Shows, Events, and Mic-worthy information
Chinese Slang Today
谁呀?：shéi yā (said with exasperation) "who (the f*) is that?"
Category Archives: Where the Mic is Rocked
da dirty north returnz: section 6 at 愚公移山
June 22, 2011 – 5:02 am
In their better years
I still remember my first hip hop experience in Beijing (China for that matter) and it was at a Section 6 party at the original Yugong Yishan. I remember seeing XIV (Lao Zheng 老郑）of Yin Tsang in a wife beater screaming barely comprehensible Chinese lyrics and skinny ass Sbazzo flowing like nothing I’d ever heard before…and Young Keezy was selling CD’s at the door…haha! Look at em now.
Needless to say from that experience, I was hooked.
Yin T’sang along with the many other OG’s of Beijing hip hop scene like Lil Ray, Webber and IN3 still got the best hip hop party going (in China), and its happening again this Saturday night at 9pm. Just so you know its happening on the last saturday of every month at Yugong Yishan and officially “features freestyle rap performances from the voices of Beijing youth, street dancers from all over China”
I’ve dropped some flows here, its a great place to get your feet wet in the hip hop scene. Battles, new song releases, dance off’s, and certainly some hot babes…its a partay its a partay its a partay its a partaaaaaaaay.
Go.
Saturday June 25th, 9pm-late
50rmb ticket
West courtyard former site of Duan Qirui Government,
3-2 Zhangzizhong Lu,张自忠路3-2号段祺瑞执政府旧址西院
Bizzle!
MIDI gets rained out; LUSH gets PWND by Beijing Hip-Hop
July 22, 2010 – 4:12 pm
In May 2010, hip hop heads and artists all gathered at HaiDian park in the “middle of effing no where” Beijing to celebrate the final day of the 4 day MIDI Music Festival with special all day performances by local and larger groups like Xin Jie Kou 新街口, ABD 太多次, Manchuker 满人 (Taiwan), Crazy Chef 张南, and Yin T’sang 隐藏.
As Sbazzo, ID, R2k , DJ Doc J (aka DJ Wes of the Park Boys) and myself arrived at the location, we noticed tents and trash all around the surrounding area, and could hear blaring heavy metal coming from inside.
We got our pass VIP Artist passes and went straight for the VIP drink tent which was a giant pink pyramid posing as an art work… right. In here artists could chill out and get drinks, but the offerings were pretty skimp… Jager and Red Bull, or Jager and Sprite, or Jager, or Sprite, or Red Bull, and Beer. We made due to say the least.
After a few interviews and posting for some pictures, we blasted over the Hip Hop stage in the far corner of the venue. Along the way, we saw quite a few interesting characters with giant Mohawks, insane tattoos and some glaringly gay outfits. As we got closer to the hip hop stage, familiar sounds were emerging.
Upon our arrival, a good size group of people came over to approach us (well Sbazzo and DJ Doc J more than me) but one guy did come up and shake my hand say he was a fan. I was really excited about that and gave him props and agreed to his request to “make friends with him”. Fast forward twenty minutes when he introduces me to someone else as “Lao Zheng” from Yin T’sang and I had to inform him that I was not in fact Lao Zheng, that I was Xiao Bizzle.
“Who?” he asked perplexed…
Ok well, screw that guy, he was a bogus fan boy anyway.
Seriously, do all the white people in baggy clothes,with beards and brown hair that rap in Chinese and hang out with Sbazzo look that much alike, I MEAN COME ON! Get it straight!
Back to the story: before we could perform, it started pouring rain!
This was a big dissapointment to all the fans and the artists waiting to perform, especially Manchuker who had come all the way from Taiwan for the show! But, before long, a plan began to come together…LUSH!
Now for those who don’t know, LUSH is a student hangout in the WuDaoKou area of Beijing. Ironically, Lao Zheng of Yin T’sang was part of the team that started LUSH years ago, and so on that day we decided to make the best of the situation and we moved the show to LUSH.
