Bringing Down the Commies With Shuo Chang

DROPPIN' SOME RHYMES IN BEIJING



Being involved as we are and probably will be ad infinitum in the Middle East has been educational in many ways. We're friends with the Saudis who are among the worst when it comes to human rights, especially women's rights, forbidding them to walk unescorted by a family male or drive, etc. etc. We "dethroned" the Taliban in Afghanistan because they are even worse than the Saudis, decrying even a woman's right to an education. We have been denounced as The Great Satan by the Iranian leaders, and for the longest time our military seemed to be the only thing by which we could assert some influence. Russia was the first to fall; much of the Middle East has evolved as well. China, a once-hated bastion of intolerance has started making our shoes and lead-filled toys. India will soon have an affordable automobile for the masses...just in time to face a worldwide oil crunch.
Economists, military minds and politicians alike will offer varying reasons to support the fact that the world is becoming like us here in America. Whether that's good or bad is an individual decision; I'm here to tell you how we did it: media. It's that simple.
Wolfman Jack ushered in a whole new consciousness by broadcasting rock 'n'roll from a station across the border in Mexico. This was in an era when radio was strictly regulated, and there were NO 50,000 watt stations, no Sirius, no cable networks. Kids heard what their local musicians were playing...no more, no less. After the Wolfman and deregualtion, music spread across the country like wildfire: music that many decried as obscene or vulgar, and it propelled artists like Elvis and Buddy Holly to the forefront...to be followed by The Beatles, Public Enemy and porn stars turned vocalists (one of whom performed at an inaguration ball just this week). That's how we've brought the rest of the world to our doorstep: a desire for huge gold chains, scantily-clad "fly" girls and all the trappings of stardom. It usually starts out as an underground thing because moist countries have, like, standards of behavior, and ours usually don't match. Eventually, though, the youth of any country feel the frustrations of alienation, and the music speaks to them. So it is in China today, where an underground explosion of Shuo Chang (hip hop) has taken over. Not officially sanctioned as an art form, it nonetheless has taken over clubs in Beijing with groups like Yin Ts'ang, comprised of two Americans, a Chines national and a Chines-Canadian, who pioneered the music form.
According to one DJ Wong Li:

"If you don’t have a nice car or cash

You won’t get no honeys

Don’t you know China is only a heaven for rich old men

You know this world is full of corruption

Babies die from drinking milk."

You'd have to hear it in Chinese, I suspect. The web site Hiphop.cn registered millions of hits in 2008 after only a few hundred took note in 2007. Shuo Chang which means "speak sing" has solidified a beachhead and is taking over, starting with the young people. In retrospect, it would seem that we've invested far too much money in a military-industrial complex when we should have poured it all into Sean Jean, DefJam Records and RUN D.M.C.
We'll get them all sooner or later. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (mad scientist laugh)