Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC It's a Hip-Hop World Author(s): Jeff Chang Source: Foreign Policy, No. 163 (Nov. - Dec., 2007), pp. 58-65 Published by: Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25462232 . Accessed: 22/02/2015 11:26 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Foreign Policy. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 71.225.66.233 on Sun, 22 Feb 2015 11:26:36 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Rap musichas longbeen considered a formof resistanceagainst authorify. Boostedby the commercialization of themusic industy, that message has provenits appeal tojouthall aroundthe world. Now, from Shanghaito Nairobi toSao Paulo, hip-hop isevolving into a truTh .4I. globalart of communication. By Jeff Chang IT'SAHip-Ho J nside the steamingwalls of a nightclub in the other fornot speaking properMandarin. His theheart of one of theworld's most dynam opponent fromHong Kong snaps back to thebeat ic cities, you can hear the sounds of the in a trilingualtorrent of Cantonese, English, and future.Hundreds of people gyrate rhyth Mandarin, dissing theBeijing rapper fornot repre mically as a DJ spinshot beats.On stage, a pair of sentingthe people. The crowd goes wild, raucously rappersface off, microphones inhand, tradingvers voicingdelight and dismay. es of improvisedrhyme. They look like typicalhip This annual rap battle,called the IronMic, isn't hop artists,dressed in baggy pants and baseball takingplace inNew York or Los Angeles, but in caps. But listenclosely and you notice something Shanghai,where itsfounder, 32-year-old Dana Burton, unusual:They're performingin Chinese. One rapper has unexpectedlyfound fame and fortune.The Detroit spitsout words ina distinctiveBeijing accent, scolding nativearrived in China in1999 to takea job teaching English.During his firstweek in town,he went to a JeffChang is editor of Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics nightclubthat advertised hip-hop music. But theclos of Hip-Hop (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2007) and est thingto hip-hopwas a Michael Jackson imper author of Can't Stop,Won't Stop: A History of theHip-Hop sonator.So, Burton embarked on a mission tobring the Generation (New York: St. Martin's Press, 200.5), which real thingto theMiddle Kingdom. "I thoughtabout won the 2005 American Book Award. what I could offerChina," he says. "Itwas hip-hop." 58 FOR IC;N PO[LICY This content downloaded from 71.225.66.233 on Sun, 22 Feb 2015 11:26:36 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ltn7SatiSHS'S':::04ta :-:sAn w-;onEstr -t tt wedat;: w ' ? _!- ' r -*as @ _ _ i .-.;.S SS' - \ J F -r ; 0 : ' : i;.: X ig'#\ w f : f * a w E W W | S : _5 E g i iB X I F 1 I | I s - r E Burtonbegan tomoonlight as a rapperand developed mini historyof hip-hop, from itsurban American a following.He notv only performed_ himself but X also beginningsto itsChinese apotheosis. It was theperfect helpedothers-foreigners w and Chinese-get_ theirown brew-an African-Americanentrepreneur promoting _ _ v _ sovx X acts off theground by hostingparties and hip-hop a Polish vodka owned by a French corporation nightssuch as IronMic. Admirerscalled him "thegod usingChinese performerspracticing an Afro-Latin fatherof Chinese hip-hop." influencedart form that originated in the inner Burton soon began topromote toursfor famous cities of theUnited States.Welcome to hip-hop's hip-hopartists visiting from the United States.Today, new world. multinational corporations includingIntel, Coca Cola, and Adidas turnto himwhen theywant help inmarketing their consumer goods toChina's boom A SERIOUS BUSINESS ingyouth market. Burton then taps intohis pool of To theuninitiated, hip-hop hardly looks or sounds L more than300 Chinese rappers,DJs, dancers, and like a brave, new art form.It's more like a sonic n:cr graffitiartists. jackhammer,a visual eyesore, and a C) conceptual In a recent campaign forWyborowa vodka, nuisance. Critics often call hip-hopmaterialistic, Burton took his crew on the road, presenting150 misogynistic,homophobic, racist, vulgar, and violent. shows in40 Chinese cities.His artistsperformed a It's a hotmess, the roarof totalchaos. NOVEMBER IDECEMBER 2007 59 This content downloaded from 71.225.66.233 on Sun, 22 Feb 2015 11:26:36 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions It's a Hip-Hop World ] - - -- ! .: _ .; _- - \ ::: _ _ '; A,: I K L,,. _ D Asianart: Graffiti isone d_.of ,Me>4nthe :original = j6 !