rock the bells

the group that started my love for hiphop, the wu-tang clan. *deep, melodramatic, movie preview voice* this is the story of one man, who had a impossible dream to reunite all ten members of the wu-tang clan, for one one night only, to perform for a riotous crowd of 10,000 fans. seriously though. this looks ill, check it out if you can. trailer here.

goin' back to cali er... tokyo.

sorry i've been slow on the updates, but a large one will hopefully take place of this short post soon- or i may take forever in actually crafting the post and half of it may be made up because i just remember things a certain way. i still haven't finished my post about mc yan back in hong kong, but that's something i must do... but anyway, other things are coming up now. i'm leaving thursday afternoon to the land of the rising sun, tokyo to be exact. i'm very itinerant, so i always tell people that "hey, i might be back" (especially since my stay in seoul was so short). but everytime i tell someone that, they always look at me with that are-you-serious?!-look and say, "you're not coming back, japan is so much better". so i guess i have a lot to look forward to, aside from the price tags. the language block wasn't as bad as i expected it to be here, so hopefully that applies to japan too.

tokyo! i've been waiting for this a loooooooooong time. i hope you exceed my expectations.

just a quick update. these past few days i have been chilling out with kidsonic, a korean-american house DJ, (thank you Dan F for the introduction) and hydro, an english drum and bass DJ/producer (thank you kidsonic for the introduction). although they spin electronic music, their roots are in hiphop. They have been kind enough to introduce me to some of the hiphop DJ veterans in the scene and setup some interviews for me. so it's been busy. i'm leaving to tokyo sometime next week (maybe as early as tuesday), which is kinda a shame cause i just met these chill people. but the country is kicking me out anyway... so to quote silkk the shocker: "it ain't my fault". i'll try to post an update soon about the graf exhibition 420ml and the other things i've been up to.

oh yeah. i added a youtube link on the side ---->
i've only uploaded a few videos that i took with my digicam. i've been lazy and haven't transfered any of my DV tapes to my computer, sorry. what you can see isn't much, but hey, i try (but i'm still lazy).

eating dogs tour

I was just made aware of the “Eating Dogs Tour”. It’s a tour 5 Graf Writers, 3 DJs, 2 Bboys (Dance breakers they say), and 1 MC who will travel through Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. To quote the description: "They will all wander in the clubs and the streets to heighten the Asian’s awareness of their hip hop culture and their arts”

Ok, yeah that’s cool- spread hiphop culture. But for some reason I have beef with the whole way it’s marketed. I’m not saying these artists are wack and I’m not saying it’s bad for them to be going through China and doing their thing (I totally support that, and it’ll be good to have some European hiphop heads come through), I just hope they had nothing to do with the marketing and they have the right attitude about it.

I might be concocting all this in my head, but it really seems like they feel like they have some duty educate the Asian people about what hiphop really is. First of all what business do people from France and the UK (yes I know their scene old and well established) who are ALSO appropriating hiphop culture from the US, have educating people on what’s real? I’m sure Hiphop in France and the UK is different from Hiphop in the US, so why can’t hiphop in Asia be different? Ok, I guess re-reading the excerpt it’s not that offensive but… then there’s the whole “eating dog” thing. How are you going to have an eating dogs tour and leave korea out of it? Nah but for real, it seems like they had to use a name that puts them in a superior “more civilized than thou” position. How common is eating dogs in the cities they’re traveling to? Not very common at all, unless of course you go to a Korean restaurant.

I guess I’m going off on this rant because in my travels throughout China, there was always some foreigner I would meet along the way that thought it was his duty to “educate” the “Chinese people” about “REAL hiphop”. Half the time these people have absolutely no skill in what they claim to do (MC, DJ, etc.). Despite this, a lot of Chinese people will look up to them and they will easily get gigs/jobs because they are viewed as more hiphop than their local Chinese counterparts (who are often a lot better than the foreigner). I think sometimes this detracts from the independent development of the scene- the development of new styles, and the development of hiphop culture that is relevant to the people there. What is real hiphop? is what I say hiphop more real than what you say real hiphop is? Is American hiphop realer than any other country’s hiphop? If something real hiphop in the states, can hiphop heads in other countries only be considered real if they’re doing the same thing? Or is that just biting?

