I create therefore I am

People laugh when they see that the job title on my namecard is “creator”. The truth is, I wear so many hats that it’s impossible to list everything I do for hiphongkong. Sometimes I’m a writer and I create words, sometimes I’m a photographer or videographer and I create scrīpts and images, sometimes I create imagery by doing the styling for the set of a photo shoot. Then, there are times when I actually create the design, upload and code the website. The process of creation is what gives me true satisfaction in work as well as in life.

An awesome fringe benefit of running hiphongkong.com is the fact that I get to meet some of Hong Kong’s most creative talents. When I’m around such unique artistic frequencies, I often sit back, in awe, just hoping to absorb some inspiration from the encounter.

Last week I had a coffee with artist Simon Birch and Fashion Designer Tony Magneticwho produces this wicked line of luxury Denim called “The Year of.” Simon has just recently painted some jeans, well actually- panels of denim for the first “In the Year of” shop in the new Delay no Mall. Tony effused about how innovative and original the paintings were and how they are going to display the panels like Chinese screens in the store space. Eventually the painted denim is going to tour the world and be auctioned off for charity . While I know both of the guys from the party scene, I never really got to know either them as artists and I felt mad respect for the creative frequency both of them were vibing on.

 Tony actually spent 9 months of trial and error developing a gold stretch yarn which stitch together the panels on the inside of the jeans. This component, known in the manufacturing biz as ‘salvage’ was re-christened by Tony and uniquely renamed ‘self-edge’. All you have to do is turn up the cuff of the jean and you know you have a unique luxury product of which months of passion and craftsmanship was involved. During the time of the development of the thread, Tony had traveled to India dozens of times and found several gurus as well as his spirituality.

It was also fascinating to hear about Simon’s rise from skate-boarder/ DJ to prolific Hong Kong artist. Louis Vuitton even gave him a free suit! It’s incredible to hear  these success stories of artists actually being able to quit their day job.

 At a recent housewarming party at Missy K’s house, I also got to meet loads of creatives. There were designers, directors, movie industry peeps as well a few musicians.I ended up talking at length to free-style rapper Goldmountain. What an amazing talent! (The only other MC who has such natural creative frequency in my opinion is MC Rebearth that I learnt about recently at a Nokia event featuring Edison Chen See that video here.) Both of these freestylers have jammed with DJ Kulu and Ultralounge.

Three Years ago GM quit law school to come to Hong Kong to try his luck at making Indie films. He’s still very fascinated by the idea of a Chinese Zombie flick. Eventually he was discovered by the music set as a talented free-style MC and he fell into the world of hip-hop. The name Goldmountain comes from the years of the American Gold Rush when Chinese immigrants flooded American shores in pursuit of the American Dream. To him the name Goldmountain bears a parallel to himself symbolizes the hopes dreams and fears of hip-hop artists trying to make it in China today. Today GM’s career is skyrocketing- and righteously so. In addition to his performances, he’s currently doing a movie soundtrack as well as actually teaching free-style rapping.

 We asked him to bust us a spontaneous rhyme and he proceeded to look for a beat on his cell phone. After he found it, he asked us to give him a word. Someone suggested the word “Shabbat” since effectively the party was a Jewish housewarming ceremony.

He spun an improvised rap around the word Shabbat and it was so incredible witnessing the spontaneous creative force of a true artist. Someone then asked him if he actually memorises an arsenal of rhyming words and he said no. The key to free-style is not the rhymes, but the flow.

 Saturday afternoon the weather was gorgeous. It was dry, sunny and unseasonably warm and a group of us went out to the multi-media arts festival called Clockenflap. This outdoor event was all about installation art, music and film. The venue was very unique since there aren’t a whole lot of places where people can enjoy a party outdoors. In addition to a gorgeous sunset, we got to catch the Young Knives from the UK perform in addition to other local talents. It was Hong Kong’s version of Woodstock except much less muddy.