A few hours later, Sbazzo, ID and myself were on stage rapping Yin T’sang classic hits like “在北京” (In Beijing) and the other songs we had prepared for MIDI that day. To say the equipment wasn’t up to par is an understatement, but we made due. I even dropped an English remix I had been working on for Sbazzo‘s “Push the bouncer” (see original version below)
11 Push The Bouncer (Oringial AAC)
With a crowd of about 40 people in the house, it was certainly one of the smaller and more intimate shows I’ve ever been to or performed in, but the vibe was fun and pretty wide open. (Partly because DJ Doc J was super lit from the free drinks by this point and started getting pretty wild with his mixing, haha).
In the end, the night ended without as much hooplah as would have followed our MIDI show, but we were all pretty drunk and happy and as always, the best part of LUSH, some very friendly European college girls really seemed to like “our songs” and wanted a private freestyle show…but we were all tired and kicked it back to the east side…. so till next time, ladies…
Bizzle!
Brief Note: DJ Krush vs DJ Stretch Armstrong
February 2, 2010 – 5:20 pm
Poor planning (by yours truly) combined with a Saturday night music line-up that had two big-time shows PLUS a good friends birthday party meant that Bizzle had to make some sacrifices. So a few weekends ago, when DJ Krush came to town and absolutely ROCKED Yugong Yishan… I wasn’t there. But here is the report my partners in crime had to say about the show…
DJ Krush, while not that well-known to some in Beijing in fact drew a larger than usual crowd, with a good mix of expat and Chinese hip-hop heads, hipsters, hot girls, and perhaps DJ show first timers. With his Trip-hop influence, there was a good cross-over of Electronic/House music fans in the spot as well. The crowd danced and grooved to the surprising mixes and everyone was impressed with DJ Krush‘s eclectic music tastes. Again tho, rumor has it that DJ Wordy really tore the house down with a set that had the entire crowd generally wild’n out. The refreshing news I heard was that there wasn’t as noticeable lack of hip hop music mixed in, as has been an issue at recent “mash-up” or “turnablist” DJ shows at Yugong… but none the less, I heard that it turned into a big crazy dance party… and I am the chump that missed it.
Here are some photos from the show to check out:
(sigh)...two of those hands could have been mine...DOH!
DJ Krush crushin it.
DJ Wordy shows some love
Now the DJ Stretch Armstrong show at PUNK, in fact, I did make it for the last set of this show and it was interesting to say the least. (As I walked in, DJ Wordy walked up to me and decided to autograph my shirt with the sharpie I had… right on the very front pocket. Nice. )
My previous encounters with Stretch‘s music had been hearing his name shouted out on tracks by RA the Rugged Man, 50 Cent‘s Guess Who’s Back Mixtape, and he was all over the GTA3 soundtrack, basically playing all NYC hip hop ish. Tonite though, by the time I had arrived, Stretch was playing electronic mash-up music, and to be honest, I didn’t hear ANY hip hop at all. I can’t say I heard the entire set, but the people there all said he basically played a few pieces of tracks, then switched into electronic music. To be fair, the crowd at PUNK definitely more suits electronic music more so than hip hop, and I salute his flexibility; but me and a few other cats came there specifically to hear some of that good NYC ish, and it just wasn’t getting played.
So, I decided to go talk to him and over to the DJ Booth… keep in mind I was dressed like a damn fool this night, (it was for a party, long story) but he thought it was funny and we started chatting as he was finishing his set. I asked him if he was interested in checking out another “real hip hop club” and he said he was. So he cut off his set, packed up his stuff and after we had a drink or two, my whole crew and DJ Stretch hopped in the elevator to head out to the club. Then, right as we got to the lobby floor, he said he needed to stop off at his room to make a call to his lawyer about some lawsuit and would have to meet up in a few minutes, he gave me his number and said to call him in like 20 and we would meet up. Sorry Stretch, but it was WAY too late for that, and we went straight to Vics and got our party on without him. Sad. So since I never did call him, I do hope he found his way and had a good time in Beijing. And that’s the story of how I met DJ Stretch Armstrong.
The Man
Bizzle!