One of my project goals is to find out how people in asia understand hiphop, what hiphop means to them, how they are redefining hiphop, how they are making hiphop relevant to their lives, and how hiphop is changing their lives. Still I can’t deny that I have my own bias when I see asian people all thugged out, claiming to be hiphop. But maybe they grew up in the ghetto- someone said ghettoes are the same everywhere, so maybe the ghetto thug culture is real to them, how would I know? I think hiphop is different for everyone so I feel that I have no right to barge in and tell people what hiphop really is- especially me, a kid who grew up in upper-middle class white suburbia. Am I even keepin’ it real?

But yeah, let’s take a look on the brighter side. On my trip I’ve seen the amazing things that hiphop is capable of, it really brings people together. Take a look at the break borders video I mentioned in my last post: people from Japan, Australia, and America all come together because of b-boying. I have met so many people this year just because we share the love of hiphop, and they’ll even offer me to stay at their houses after knowing me for a few hours. People I’ve never met or just met will go out of their way to give me contact information to help me out on my project. Hiphop makes people travel- most of the dancers, DJs, writers, MCs I’ve met all traveled outside of their city/country because of hiphop. Hiphop even teaches people English- in korea, I’ve met a few hiphop heads who haven’t completed a high school education, but they can speak English fairly well – from listening to hiphop and meeting foreigners through hiphop. hiphop is a wonderful thing and should be spread around everywhere… does being real really matter in the end? To quote DJ Kool Herc: “lt ain’t about keeping real, it’s about keeping it right.”

featured @ sygyzy

i've been blogged about over at sygyzy. i met him by offering to help him get a pair of limited edition puma's that were just released (it always comes back to fashion). he asked me what i was doing in korea, so i let him know about the watson fellowship and my project. It caught his interest so he did his homework and put up a post about it. it's great when people show interest in and my project. it keeps me motivated and makes me realize how lucky i am, so thanks for the shout out.

read here.

Some breakin and some scratchin and some breaking and some graffiti and some breaking and some rapping and some breaking...

break borders is working now. download it and watch it and post what you think about it. it’s very entertaining, gets into why people break, and how they understand it- the first half follows a boston bboy and bgirl, while the second half shows australia, macau, and hong kong bboys and bgirls. some choice quotes from the movie:

"one day a bgirl, always a bgirl"
"my cow? where is my cow? it's not my cow it's macau"
"macau is sooooooo ghettooooo"

haha. I just want to give a quick shout to ManOfGod and Suzanna (who are in the video) for helping me get in contact with bboys in shenzhen and hong kong. funny, because i met them two different ways (through the wonderful internet) but they're on the same video. bboy glacial shows up for a bit, and he was one of the nicest people i’ve met on this trip even though i only chilled with him for a night.

i get a bit jealous of the b-boy world at times. the community really seems a lot tighter than the other dance styles. Most people i encounter in popping and locking don't session together very much and/or aren't very open to teaching new people (unless of course they're teaching a paid class). with bboying it seems you can go anywhere in the world, find a training spot, and most of them will be pretty welcoming (maybe that's just my impression). but even in guangzhou, i saw this white guy getting taught how to toprock by some of the STO crew members (but maybe it's just because he was white, foreigners get treated much better if they have a different skin tone). DJs are more or less the same as the poppers/lockers, most are pretty closed off and not too willing to share information or skills (but it just might have to do with the type of person that is attracted to DJing: generally quiet, spends lots of time in their bedroom listening to music, etc. hahaha). i guess i picked all the wrong things to be interested in (or i'm just like the people i described above, which is a reasonable possibility as well). Maybe I just need to get over myself and start bboying even though I don’t think I have the personality for it (though I might be kidding myself). Ok I’ll stop with the side commentary.
------

Bboy Championship

club tool "orgiastic laical?!"

