I'm not sure what to make of this.... Peter
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: How a Muslim Convert from Detroit Became the Godfather of
Chinese Hip-Hop
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:14:46 EDT
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
How a Muslim Convert from Detroit Became the Godfather of Chinese Hip-Hop
Page 1 of 1
from Foreign Policy
Posted October 2007
Fresh out of college, American Dana Burton arrived in China to bring
hip-hop to the Middle Kingdom. Now, eight years later, he’s become the
godfather of hip-hop in the most populous country in the world. FP talks
to the 32-year-old impresario about his unlikely journey from the
streets of Detroit to the nightclubs of Shanghai.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4028
<http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4028>
Courtesy Dana Burton
Watch two Chinese rappers do battle
<http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4028> in a Shanghai
nightclub.
*Related to this article: *
* It’s a Hip-Hop World
<http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3994> By Jeff
Chang
* Why Hip-Hop is Like No Other
<http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4024> By S.
Craig Watkins
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For additional Web extras from the November/December 2007 issue of FP,
click here <http://www.foreignpolicy.com/extras>.
FOREIGN POLICY: What kind of music did you listen to growing up?
*Dana Burton:* I’m from Detroit, Michigan. I was born in the 1970s and
grew up in the 1980s. We definitely had our own sense of [local]
music—soul, the whole Motown influence—and that produced our generation
of hip-hop artists: Slum Village, Eminem, guys like J Dilla.
When hip-hop came out, that’s all we listened to. I was what you call a
hip-hop “head,” a super hip-hop nerd. I was the guy who knew all the
music, and if people had questions they would ask me. I rhymed and had
some battles in school, but I never really tried to pursue it myself.
FP: How did you end up in China?
*DB:* I studied social science at Michigan State University, and I
converted [to Islam] in college. I was into a lot of political and
militant movements. There are a lot of connections between black,
militant movements and Asia. The first time I left the country was when
I went to the hajj in Saudi Arabia. I went in 1999, just before I came
to China.
I always had an inclination to reach out to China and see what was going
on in the Middle Kingdom. There was this program called Appalachians
Abroad that was sending Americans to China to teach. That was my ticket
over here to Shanghai. I arrived at night, and we drove around the
outskirts. At the time, it was just a long stretch of high-rise
apartments. They resembled a typical project building in New York:
nondescript, pretty plain. It just looked like endless rows of projects.
FP: What was the music scene like in Shanghai when you first arrived?
*DB:* Other foreigners coming to China—maybe they’re doing business
here, they bring knowledge, technology, skills, whatever. But I knew my
angle would be hip-hop.
In China, the clubs haven’t really changed that much. [The Chinese] have
this set format—why they come to the club, what they want to hear, what
they want to do. They play this happy, thumping techno music, they don’t
know who any of the artists are, they don’t really care. They just want
to hear this “boom-boom-boom-boom.”
FP: How did hip-hop first start to catch on in Shanghai?
*DB:* [A Chinese friend who discovered hip-hop while studying in Japan]
was a DJ and had some connections with clubs. They would let [him] play
20 minutes, half an hour at the most. Eventually they let us play more,
then they let us have Wednesday nights as hip-hop nights, and we
developed this huge following. Later, it developed into several weekly
nights and more gigs and finally we got our own club. Now there are
several clubs that are playing only hip-hop.
FP: How did Iron Mic, your annual rap battle, get started?
*DB:* There was such a huge void for rappers in China. No one had really
developed the art of Chinese rap. People didn’t think it could happen;
they didn’t think the language was suitable for rap. I was always
pushing and trying to get people to do it.
The few rappers that I met were rapping in English. I’d say, “Let me
hear you rap,” and they’d just do a karaoke thing, repeating a few lines
of Eminem or Naughty by Nature. As an American, that was so odd for me;
you can’t say anyone else’s rhymes, you just don’t do that. But it’s
just the culture here. They like karaoke and doing someone else’s songs.
In 2001, we put the call out to do this nationwide Chinese [rap] battle.
The first time, there were 10 guys who came out from across the country.
We banged it out and it was amazing. And we’ve been doing it ever since.
I’m really proud of it. In Detroit, we’re all about freestyle and battle
raps. It’s a serious culture. And in 2002, Eminem’s /8 Mile/ movie
dropped. And that’s when everyone started getting into it. They started
understanding it.
FP: What makes Chinese rap different from elsewhere?
*DB:* I’ve actually come to like these Chinese battles more than the
stuff going on at home in America. It’s a totally different direction
they’re taking it, with the rhyming skills and the wordplay and how they
perform. The energy level is much more intense with Chinese rap. There
are more theatrics. The flow is faster. They’re rhyming words at a
faster pace. And they’re starting now to use rhythm a bit more.
When you see a freestyle battle back home now, you really see two kinds.
One is with punch lines, where they try and say funny concepts with
punch lines. There’s not so much emphasis on your flow. The other is
where guys are coming with prewritten rhymes. It’s kind of like a
monologue. It’s prescripted and it doesn’t matter who your challenger
is. But with these Chinese guys, they’re mixing it up more. Overall,
there’s more rap skill involved.
FP: How does China’s hierarchical culture jibe with the whole idea of
hip-hop being anti-authoritarian?
*DB: *I really admire these Chinese kids because they’re really going
against the grain. A couple times I’ve wondered, “Are they going too
far? Am I getting too conservative?” They’re rapping about being
involved with the mafia, or being underground, or doing drugs.
They don’t really rap about the government. But they take it to another
level. They’ve found another form of expression and taken it to the
extreme [for them]. An 18-year-old kid can say whatever he wants, and he
lets out his frustration and aggression. That’s how he gets power: on
stage. No one has ever given them this opportunity before.
FP: Do you ever run into problems with the authorities?
*DB:* Hell, yeah. We’ve had police shut our parties down, take the
turntables out of the clubs. We’ve had police arrest our MCs. They say
that we don’t have a permit, or that the words that we say are
offensive. The whole concept of Iron Mic is an illegal event. But I
don’t see myself leaving China. Until I get deported.
/Dana Burton is a hip-hop promoter and marketer who lives in Shanghai,
China./
/www.rockrap.com <http://www.rockrap.com/>/
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_______________________________________________
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