YouCallThatHipHop.com Update: 12/14/09
December 14, 2009 – 4:15 pm
If you noticed the posts have been a little bit slower or less than usual the past week or two, its true, I have been really busy getting ready for my USA “tour” coming up next week, working out a few show deals around Beijing, and this weekend had my early birthday celebrations….so before I let it go tooo long, I want to throw a lil’ Chip-Chop and Xiao Bizzle update to everyone in leading up to that!
Q-Bert: The Q-bert shows were both big hits with local hip hop heads, hipsters and with the random drunk girl in skirt and army boots (I saw her at one party and I heard she was at the other party…wearing the same outfit, def way to cold for that kinda stuff but power to her). Q threw pretty much the same set at Bling and Yugong, and his first rate scratchin’ and juggling skills were on display. He had another epic battle/coop with DJ Wordy (who I heard was playing better tunes than ANYONE all night, big up to Wordy) Overall, another great set of shows for Qbert, many in a long line of China performances. See below for pics.
Maya and Bizzle @ Mix 11/11/09
Funny story on this one… So Maya and I meet up in the Vics/Mix parking lot around 2:30am the other day, plotting to make a visit to one of the clubs. I told Maya that I had been in talks with the Management at Mix recently about doing some shows, so I figured we would get treated pretty well if we went over there to party. Turns out I was right.
I call my contact who meets us at the front entrance to take us inside… then we walk directly from the entrance up to the DJ Booth and on stage, he hands us a bottle of Champagne and glasses and we start toasting. Quite the entrance, even by Beijing standards. But then before we can even send smiles to the crowd of 1500+ people partying on the dance floor below, the Music Director comes over with two Mics, hands them to us and basically says…”Go!”
Now this is a precarious position for me, and other MC’s as well.
I love doing what I do, and admittedly, I mostly rap for fun, occasionally for business if I’m lucky, and most of all I enjoy being part of the scene and helping to promote other up-and-coming guys. But this situation is different because I have been negotiating a contract for shows at this location, and now without that contract or even an agreement, we were about to do a free show? Maya has just finished two tours across China and is getting booked for show after show for next year, and I am supposed to ask him to just do a few impromptu songs for free? Not a fun position to be in.
Anyway, Maya was cool about it and since we both were in the right mood for it, we got it live and did a little impromptu set of freestyles and Maya even did some verses from his new album while I hyped the crowd for Mix the way I usually do. They even threw on some Daddy Yankee and Maya got the house rocking with his back-up vocals to that. All I can say is that we def got the crowd excited again (it was already around 3am+) and after 2-3 songs, we took our bows and went up to the VIP room, so over all a good experience. I dropped a lil’ Chinese free-style that I think got people’s attention as well…they were not expecting that to come outta my mouth!
All in all, it was a fun occasion, the guest DJ Aioshi from Japan was a cool cat and he loved that we came up and rapped like that, instead of being offended that we came on during his set. He knew it wasn’t our plan, we just were going with the flow.
The funniest part of the night was when I first got on stage, I had to take my jacket off and leave it up there. After our “set” I realized I had forgotten it up there and wanted to go get it. The bosses of Mix for whatever reason didn’t think I could handle getting the jacket myself, so they had this GIANT of a bouncer (literally the biggest Chinese guy I’ve ever seen) basically piggyback carry me through the crowd to the stage, got my jacket, and then back again to the VIP. Hilarious. True Story, piggy back.
Let’s keep in mind I was not totally prepared for a performance that night, as we had been at some “Business casual” style parties before, I actually had a shirt and tie on! Luckily I had on proper shoes and a hat, but still, even tho I might have looked a little bit out of place at first, the crowd ended up showing us love either way.
Trip to the USA:
Xiao Bizzle is going to be out of town for a few weeks coming up but that doesn’t mean their will not be updates and news here on YCTHH.com! I am looking forward to meeting up with my people Young Flu who has recently dropped a new album, and KAZE who is blowing up doing big things with a new record deal. I will make sure get some interviews with them focusing on their upcoming tour in China (that I am setting up!)
NC, DC, NYC, and maybe a little LA to holler at Aidge from the Aesthetics Crew. Holla if you are in any of these places and we can build!
Till next time…
Bizzle!
Iron Mic Battle 12/2009: Winners and Losers
December 8, 2009 – 11:45 am
All I need is one mic...
