This bizarre sibling of American rap made up of English, Mandarin, and Shanghainese (Shanghai dialect of Mandarin, a.k.a. my hometown dialect) just blew me away. The sound is typically rap but the lyrics and topics have a very distinctive Chinese/Shanghainese spin. The lyrics are jammed with "trash" words in different languages. Topics are typically social commentaries such as the track named "Made in Shanghai" that takes a shot at the Chinese youth's blind infatuation with foreign pop cultures (Japanese, Korean) but also has a good amount of softer topics about unrequited or lost love. BBC has a good story about of the rapper named "Little Lion" -- Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:27:37 AM permalink | Other blogs commenting on this post