This bboy battle was proper, underground style. Even though it was sponsored by companies like kangol and eastpak, it wasn’t a media, promotion whorefest (which I admit is also important for furthering the culture- the armory cup that happened earlier this month was the first bboy battle broadcasted on Korean TV, which increases the “acceptance” of bboying greatly). Unlike most battles this battle was strictly 1v1, none of the battles I’ve been to thus far have been 1v1 except for the house battle in wuhan. It started with a friendly cipher, with the judges and participants trying out random moves and warming up and moved into the eliminations where 6 bboys (there was only one bgirl participant) were on the floor and only one was selected to move on to the semi-finals. The semi-finals and finals were all strictly 1v1. anyone familiar with Korean bboys all know they’re known for their power moves- they do airflares as well as they drink (and they can DRINK here). but at this battle, I think only one airflare was done the entire time- they had some tight uprocks and footwork… especially one of the judges- he could break, pop, and lock really well (all the judges stayed afterwards and had their own cipher). The dj was proper too, pulling out classic breaks, good funk tunes all on vinyl.

Afterwards, I met a Toronto bboy who’s in town teaching English, but managed to hook up with some bboys through bboyworld. He introduced me to an Australian locker who knows most of the Korean lockers, so hopefully I’ll get introduced at some point. That night I met one of the originality lockers (one of korea’s best locking crews) who was there just to chill. The judges were amazing dancers though, especially this guy, bboy lee joo-no:

its not the shoes, must be the cazal's

After the battle was over, the judges were commenting on the state of bboying in korea (which was being translated to me). so an interesting thing about korea is how nationalistic they are. When someone Korean gains some sort of recognition on a worldwide level it starts a craze and people support them. for example when the world cup came to korea/japan in 2002… from that time on Koreans have been crazy about soccer. The same thing is happening to bboying, after they won battle of the year bboying has been transformed into something that the country can be proud of. One of the judges was commenting on how the scene is good here because they have only been at it for a few years, yet they can surpass countries like france, uk, and the us. There are a lot of street dance events coming up next month, but I’ll be in japan by then unfortunately.

I got almost all of it on tape, but I am lazy and I have yet to convert any of my DVs to files. So for now you can check out Kris's pictures (here and here too, which are infinitely better than mine) over at the Traveling Beans blog. He just invited me to be a part of the joint blog, which is written by current Watson Fellows, to-be-Watson Fellows, and company, about our stories, thoughts, and adventures from our travels abroad. I’m bad enough with keeping up my own blog, but hopefully I’ll be able to contribute.

So I should properly introduce Kris. I met Kris and his fiancée, Jackie, on Friday. Like good Americans we went to Krispy Kreme and gorged ourselves on the “global crack donuts” while we rocked Krispy Kreme hats (which made everyone else in the store want to wear them, for real).

jackie

kris-py kreme

Kris is a fellow Watson Fellow, his project focuses on, to quote afrika bambaata “Looking for the Perfect Beat”, or researching cultural inflections International Funk Music. He’s in Korea as a stopover coming from Ghana and on his way to Brazil. While he was here, he managed to find some Korean funk! You can check some tunes out at superheroeswalkonwater.

I was supposed to go to a house battle that night also, but i didn’t make it. It was out in apgujeong which is about 45 minutes where I’m from or a $25+ cab ride away (the subway shuts down early on weekends). I would’ve gotten their late anyway, so I figured it wouldn’t be worth the trip. I kind of regret it now, but it’s ok. I did find out that there’s a house dancer from NYC teaching classes here, so I’m guessing the house dancers here got that nyc style...

DoomBox!

the design crew over at mishka nyc started up an online radio station, DoomBox!

"Because this has become a culture, and music is an integral part of any culture. It inspires us, drives us, and, well, we all grew up as record nerds and still are to this day. Streetwear (or whatever you want to call it) has come a long way in the last few years, and it’s expanding and welcoming in more variety amongst it's masses. On the DoomBox!, you won’t find just your tried-and-true Hip Hop standards that have previously been so synonymous with Streetwear. In fact for the first installment, the DoomBox! is actually Hip Hop free for now. What you will find on there now, and in the future is better, more genuine representation of who we are at Mishka, where we come from, and probably where we’re going all through music."

word. on now is a lot of punk rock, hardcore, crust, thrash shit that i went through my better years listening to. yes, i wasn't always a hardcore hiphop head. propagandhi, screeching weasel, aus rotten, reversal of man!!!! ah, the good ol' days.

black day

april 14th, today is black day. quoting wikipedia:

Black Day is an informal tradition for single people to get together and eat noodles with black bean sauce in South Korea. The idea is that those who didn't give or receive gifts on Valentine's Day or White Day, can get together and eat Jjajangmyeon (짜장면), Korean noodles with black bean sauce (hence the name) to commiserate their singledom.