_E :| elements 8_R,4jo A-_z_of_American-style hip-hop that China's urban youth have made their own. Some of that is true.But rapmusic isonly a part transcendgeography, culture, and even skin color of themovement, and ifyou look beyond stereo remainship-hop's central promise. types,it's clear thathip-hop culture has become one Today, themessage of hip-hop is even tran of themost far-reachingarts movements of the scendingborders. From xi ha inChina to "hip-life" past threedecades. The best artistsshare a desire to inGhana, hip-hop is a lingua franca that binds breakdown boundaries between "high" and "low" young people all around theworld, allwhile giving art-to make urgent,truth-telling work thatreflects themthe chance to alter itwith theirown national the lives, loves, histories,hopes, and fearsof their flavor.It is the foundationfor global dance compe generation.Hip-hop is about rebellion,yes, but it's titions, themeeting ground for local progressive also about transformation. activism,even the subjectof studyat Harvard and At thecore of hip-hop is thenotion of something theLondon School of Economics. called the"cipher." Partly for competition and partly But one thingabout hip-hophas remainedcon for community,the cipher is the circle of partici sistentacross cultures:a vitalprogressive agenda that pants and onlookers that closes around battling challenges thestatus quo. Thousands of organizers rappersor dancers as theyimprovise for each other. fromCape Town toParis use hip-hop in theircom Ifyou have theguts to step into thecipher and tell munities to address environmentaljustice, policing your storyand, above all, demonstrateyour unique and prisons,media justice,and education.In Gothen ness, you might be accepted into the community. burg,Sweden, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) Here iswhere reputationsare made and riskedand incorporategraffiti and dance to engage disaffected stylisticchange is fostered.That thiscommunitarian immigrantand working-class youths. And indigenous honoring of merit-whether it's called "style," youngpeople inplaces as disparateas Chile, Indone "hotness,"or whatever the latestslang forit is-can sia,New Zealand, andNorway use hip-hop to push theirgeneration's views intothe local conversation. u) IL Hip-hop is also a serious business.More than 0 ForMore Online i 59 million rap albumswere sold in theUnited States Watchtwo Chinese hip-hop performers do baftle at I alone last year.But that number representsonly ForeignPolicy.com/extras/hiphop. a small part of hip-hop's influence.It sells an esti 60 FOREIGN POLICY This content downloaded from 71.225.66.233 on Sun, 22 Feb 2015 11:26:36 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions mated $10 billionworth of trend-settingluxury and RISING UP consumer goods everyyear-not just inmovies, With itshumble origins, no one could have foreseen shoes, and clothingbut in everythingfrom snack theglobal phenomenonthat hip-hop would become. crackers and soda drinks to cars and computers. Thirtyyears ago, New York City bore littleresem This "urban aspirational lifestyle"market is expect blance to theglittering metropolis of today,particu ed to continue togrow exponentially.According to larlythe embattled streets of theBronx. Race riots, a 2006 reportby business researchcompany Pack urban renewal,arson, and governmentneglect wiped aged Facts, thepotential purchasing power avail out educationaland social serviceprograms, eviscer able to thismarket in theUnited States alone is ated housing stock, accelerated white flightand worth $780 billion. job loss, and created American rapper 50 an internationalsym Cent is one of the bol of urban despair. many savvy busi Meanwhile, the nessmen in hip-hop poor youth of the who's fullygrasped Bronx foundways to this potential. In pass the time:rapping 2004, he agreed to in a style adapted endorse flavoredbev fromJamaican reggae erage VitaminWater with Bronx slangover for a small stake in funky Afro-Latin Glaceau, the compa influencedgrooves, ny that produced it. dancingwildly to the In June,Coca-Cola percussive breaks, purchased Glaceau spray-painting their for $4.1 billion. nicknames on walls, When thedeal closed, buses, and subway 50 Centwalked away trains.These were hip with a rumored$100 hop's original "four million overnight,just elements"-MCing, for lendinghis name DJing, b-boying (or to a drink. "breakdancing"),and Of all therappers graffiti. The street out there,mogul and culturewas aliveto the renaissance man eccentricities of the Shawn Carter, better politicallyabandoned known as Jay-Z, is neighborhoodand themost successful Can't stop:A South Korean b-boy tears up Seoulwith his acrobatic moves. thechildren who still example of thegrow populated it.And the ingpower of hip-hop.When he took overUniver innocent leisure choices of teens, taken together, sal Records' Def Jamunit in2004, Jay-Zwas put representedthe early makings of an artisticvanguard. incharge of a billion-dollar business. Some indus In 1973, two Jamaican-American immigrant tryinsiders believe that today,Def Jam's overseas teenagersdecided to throwa back-to-schoolparty.