Saturday night’s Iron Mic battle at Star live was the qualifier for the Finals in Shanghai, and it featured battlers from Beijing, Dongbei, Henan, Miyun, and Hebei, and more so than last year, the competition was packed!
With 32 battlers taking part, everyone had to not only battle to impress the judges like Sbazzo and Webber, DJ Wordy and Raph, but also battle for for crowd support and in the end, they had to battle their own fatigue and voice-loss.
Winners of the Night: I love that Little David made it to the final round of the Iron Mic and it was really good to see my my lil’ homie doing his thing. I mean, this kid is like 15 years old and, in my opinion, was by far the best battler up there other than Dragon23. Eventually, the winner was a kid from Ning Xia 宁夏 named Yang Yang, a totally unknown MC from who knows where…and I gotta say, seeing as he was trying to give-up before the final battle due to losing his voice almost completely, I didn’t think he should have won. Dragon23 was one of the only pure MC’s up there that day, and had the decision gone to the judges as was planned, I think he would have gone to the finals and won the whole thing, so he is a winner in my eyes.
Loser of the Night: The crowd was by far the loser of the night, because they were making some POOR deicisons about winners and losers in battles…but in fairness, most of them had to sit through 5-6hrs of battles that night, so they might have been a lil’ screwed up in the head. Webber and Raph could have simplified the whole occasion, which went from 8:30pm – 2am by making the rounds shorter, only giving each MC one round, and then making the winner decision up to the head judge, Sbazzo.
Also, the guy who admitted he had only started rapping 3 months ago (if you call what he was doing rapping) and had no lyrical abilities in my opinion, ended up nearly into the finals, that was a poor choice. He was cussing out peoples mom’s and I guess that went over well with the crowd. By the end of the battle rounds, the MC’s were complimenting each other or conceding defeat before a battle started, and a lot other stuff that shouldn’t be going down in my opinion.
How to avoid that?
Make it short and sweet. Let people get their best stuff out and then pick a winner. If you make battle MC’s battle 10-12 even 20 times in one night, it just can’t possibly be “top notch” stuff.
Either way, the battle was a lot of fun and the crowd was into it, which was great to be a part of. A bunch of local MC’s and hip hop gurus were in the house to watch like IN3, Lil Ray, Crazy Chef, RMBZ boys, and Dragon. It was cool to see the boys all out and supporting the up-and-coming MC’s.
Break dancing crews had some pretty sick battles going on during the intermissions and once my camera battery gets charged, I will upload some photos and videos.
Shanghai is certainly going to have the cream of the crop and the winner of that battle gets the $ and the respect, but until then…
Bizzle!
Iron Mic Battle at Star Live 星光现场 Sat 12/5/09
December 2, 2009 – 4:20 pm
Battle Battle Battle!!!
China’s premier MC Battle Competition ” Iron Mic” will be held this Saturday night at Star Live and the MC line-up is just crazy! Last year winner Big Dog 大狗 and Lil’ Ray had a battle for the ages at Vics followed by a performance by Royce da 5’9, hopefully this years show can live up to that!
Sbazzo, Webber, Raph, and DJ Wordy and more will be heading up the judge panel to pick Beijing’s hottest new battle MC…and you might see Bizzle up there as well, not battling, but you know, gettin’ the low down for my YouCallThatHipHop family! Holla!
Prizes for winning the battle include a trip to Shanghai to compete in the national Iron Mic competition, 8000rmb and merchandise from Nike (who is sponsoring the event). Winners of these Iron Mic competitions are top candidates for future (rare) record deals, and sometimes winners can win that opportunity directly, so, in other words…ITS A BIG DEAL.
Tons of MC’s, lots of B.boys and DJ’s like DJ Doc J , DJ Wesley, and DJ Jiaming will be spinnin’ heads with the craziest battle beats and breaks. It is going to be Beijing hip hop at its finest! Don’t miss it!
Time: Saturday 12/5 , 10pm
Tickets: 50rmb (40rmb advance)
Location: 3/F, 79 Hepingli Xijie 北京市东城区和平里西街79号
Bizzle!
Rahzel @ Bling 11/20/09—Vertict? Killed it.
