This was a difficult video to watch. On occasion it was funny and entertaining, but most of the time it made me cringe and shake my head in disbelief. Please refer to the freestyle battle scene, Chinese guy flashing a gang sign possibly wearing a du-rag as well, Chinese guy flashing his bling, Chinese guy crip walking, a guy named “little biggie” freestyle rapping in broken english and chinese (no need to point out that little biggie is a oxymoron), or pretty much whenever there is a Chinese person in this video. Hip Hop has certainly come a long way from the humble inner city beginnings to the popular mainstream music it is today. It’s great to see Hip Hop having an influence on China, but I doubt the pioneers of Hip Hop would see this video and say to themselves “wow, these Chinese folks really understand our music and the American culture.”
The only part I liked about this video was when rapper Zhang Rui explain the meaning of his nicknames. The first nickname he mentions is, “Little Ray” because his name Rui is similar to the English name Ray, and since he’s pretty young he calls himself “Little Ray”. He than explains his other name, “Black Sun” because he likes “very black music” and the sun represents the golden age of hip hop, he also gave a shout out to the east coast. I’m sure black musicians and notorious b.i.g would be very happy about that shout out. Finally, he claims to be older and much more mature, so he gave himself the nickname “Nasty Ray.” He takes a moment to think about his answer and then explains that he likes Nasty Nas as well so of course “Nasty Ray” makes perfect sense. I honestly don’t know what’s more absurd, the logic behind his nicknames or the fact that nasty ray gave himself three nicknames.
As a longtime fan of hip hop, I had hoped that this type of music would gain acceptance and become more popular in China. After seeing this video I completely changed my mind.
What are your thoughts on this video?
Mao's Army 