Results tagged “blackeyedpeas”

So the rumors we heard over the weekend at Kiito's were true ... and sooner than expected. According to SmartShanghai, China West — the outfit that brought, among others, Norah Jones, James Brown, Black Eyed Peas, The Roots, Incubus, James Blunt, Kanye West and Kylie Minogue to China — was "unable to maintain a profitable bottom line" after five years here. SmartShanghai says China West is "bowing out of the Chinese market for 2009," so perhaps they not ruling out a return to the market in 2010 or beyond. Either way, a shame. And then there was one? (OK, maybe two.)

Tonight (Tuesday, 3 June) "Hip-Hop" group the Black Eyed Peas are playing a hastily arranged benefit gig for around 700 people at the Shanghai Concert Hall.

Recently, Shanghai has had its fill of hip hop, indie rock, and classic rock artists come to perform for the expats locals. We'll now get a bit of the pop and R&B vocal genres with the recent announcement of Christina Aguilera's Asian tour dates, which includes a stop in Shanghai. It will be her only concert in China ... sorry, Beijing. The tour is part of Christina's Back to Basics tour, featuring songs from her...

Or more like who won't be performing. We've already told you about Live Earth, Al Gore's 24-hour, 7-continent series of concerts on 7/7/07. Well, lists of performers at different venues (cities participating are: East Rutherford, New Jersey [near New York]; London; Rio de Janeiro; Maropeng [near Johannesburg]; Tokyo; Shanghai; and Sydney) are starting to be announced. First up, the US and the UK.

The wearing of jammies in public: amongst people who have been in the city for less than 15 minutes, no issue has better served as a focal point for passion and vitriol. But what of the people who have been here longer? The so-called “lifers” who have lived in Shanghai for 16, 17 and, in some cases, 18 minutes? These have been eerily silent on the issue, avoiding it in public conversation, referring to the phenomenon only furtively from behind closed doors and in darkened back rooms.

So Much Soul is the brainchild of the hardworking folks at The Lab, which some of you avid readers might remember us unfairly labeling “too small” a few weeks back. In fact, it’s a great resource for aspiring turntablists and those interested in hip-hop as an artform—in all its ragged and resplendent glory. Get familiar. As for Tang Hui, if you’re at all like us and tired of seeing salsa lessons every Thursday night with nary a soul in sight, it’s a refreshing change, and one, we might add, that precludes your presence at Guandii or Attica, venues hopelessly in need of savvy DJs, rather than salacious ones. SMS is a much-needed antidote to top-40-itis, featuring hip-hop, funk, soul, and reggae by people who know their Blackalicious from their Black Eyed Peas, and in the kind of venue that favors intimate, chilled-out vibes over mountains of bubbly and freak-a-leek histrionics. Scratchmasters DJ V-Nutz, Mr. Tsang and Fortune will be on hand, as well as mic-wreckers RedStar, and a host of cats hungry to show off their freestyling skills. Think of the famed Back to the Roots parties (also hosted by the Lab), except on a weekly, not monthly basis.

There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to face the facts — that not every (alpha) dog has his day; that haters gon hate; that open bar doesn’t always mean what you think it means. And that all ABCs just looove Guandii. Well, not this ABC. Sure, one could chalk it up to difference in opinion, or taste in hip-hop, or a simple case of sour grapes (not picking up enough ladies, for instance). But let’s not consider all that. Let’s just nip it right in the bud: In order for the hip-hop “scene” in Shanghai to truly thrive, and blossom into the NBT (Next Big Thing) it so richly deserves to be, ABCs — and everyone else, for that matter — need to stop jocking Guandii so hard.

So everyone is reporting what we warned you about. Here's what the AP said:

We here at Shanghaiist are experiencing quite a bit of Robbie Williams "Deja Vu." BonBon -- the club behind Jay-Z's supposed after party (we also heard Attica was working on the after party ... go figure) -- are stating that Jay-Z will NOT perform in Shanghai due to his "lyrical content."

We admittedly don't know much about Robbie Williams' music -- we lived a sheltered existence in the United States from 1973 to 2002 -- but we do know the guy is huge (as in a huge megastar ... not in any other way ... as far as we know). We also know he is coming to Shanghai on November 4 -- and that show also will be huge. Some 26,000 people are expected to pack Hongkou Stadium. That's not too shabby. Earlier this year, we called the Black Eyed Peas playing Shanghai a "historic moment" because they were the first major contemporary foreign act at the height of their celebrity to stage a show in the city. Scratch that. This is the historic moment.

Fans of rap and hip-hop, take this down: Jay-Z is coming to Shanghai. Probably. The Grammy-winning rapper reportedly will be performing at the Hongkou Soccer Stadium on Monday, October 23, as part of a tour that will also see him making stops in Taipei and Seoul, according to Shanghai Daily.

The Black Eyed Peas (BEP). What can be said? It was energetic (on their part, but not necessarily on the audience's part). The first half (which lasted around an hour) saw them trotting out the radio hits, a mixture of songs from Elephunk and Monkey Business with some covers throw in. Maybe it was our seats, but it often seemed as if much of the intricacies of the polished, highly produced BEP sound were lost somewhere in the rafters -- everything seemed a bit muddled.

Admittedly, we attended the Black Eyed Peas show with a detached sense of superiority -- but ask anyone, even those of us who don’t “get” hip-hop, it was, to quote the girl behind us, “a show that made my summer”. Parts of the show that made us forget about those annoying glow sticks?

GigShanghai: Hawaiian death metal, cAntipop and Black heads back

(And no, we're not into little girls.)

Shanghaiist asked its contributors (and a few "music people" in town) to list their five favorite albums released (or yet-to-be released) somewhere in the world in 2006. Got a list of your own? Submit your favorite 2006 music as a comment to this post. Enjoy!

On the other end of the social/location/ticket-price spectrum, Cold Fairyland continued to remind us why they’re still one of the top shows to catch in town. Playing in a stifling AC-less YuYinTang for the better part of 2 hours, this Eastern-classic-meets-Western-rock cluster kicked off the first (and, erm, only, as far as we know) show of their Magic Blue Tour.

GigShanghai: Northern grunge, Tanghui strikes back and Akufen

GigShanghai: Noisy Sundays, females unite, and free BEP tickets!

GigShanghai: West Virginia house, German metal and ass beer

GigShanghai: Free gigs, Fairyland and ready to 'get retarded'?

If you made it as far as page 75 in the June issue of That's Shanghai, congratulations: You're almost halfway there. And if you've seen page 75, you've noticed that it was an ad for pop/hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas, who are bringing their Monkey Business Tour to Shanghai's Grand Stage on July 20. (Monkey Business the album came out almost exactly a year ago and received an average score of 45 out of 100 on Metacritic.) There is no ticket information on the ad, but there is a reference to the site of China West Entertainment, the Shanghai-based promoter of BEP's two Mainland gigs, Shanghai and July 18 at the Beijing Exhibition Center Theater. The China West site shows that tickets will range from RMB 280-880. They aren't on sale yet, but you can sign up to be notified when they are made available. BEP is also playing Hong Kong on July 16 at the AsiaWorld-Arena. Tickets start at HK$380 and go up to HK$780. (We weren't able to find any of these shows listed on BEP's offical website or other tour sites.)