November 23, 2009 – 4:30 pm
This Side Over Here Is Focused
“I like this side better, because this side is focused…” – Rahzel
This quote from Rahzel talking about the crowd, summarizes part of his show at Bling on Friday night (11/20/09) in many ways. The live show was a great time, but it did have many different “sides”, phases, and moments and I’ll break down a few.
First and foremost, Rahzel is the world’s greatest beat boxer and DJ JS-1 a super talented DJ with very specialized skills when it comes to beat juggling with his hands, feet, back, and other tricks. To see them perform their live set in person was an honor and the crowd at Bling appreciated this fact.
The Park boys love it.
Now for Bizzle‘s take on the night I ask you all bare with me, as I am going divide my commentary up into different sides, phases and moments of the night.
They are:
- The Boom-Market Phase
- The Diminishing Returns Phase
- The Black Friday Phase
- The Focused Side vs. The ADD side
- Moments of the Blissful Hip Hop Head
- Moments of the Awkward Turtle
Now, just follow me as I break it down…
Gettin love from the crowd
The Boom-Market Phase: I think Economic Terms can describe parts of this show really well and can illustrate the “ebb and flow” of the Rahzel/JS-1 performance. The club was relatively packed when Sbazzo, DJ Zoubin and I arrived around 11pm. Once inside, I saw the stage had been set up near the DJ Booth, which was a concern for me since Bling usually has NO stage area for artists; props to them for setting that up well. Soon enough, people we completely surrounding the stage area in preparation for Rahzel‘s show. Once 11:45-12:00am got near, by the time DJ JS-1 made his way to the tables, Bling’s resident spin-master DJ J-Cue already had the crowd, including myself, dancing pretty hard and getting crazy to some of the usual hits like “I Got a Feeling…“, which always gets the crowd pumped. The burst of energy when DJ JS hopped on the decks and got on the mic was the real beginning of the “Boom-Market” phase, when everyone’s attention and energy was focused on the show at hand. DJ JS-1 then introduced Rahzel, who came on to a huge ovation with video camera in hand, filming the crowd while the crowd filmed him, and he chose to remain quiet and behind the booth while JS showed off his turntable skills…see video for details on how awesome these skills are.
After that, Rahzel jumped into his set and started showing off his world-class Beat Boxing skills, and the crowd was eating it up! Everyone was cheering reaching for Rahzel to touch, him, every camera, camera-phone and any other electronic device was up and in use as he started doing originals songs, then remixing songs like “Drop it Like it’s Hot”, “React” , and in the later stages of the Boom-Market Phase, he even threw in Wutang Clan’s “36 Chambers” to the delight of all. This song certainly made for the Moment of the Blissful Hip Hop Head, as I saw cats in the crowd almost screaming their heads off as Razhel commanded them to sing the chorus of “Wutang Clan aint nothing to f*** with!” Word of advice: Neither is Razhel when it comes to beatboxing!!!
Lil' Ray reppin the Wu-Tang
Soon enough though, after about 30-40 minutes of this HIGH energy and high volume performance, I found the crowd and the show together entering into the “Diminishing Returns Phase“
Gettin' Busy on the Mic!
The Diminishing Returns Phase: This phase of the show I’d say came about 45 minutes into the show, when certain members of the crowd who were not in the front areas or in the main dance floor started to “diminish” or retreat back to their tables, to the bar, or just into conversations in other areas of the club. With a beat-boxer who is taking small breaks in between verses, songs, etc. this was very, well, obvious to everyone, especially to Rahzel. While MANY in the crowd, especially the area I was in, were still 100% into what was happening, and dedicated fans were EVERYWHERE dancing, grooving, cheering, singing along, I have to admit that there was some “riff-raff” going on as well, especially near the bathrooms and entrance way. This brought on the quote at the title of this article….
The Focused Side vs The ADD Side: Rahzel, after starting to perform “If Your Mother Only Knew”, took a small break for about 10-20 seconds (when he does this, realize there is NO sound, the DJ isn’t playing any records and no background music so you can hear the loud part of the crowd very easily) and pointed to one side of the crowd saying “I like this side of the crowd better, this side is totally focused…but this side [pointing to other side] is like…ADD or something, not focused at all.” This call-out got the crowd BACK involved in a big way, real fast!
