begun to influence the styles of hip-hop in the US. But don’t believe the hype: China is not under an iron communist curtain that blocks out everything Western, and that pretty boy Cantopop song song rapping that’s sold as authentic hip-hop on TV isn’t what being played in the underground. Photojournalist Matthew Niederhauser of the Asia Society reports in this video about what he’s seen in the underground scene in China, and some of the issues the nascent scene is dealing with. He also has a few clips of a rap battle done in Mandarin, where the language is foreign but the swagger looks very familiar.


Source: Hip-Hop.com