why jjajangmyeon? who knows, but it gives me an excuse to eat some more. so to celebrate the holiday (since i didn't receive any gifts on valentine's day) i had a bowl of the spicy variety of jjajangmyeon:

yumminess

see on valentine's day in korea, the woman is supposed to give the guy a gift and on white day the guy gives a gift in return. why doesn't the states have holidays where girls are supposed to give gifts to the guys? ah, we're so backwards. commercial holidays, you gotta love 'em.

stencilry

i totally missed the k-spray event, which i regret. fremantle came and did some live stenciling- it would've been great to see all the local artists work too. i wouldn't have posted about it but a day or two after these popped up in hongdae.

fremantle

guess i was an irresponsible watson fellow, haha. but, here are some pics of taiwan's event and manila's event.

in other stencil related news, check out this logan hicks time lapse video of him making the work below, its fucking incredible.


i'll post any links to seoul's event when they come up.

Virtual StudioTrek Project and Hanryangsa

I went to Itaewon yesterday which is Jay Kim’s hometown, the man behind JayGear and VSTP. He calls it “the harlem of seoul”. I didn’t exactly know what he meant by that but Itaewon is basically the foreigners district of Seoul. Walking around you see more foreigners than Koreans, store owners and street peddlers know basic phrases in 3-4 languages, and restaurants have picture menus. He met me at the subway station and took me up to his studio. On the way we passed King Club which he said is a club run by blacks (Americans or Africans? He wasn’t clear) and was the first hiphop club in seoul.. but he said its mostly for foreigners with a few Koreans here and there. So we get to the studio and they’re in the middle of a photo shoot for the Hanryangsa Crew, a crew of MCs, DJs, producers and designers. Jay said they’re always busy, doing stuff separately or with a few people from the crew and its really rare to see them all together in one place, so I lucked out.

While they were doing the photoshoot, Jay and I talked about Seoul and Hong Kong since he kept on asking questions about my experience there. (I got his contact information through MC/Designer/Graf Artist, MC Yan, from Hong Kong so that’s probably why). He said a lot of the original hiphop heads got introduced to hiphop through foreigners or going to foreigner clubs that played hiphop.

I tried to find out what the scene was like in terms of underground vs. commercial (prior to coming I was led to believe commercial was the goal of everyone underground- you would be underground for a few years to get cred and then blow up). From what Jay was saying, it seems the scene here is similar to what’s in to be a lot like America- where a handful of the commercial crews still get along with the underground people (those that came from the underground)… but there’s of course the obligatory songs that diss “studio MCs” and people that are in it for the money and fame… He would ask me random questions like if I’d been to jail before and if I had any tattoos. He said he had for a DUI (now they have services here that you can call a guy to drive you and your car home for you, no need to find a DD!). He said jail was really fun because its just a bunch of gangstas hanging out and sharing good stories. He asked about tattoos because tattoo shops are illegal here apparently (If you have a tattoo you don’t have to do the 2 years of military service, you have to do something else for two years still though). He really wants to get more than his single tattoo of a crescent moon on his left shoulder, which he had done in America. But yeah, I didn’t really get into his background aside from him being a graf writer and a skateboarder (He did a series of shirts that said “Inline sucks”...which reminds me of the 90s, do people really still aggressive skate?!) .

He took me to his place and hooked me up with a t-shirt, hat, towel, stickers, and a KeepRoots CD (liner notes featuring record covers of the likes of cannonball adderly, jim hall, zoot sims, nat king cole, abbey lincoln, hmmm nice!).

He was letting me listen to some people like Bobby Kim, Movement, old drunken tiger, and a bunch other people I don’t remember the names of… I need to learn how to read Korean. Apparently it’s very easy since it’s a phonetic language, I just need to sit down and teach myself. He also showed me a Sean2Slow live video from five years ago- apparently he’s a Korean guy from NY and the song was calling out all the studio MCs. But yeah, he said he’d let me copy a bunch of music/videos from his hard drive so I can get versed in my Korean hiphop…. dope.