He then went on to perform the full version of the song here is the video, unfortunately my sound isn’t good on the camera I was using, and you can definitely hear the “crowd riff-raff” I mentioned earlier:
The Black Friday Phase: After about 1.5hrs of Rahzel‘s amazing beat boxing and DJ JS-1 breaks and beats, as far as I knew, the show was STILL going on. Then sorta suddenly, Rahzel stopped beat boxing and started posing for pictures with people in the crowd. GREAT IDEA, but I think ending the show formally first would have been better for some of us, as we didn’t know what to do now! My group of hip-hop heads and I were standing there looking at each other, trying to figure out if the show was in fact over or not. There had not been a big finale, no announcement, and it was just not really clear what was going on.
This is also the Awkward Turtle Moment of the show, which features Bizzle trying to get up to the stage to get a picture with Rah and TOTALLY failing because I was pushed out of the way by a 90lb Asian girl who gave me the “Look of Death” to let me know she was getting the f’ing picture before me. After that, thinking I looked more like a groupie than a fan (or part of the promo team) and not to mention afraid for my life… I decided to retreat with no photo.
Rahzel breaks it down in the crowd...he's in there somewhere!
Now, before I get to far into a criticism rant, eventually I was reminded to leave the performance details to the professionals, because after a few minutes of posing, Rahzel got back on the mic, did some of his best vocal tricks and as part of his finale, he beat-boxed his way through the crowd, going from table to table, section to section, without “losing a beat!” CRAZY!!!!
When he did end his set, he got a HUGE ovation from the crowd and this much love for real hip hop in China was refreshing to hear. Calls for ‘encores’ didn’t win him over, but JS quickly threw on some old-school beats and breaks that got the crowd from the bar running back to the stage area to dance!
Show some love for the DJ
A great performance was matched by great energy from the crowd (at least most of it) and the show went off really well. I think it was a big step for Bling who had only dabbled in DJ’s for live shows, and might the beginning of more diverse live sets for their venue.
Shout to Rahzel and JS for being all around cool people and some of the most talented and authetic hip hop acts to bless Beijing with their skills, I really enjoyed the time I spent with them privately and watching the show. Also big thanks to Bling and YinEnt for their promotions and support for hip hop China, and finally a thanks to Kristen from for being a babe and letting me stand next to her in the Bling staff only VIP area during the set. Good spot for viewing, and standing next to her didn’t hurt…
Do I stand out much?
Bizzle!
Update: New pictures and video from Ying Yang Twins @ Vics 11/14/2009
November 19, 2009 – 11:35 am
As promised, here is the video of Maya‘s song “Bailar” when we invited more girls than we could handle to dance with us on stage…see the result, not a great video, but you get the point.
Now more pictures from the show, the table and backstage. Big shout out to Mike for the pictures.
Ying Yang, Bizzle and Maya in the VIPizzle
Can D-Roc get on stage please?
Ying Yang on Stage
Maya is all smiles
Shout out to the shorties
Heavy Security
There is Bizzle's Back
Backstage
I swear she asked for the picture...
Maya loves the DJ booth
Ying Yang in this Thang
If anyone has more, email me at XiaoBizzle@gmail.com and I will post them!
Bizzle!
Rahzel @ Bling, Friday Nov 20th
November 18, 2009 – 11:19 am
This Friday night at Bling, the Godfather of Noyze, will bring his world-class beatbox skills to the Dirty Kapital. Rahzel has been the predominant beatbox artist for over a decade and the Youtube video of his performance of “If your mother only knew” has amassed millions and millions of hits.
From the CityWeekend event posting:
RAH ZEL – The Human Beatbox Comes to Bling
The undisputed “Godfather of Noyze,” Rahzel has re-defined the beat box. Probably the best known member of The Roots, Rahzel is a self-defined “vocal percussionist” who has perfectly mastered this quintessential hip hop art form…
To hear him is to be converted. Performing Exclusively @ BLING.
