Brendan O’Kane: [Help], [Help], [Help] the Police!

After the New York Times published a story about the rise of Chinese hip-hop, blogger Brendan O’Kane tore the reporting apart on his blog. His post has now generated a lively conversation about the state of hip-hop, such as it is, in the Chinese music scene. From his post:

The angry Chinese rap I’ve heard is generalized teenage angst with no attempt at social commentary. The most “daring” rap I’ve heard is predicated on schoolboy puns about smoking pot. And while I no longer make much of an attempt to follow the music scene here, I am familiar with the bands discussed in the NYT piece.

Let’s start with ?? Yin Ts’ang, the originators of “??? In Beijing” — the song that, according to the article, “took the underground music scene by storm.” Sample lyrics:

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?????? ??????
????? ???????

Cabs come in 1.2 kuai and 1.6 kuai prices.
The traffic’s usually not bad, but sometimes there are traffic jams.
You don’t have to worry about restaurants — roast duck and zhajiang noodles
Or Gui Jie to eat hotpot. There are too many choices, oh my god!

Wow, guys, tell it like it is.