Emcees out there
Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 11:23PM / Standard Entry
/ Members only
Man, I
gotta say I’m pretty amazed by how many rappers there are in HK these days. I
remember when there were like, um, two. But now it's like everybody wanna emcee... It's all good - should make it easier for even more
emcees to come through. Soon we can maybe form a union or something...
I caught up
with Leo37 earlier today – he’s a Canadian Chinese rapper who’s coming by
HK soon to play Underground 54 at Cixi soon. And I thought one thing he said
was pretty interesting, that he feels hip-hop in Asia is more fun because
people are more open-minded here, there are fewer limits about what hip-hop is or
isn’t. So he’s basing himself in Taipei these days.
And,
obviously, it’s easier for him to be an Asian rapper out here. When I asked him
about this, he said: “It’s tough for Asian rappers in North America because the stereotypes in terms of
white and black are gone, but being an Asian emcee there are still a lot of
walls to break down. There’s no single Asian superstar in North America period. I’m not automatically
disrespected because there are lots of open-minded people. But, more than I
like to hear, people have come up and said you’re good for a Chinese guy.”
A bit
funny, but a bit sad too. I guess we should be thankful that out here, it's usually about the beats and rhymes, and nothing else.
Entry comments (0)