Generally there is a sad lack of hip-hop in Shanghai. Staples like Guandi or Windows are always there but it’s often the same music night after night (esp at Windows). I was surprised — nay, shocked — to see that DJ Jazzy Jeff was going to be in Shanghai at Bonbon last night. I made it to Bonbon about half an hour before he came on. The crowd was pretty interesting, probably half of them were foreigners and the other half locals.
The set was fantastic: it started with some songs I’d never heard before that had more of a D&B beat and then moved on to more typical club songs that were mixed incredibly well. The crowd was really in to it and everybody’s head was bobbing to the tracks. Rumor has it that Naughty by Nature is also going to be in Shanghai in the next few days or weeks, so if this pace can be kept up, there’s hope yet for hip-hop here.