Date: Friday, November 20
Time: 9pm-late
Cover: RMB 100
Also, click for a good interview with Rahzel done by TimeOut.
I just talked with Kristen from Bling / and she was saying its definitely going to be a sell out, so GET THERE EARLY!
I am headed to meet Rahzel at his hotel tonite to show him around town a bit, perhaps even meet up with my boys over at . Then tomorrow night Yin T’sang is accepting an award at a Yoho Awards Show, and Rahzel will be rolling with them (you know I gotta be there as well!).
Holla to for booking the show, big up to Bling and Yin T’sang Wan Sui 隐藏万岁！
Bizzle!
Crunk-ology: Ying Yang Twins Teach Beijing a Lesson
November 17, 2009 – 12:33 pm
For those of you who missed it, the Ying Yang Twins crunked the house apart this Saturday night at Vics, in a way Beijing doesn’t see very often. The whole night was insane, and the Twins performance matched the crowd’s energy, which was incredible.
Packed House
First things First…here is the video interview I did with the Ying Yang Twins from before the show.
Now to the stories of the night:
Arrived at Vics around 5pm and met up with XIV to have a small business meeting to discuss projects, and about 20 mins later the Ying Yang Twins walk in, both rockin big, heavy chinchilla jackets, green gators, and D-Roc of the YYT explained his Versace boots “ain’t even Mens shoes, they look like men’s shoes but they are ladies shoes.” Haha, more hilarity to come from D-Roc later in the night.
Before sound check, we decide to do interviews first, and I was the first up.
During my interview, the whole room was packed full of other ‘real’ reporters and photographers, but Xiao Bizzle was the ONLY one that got a full video interview (I told ‘em I was from North Carolina and they showed loved for the Dirty South). During the interview, there was some disagreement with D-Roc and myself about my website name using ‘hip hop’ instead of ‘rap’ or ‘rappin’. “Youcallthatrap.com” wouldn’t make any sense really, and what might be news to D-Roc is that RAP is generally regarded as a part of the greater HIP-HOP culture. But that’s all I am gonna say about that.
After the interviews we all did our sound checks and everything was cool, even with the club empty. Watching them rehearse was even more fun for me because I recognized and knew the words to many of the songs they were going to perform. I was already getting excited.
Maya aka M2 was set to perform right before the Twins, and he asked Xiao Bizzle to do what he does best, hype the crowd. Our sound check went smooth and soon after, we were at Kro’s Nest having pizza and getting pumped up. We retreated to our respective houses to get ready for the show and then I went to my homie Byron‘s house party at the New Moma (which is sick btw), but within ten minutes of getting there, I got the call that the limo was waiting to pick everyone up and would meet me outside.
Soon enough the limo had picked everyone up, stretch SUV style. Ying Yang Twins, Maya, myself and the security team were wild’n out in the limo on the way to Vics watching a bootleg copy of “This is It” which the Ying Yang Twins were HUGE fans of apparently. They were doing dance moves and screamin’ out Jackson lyrics the whole time, it was a fun car ride.
We showed up at Vics a little late, and once security was ready, M2 and I hopped out first, and there was a crowd waiting to cheer us on and take pictures. (Trust me, I was surprised too, but I did my best job of acting like I was used to it)
Ying Yang got out to quite a bit of fanfare, and then we all got escorted into the club under heavy security and eventually made it to our VIP Table, which was already surrounded by girls, dudes, and some groupies. Maya is Beijing’s premier Latino MC , so girls were obviously jumpin’ all over him and I even had a few people say they loved my music. I’m thinking to myself..
”thats funny…do you even know who I am?”
but of course I respond,
“Yeah, I love you too.”
Look at me now Mom, ya boy Bizzle’s got fans!
The table was totally surrounded by people in every direction, screaming for the YYTwins, trying to get their attention. I turned to Kaine from the YYT‘s and asked him, “it is like this every time you go anywhere?” He said coolly:
“Always.”
Soon enough they were telling us it was time to go on, we went backstage and started gettin’ hyped up. They called us out to perform and we were up on stage getting busy in Español before we knew it.