We went back to round up everyone for dinner. But before we left he showed me the polaroid wall of fame. And now I’ll be up there:

We went to a pork bacon bbq place and drank plenty of soju (the staple alcoholic beverage in korea. Cheap, not too bad, and gets the job done).

me (very drunk), daephal, korea's 2 time freestyle mc champ, dj skip, and some more djs (left to right)

I only managed to squeeze in a little conversation with the freestyle MC (his English was very minimal), enough to find out that he has been the national champion these past two years. We relocated to a soju bar in Hongdae to drink and eat some more (I told you that’s all they do here). I was a bit confused since they were all in a crew but some of them didn’t really know each other.. so they kept going around and doing introductions (which Daephal would translate a bit for me). The female MC with the shaved head introduced herself saying, “I am revolutionary hiphop”, then there was the freestyle MC 2005-2006 champion, a producer introduced to me as korea’s “best funky beat producer”, DJ “Chinese food” - because he looks Chinese, Macho (designer, former urban toy shop owner), DJ Skip, DJ Duo, a DJ involved in the Bboy theater I mentioned (ballet and bboying), and of other DJs that I didn’t get translations for/names of. I’m really bad with names, so not speaking/being familiar with Korean makes it even harder to remember names… so I apologize to all the people I met today but forgot their names… but that’s the problem with meeting too many people at once- not remembering names and only being able to talk to a few… I really need to recruit Christine’s brother to come along with me so he can act as a translator (and hopefully he’ll at least get to meet a lot of people in the scene that he wouldn’t be able to otherwise). So this time I mainly talked to daephal and macho. Daephal was introduced to me as a really good MC- he said he released one single or an album so far. He was the only person that made a point to come talk to me- probably because he was the only one aside from jay and macho that could speak some English. It was funny because the first group he listened to was Wu-tang (which was my first hiphop CD purchase). Anyway, throughout the evening he would say that he was my brother (which ryan told me about- when people take you as their (little) brother, they really treat you like a little brother, in both the good and bad ways)- so i guess i have a new brother.

The rest of the night I think they were having a discussion on the status of the hiphop scene- because it was pretty serious- i wish i knew what they were talking about- but next time i'll hopefully be better prepared. After the two female MC’s left, all the guys started taking off their shirts, not sure what that was all about but it was getting late and I hadn’t slept in awhile so I peaced out. Haha.

Random observation: The commercials/TV shows/stores play really good music! I hear everything from DJ Shadow, Frank Sinatra, Jamiroquai, Earth Wind Fire, Mr. Scruff, and bunch of random things I don’t think I would ever hear in the US on a commercial or just walking around.

Til next time...

breaking breaking borders

when i went to shenzhen for the check da skillz battle, i met a hong kong bboy by the name of joey. we weren't able to talk extensively, but he mentioned he was producing a documentary on b-boys and b-boying in asia. i'm not sure if this is his finished product, but here it is:

break borders

Mono

I saw mono at rolling rock theater yesterday and it was fucking amazing. thank you robin for making me shell out the $30 to see them perform (hell i'd think twice about dropping $30 on a band i like). its funny knowing that there are pretentious indie rocker scenesters wherever i go, sad but true. anyway, if you like post-rock instrumental-ish stuff. check them out, highly recommended

i know you got seoul...

So I’m in Seoul now- I’m staying in the Hongdae area which is the university district of the city with my sister’s childhood best friend, Kimberly Kim. But before I got here I was faced with Korea’s customs…

Are you bringing any pornographic materials in the country? Why that’s a personal question. I wonder how many people answer this truthfully and what they do if you check yes… or if you check no and they find some porn on you. Haha. Of all the borders I’ve crossed in my lifetime, I don’t think any of them have asked me this question. So if you’re planning on coming to south korea, leave your porn behind!

Anyway, back to Hongdae, there are at least 4 universities in the immediate area, so it’s full of bars, clubs, small basement venues, and youth vitality. There’s events almost everyday, so the streets are constantly littered with posters and flyers of punk, indie, emo, metal, and hiphop shows. I thought I’d have to dig around a little, but hiphop is pasted up all over this area- there’s at least 6 clubs that claim to be hiphop clubs, there are numerous hiphop events in the next few weeks, and there are a million bboy battles (just a small exaggeration). Maybe that’s why Korean bboys are so good, they seem to battle every other day. Bboying is very much in the mainstream culture now- I think this is because of Korea’s multiple Battle of the Year wins (the yearly worldwide bboy competition). Korea is extremely nationalistic, so if a korean person or team becomes famous for anything- the whole country is behind them… even if its something like bboying. Its so far into the culture, there’s even a bboy play that’s running now- which is apparently a story about a bboy and a ballerina falling in love (oh come ON now…) but maybe I’ll go and see what its all about anyway haha.

