Confucius Say … Crank That: China Learns to Rap

Hip-hop has always been fascinated with the culture of the Far East. (Well, maybe just Kung Fu movies and Shaolin monks.) It took a few decades, but the Far East may finally be giving back the love. According to a recent article in The New York Times, Chinese youths are starting to pick up the mic and getting Doug E. Fresh with their musically conservative elders. Still in its infancy, post-millenial Chinese hip-hop appears to be what American hip-hop was in the ’80s — viral, subversive and profitless. Rappers have bypassed radio and governmental censorship to establish a growing underground scene dotted throughout the continent’s urban centers.

The Times article quotes this freestyle from Wong Li, a 24-year-old from Dongbei:

If you don’t have a nice car or cash

Babies die from drinking milk.

Apparently, gold-digging is a borderless imperative.

— Kyle Koch