His words paint manga panoramas for your ears, rhymes that spin like the 2D martial arts characters that have endlessly inspired him. Although Shing02's lyrics lace the Japanese cartoon classic Samurai Champloo's soundtrack, his mind draws on far more animated real life experiences.
At The Shelter tonight! Shing02's eclectic, international IQ
Watch: Bumpin' rap video from Chinese police in Sichuan
Police in Qionglai in Sichuan Province got jiggy with it recently to record a rap video entitled "Rise up, Qionglai Police!" (邛崃警察雄起), to showcase and express their love of the job and bad-guy-catching skills. The video footage (with crazy camera zooms!) features a variety of policemen, including S.W.A.T teams in training, civilian police visiting from house to house and helping old ladies, as well as firemen leaving their stations to put out some pesky burning Tibetans local fires.
Shanglanta! Hip Hop Hijack's 1 Yr Anniversary at Zeal featured rappers, athletes
Hip hop and basketball, two items firmly linked in American culture, made a resounding splash at Hip Hop Hijack's 1 year Anniversary party at Zeal this past Friday.
Videos: Clubbing Shanghai style
Looking for a dose of Shanghainese culture immersion? You will do well to skip Zhou Libo and those yappy middle-aged ladies at the neighborhood market. Check out what we'd stumbled upon last weekend at Club G+. Homeboys rappin' up a storm in the Shanghainese dialect, complete with bubble machines, gorilla suits, confetti and cardboard props.
Yo! MTV Raps retrospective @ The Factory
If, as Chuck D said, "Rap music is CNN for black people," then Yo! MTV Raps was the unofficial News at Ten.
This weekend: Hip hop will rock and shock the nation
Or at least Shanghai. The story of live hip hop in our city (MC Hotdog aside) is generally one of rumour and disappointment. Remember when Nas tore ish up at Racks? Or when Jay Z wowed a packed crowd at Hongkou Stadium? No, us neither. That's largely because it didn't happen. Sure, we had Kanye go through the motions in a half empty stadium last year, but that's been pretty much it. This weekend though, might just make up for all the hurt.
Listen to the Ghostface Killah opener contenders
The competition to open for Wu-tang Clan's Ghostface Killah rages on! If you're curious about the hopefuls trying out their rhymes andbattlin' it out for the spot at his Shanghai show, head over to Splitworks' Douban site. We've got seven aspiring rappers right now with Ne Zha's "Rude of Us" and bLow mc's "Money Make the World Go Round" heading the pack. Feel like you've got the chops to kick them out of the running? You've still got til June 9th to lay down your best moves. Ghostface Killah will be playing at Zhijiang Dream Factory on June 14.
The Lab's mad scientists ready to rock Shelter for 3rd birthday
The Lab, a non-profit, non-cost DJ Hip-Hop workshop studio, is throwing its Third Anniversary Party tonight at the Shelter. Debuting two new talents, DJ Freeze and DJ Sense, the lineup features ten total DJs including founding member DJ V-Nutz (a.k.a: Gary Wang).
Interview: DJ Dexter kicks off Krumping at the Shelter
A rundown of "underground hip-hop in Shanghai"
Neocha's Sean Leow drops knowledge on asiascoutnetwork.com: "[T]here is a scene of more pure or underground hip-hop in Shanghai that stays true to the original style and sound of hip-hop, which was started in the Bronx during the 1970s. Additionally, there is a related genre of what can be called Chinese hip-hop ('嘻哈' in Chinese) which exists in between and overlaps with both the commercial 'pop-rap' and underground hip-hop genres." [Source]
We're not surprised to learn Kanye West's Shanghai gig is postponed
Via former superstar Shanghaiist contributor Jake Newby: "The Kanye West concert originally scheduled for September 23 at Hongkou Stadium has been postponed. Organisers China West have said that it is definitely a postponement, not a cancellation, and that the gig will now take place on November 3 at Shanghai Grand Stage." Newby points out that this postponement is not due to permit problems (a la Jay Z '06), instead it was done to allow promoters to add a Beijing Kanye gig on November 1. We'll see.
Kanye West: Coming to Shanghai (to retrieve his misplaced shuttershades)
Rumours have been swirling for weeks, and now it’s official: Grammy-winning producer/rapper Kanye West will be passing through Shanghai for a gig at Hongkou Stadium next month. Although we don’t usually take anything seriously until we read about it on Kanye’s blog, we made an exception here after speaking to Steve Sybesma, CEO of China West (who are organizing the show along with Live Nation Asia).
One World, One Dream
Interesting vid by Chris Pereira of Work in Progress [h/t to Danwei]. Wonder if he wrote the song himself?
Foreign Policy on China
We've been somewhat faithful readers of Foreign Policy for awhile and noticed that they had a couple of articles that either mention or focus on China in their recent issue. Jeff Chang has written an article called It's a Hip-Hop World where he talks about how globalized hip hop has become, and, in this context, mentions Shanghai. More worrisome than a bunch of seventeen-year-olds in baggy pants is information we found in the article on...