So the battles… there was a really big battle a few days ago, the Armory Cup. It’s a bboy battle that is touring around asia- korea, taiwan, china, japan? That’s somehow affiliated with the freestyle session. I planned on going, but I estimated that it would start to get good at around 10, since most of the bboy battles I have been to this year run for about 7 hours and do not start on time… but when I got there, I saw large groups of people leaving with posters and such so I got there right when they finished. It was unfortunate because the line up was pretty impressive and I think the originality lockers were there (which I can’t seem to find any information on- I really want to take locking classes while I’m here). But hopefully I’ll find another way to find them. There was also another battle that same night, but it was a commercial battle- the Puma Beat Battle. They stole a few of the good crews, but I think some people boycotted the thing because they think puma is just trying to exploit the hiphop culture (what’s new?).

But all was not lost, there was still the Xtussy party that night (sponsored by stussy, lrg, supreme, zoo york, creative recreation, and a bunch of other street labels… I’m not sure how they were involved but none of them had booths or anything- just banners up). It was held at a new club in the area, Club Catchlight, which turned out to be a pretty large basement club. I originally though it was just going to be some standard party but one of my contacts, Jay Kim, the designer of Jaygear, said he’d be at the party- so I figured I should go out and meet him. (MC Yan was nice enough to hook me up with his contact information, so I owe him one).

He was really nice, gave me a bunch of tequila shots while he introduced me to DJs, MCs, and beatboxers. It was too loud to hold a conversation so it was just left at introductions- but hopefully I’ll meet up with him soon outside of a club. Apparently he’s dating one of the members from the famous, but now defunct Korean hiphop group, Drunken Tiger (I was actually introduced to them by a Korean friend during my high school sophomore year summer, which I spent at Philips Academy).

First up was Trespass, a two MC one beatboxer setup- they were pretty good- it’s a change from all the Chinese hiphop I’ve been hearing. Korean lends itself to flowing much more than Cantonese and Mandarin. After they performed, DJ Skip (a famous DJ in these parts), stepped up to the ones and twos and played a good set with a good balance of jiggy and some old school shit, respect. (no Korean hiphop though). Then a beatboxer/multivocalist (from the Secret Team?) did something like a half hour set.. I recognized a few killa kela beats thrown in but he did flip some and most of it was his own routines… he was pretty ill. i only heard about one beatboxer in china, but never saw him perform, so I can’t compare him to anyone else. they seemed to have an auxiliary team of hiphop dancers which did short routine in the middle of the bboy’s long routine.. but it was far more impressive to me than the bboy’s routine… you know why? Because they danced to MC Hammer’s 2 Legit 2 Quit. 90s muthafuckaaaa! They were bustin’ out all the moves from the video too, GET BUCK! GET BUCK! (this is especially funny to me because I was sitting around with ryan one day in hong kong and was showing him all these dance videos I’ve accumulated over my trip.. and we happened to watch the extended version of 2 Legit 2 Quit (complete with the James Brown cameo) and we talked about learning all the moves and busting them out at a club). I filmed it with my digital camera, but unfortunately I think I was a bit too excited and the lighting was bad so I won’t be able to share the video. Haha.. I think most of the crowd had no idea what was going on, but I was going crazy.

So what am I going to be doing here? Some events that are coming up that I hope to attend:

House battle, house rulez… so there’s a house dance community somewhere.. hopefully I’ll be able to find/take a few house classes too.

K-spray, a stencil contest sponsored by K-swiss shoes. There’s a lot of murals around hongdae and a few big graf pieces… I’ve only seen a handful of stencils in the area so this might be interesting.

there's a few others that i'll get the flyers up for if possible.. so it looks like i'll be pretty busy. Oh the food is amazing by the way. Too much stuff to even start writing about, so you can just indulge yourself with your eyes over in my food album on flickr. I don’t know how people here stay so skinny, they just drink and eat… and eat and drink some more. there’s tv shows devoted to food- showing all the new restaurants or the trendy new food out… i’m going to get so fat.