WOW! The crowd was SO LIVE! It was crazy to see the whole scene from up there. I have done plenty of shows before but this one was different. People were grabbing at our clothes, screaming our names; it was the most fun I’ve had performing ever, but that’s just me, Maya is pretty used to that kinda stuff.
For Maya‘s song “Bailar” we decided to improvise a little bit and invited some girls on to the stage. We didn’t expect what happened next…when about 45 girls (exactly 45) all climbed up onto the stage at once! We tried to keep performing but there was just toooo many girls on the stage for us to really move (Video of this will uploaded later today or tomorrow once I find it, I promise!).
At the end of the song, we were ready to do one more bonus track, but for whatever reason, the sound guy motioned that were getting cut off and in fact, my mic got turned off because we were going to keep going! Anyone who knows me well knows that this was perhaps one of the shining moments of my life. We were so crunk, we had so many hunnies on stage, and were rockin it so right that we were in danger of OUTSHINING the main act (YYT) before they even come on ….so…they said that’s enough, and just like that…Maya‘s and Bizzle’s set was done. Well, who cares if its true, at least that’s my theory, because no one can say the crowd wasn’t loving our set… it was…crunk.
iHype
One note: to the guy who was tapping me over and over again in the middle of our set and kept holding up the numbers “2″ and “1″ with his fingers…what the hell were you doing? I was in the middle of a show, and you got on stage, got in my face, to tell me the number…21…was it your birthday or something? I don’t care, you were NOT in good form buddy, bad timing.
The trip back up to the table was an adventure to say the least. But eventually I found myself back with the YYTwins having drinks. Those guys really do know how to party, and after gettin loose for a bit longer, it was time for them to go on.
The YYT‘s set was a whole lot of different things. I am gonna break down like this: The GOOD, the BAD and the UGLY.
The GOOD:
The YYT‘s definately brought a lot of energy with their music, and the crowd was feeding off that. Everyone was going about as crazy as I have ever seen it in Vics. They performed all their hit songs and for a while it was just getting better and better. I had not seen quite as many big smiles and just sheer wild’n out in a long time, and it was really refreshing to see people getting that loose. Oh and, D-Roc wore a Chinese Fighter Pilot helmet for most of his show and all the way to the club in the limo…that was classic. People were having a blast and nothing else really matters.
Roger That...Initializing Crunk Lift Off
The BAD:
A guy, we will call him C, who is a regular in the Chip-Chop scene, somehow got into the DJ booth during the YYT‘s set and sorta screwed everything up. Were talking the music just STOPPED, in the middle of a YYT song. That got fixed, and the show went on, but then, as if that wasn’t enough, he hopped up on stage AFTER the YYT‘s and did two Chinese hip hop songs of his own, which was NOT part of the show. I guess he had met or had some sort of relationship with the YYTwins or the promoter or something, but had he come to rehearsals, he might have known that there was a plan for ending the show… C is a real cool dude, and I think he meant well, but lets not shake things up like that next time.
The UGLY:
The YYT performance was too long. They performed for almost 2.5hrs it seemed, and that wasn’t how we planed in rehearsals. People definitely got their money worth, but I imagine people did start leaving while they were still performing, which isn’t a good sign. For the rest of the show, the only really UGLY part was the disorganization that happened with the artist line-up and over crowding in the DJ booth, but that wasn’t DJ Kefra’s fault at all. During rehearsals we had everything scoped out and planned well, but then during the show they cut Maya and my set off early, Ricky J and Maya‘s feature song didn’t get performed at the right time, then this guy jumps on the decks and takes over for Kefra unannounced and then drops the ball. Really, if everyone had just followed along with DJ Kefra and our rehearsal plans, the show would have been the best show in Beijing, ever, Kefra even said so himself to me the next day. Also, I saw about 10 people involved in a scuffle outside, which was simply over someone LOOKING at the person in the wrong way. Seriously boys, U-N-I-T-Y!
Maya and Bizzle
The rest will come as I get more photos and videos from the evening.
Big shout out to Maya for bringing me on with him, we rocked it amigo! Also big shout to Vics and DJ Kefra for all their support and finally holla to the Ying Yang Twins for bringing the ‘crunk’ back to the Big Dirty Kapital.
Bizzle!