Okay, so, I had no idea where to put this, so I figured this is as good as any. This might be kind of weird, but while watching youtube videos on Mongolia, I found a Mongolian rapper named “Quiza” who, despite me not understanding a word he says, just sounds hard as shit, I’ve been having a great time listening to him and watching his music videos. (though, disappointingly, many of his songs are clearly the opposite of “hard” it hasn’t hurt my enjoyment of the ones that do sound hard).
So basically, I’ve realized that I don’t need to understand the words to enjoy rap, which is surprising considering how lyrical a genre it is. Perhaps Mongolian just lends itself to rap better than most languages, but I was thinking, maybe there are some good Chinese rappers out there to, they would be more useful since I am trying to learn Chinese anyway. You guys have any favorites? Any good Chinese rappers out there?
This one is the hardest, most gangsta Chinese rap song EVA. They called this guy the Taiwanese Tupac. He ran with the gangstas in LA. Then he got locked up and when he came out, he started rapping. Just like The Game. And like Tupac, the man died at a very young age. You can just feel the raw emotions, the pain and the anger in his voice. Here it is, “Life’s a Struggle”:
This one is Machi, speaks for itself. They rap in Taiwanese so it sounds pretty gangsta. Unfortunately the MV has been removed. It was a really tight MV.
This one is Big G, he also raps in Taiwanese. Since he raps in Taiwanese and he looks like your typically “tai-ke”, it’s pretty gangsta. Someone was even kind enough to provide English subs in the vid lol. “Taiwan’s Song”:
This one is semi-hard. They were a short lived group called “Iron Bamboo” who specialized in making hardcore gangsta rap. But they themselves were not gangstas or even remotely close. They were rich preppy boys, mostly from TAS. There was even an article about their phoniness in one of the English rags during their hayday. They speak four different languages in this MV, English, French, Chinese, and Taiwanese. Quite a feat for a gangsta rap vid lol. “For My Homiez”:
You seem knowledgable; any thoughts on how to search for this:
[quote=“steev”]Today in the local bookstore I heard a cool song, in Mandarin, some guy rapping about how much he wanted to get a job in McDs so he could eat the burgers and hang out with the babes behind the counter…
sounded like a Taiwanese version of The Streets (UK rap).
Anyone have any idea who this might be by? I found it absolutely hilarious. but no luck with my googling…[/quote]
You seem knowledgable; any thoughts on how to search for this:
[quote=“steev”]Today in the local bookstore I heard a cool song, in Mandarin, some guy rapping about how much he wanted to get a job in McDs so he could eat the burgers and hang out with the babes behind the counter…
sounded like a Taiwanese version of The Streets (UK rap).
Anyone have any idea who this might be by? I found it absolutely hilarious. but no luck with my googling…[/quote]
Thanks![/quote]
lol what? McDonalds, hamburgers, babes… That can only mean one song…
It sounds like you are talking about this song called “tai mai shu”(tie my shoe). It was very popular when I was in junior high in Cali. I think everyone in Cali has heard of the song. The guy’s rapping in English though, fobby English…
I just took a listen at Quiza and he sounds pretty good. Our last nanny was Mongolian and it’s definitely a rough-sounding language. I remember she always used this one word with my child and finally, I had to ask her what it meant because it sounded like she was exasperated every time she said it, which was often. It meant “ok.” It was this throaty, phlegm-y, negative-sounding word, and it merely meant “ok.”
OP, there’s this Cantonese rapper who did a Cantonese cover of Warren G’s “This DJ” I heard it eons ago and it was hilarious. He sounded pretty good, but his English was atrocious: “pie-ah-knee-ah su-bee-ka…” (“Pioneer speakers pumpin while I smoke on a pound”). It was awesome like that. Instead of “I see you, P. Diddy,” he said “Ngo tai do lei la! Pee Dee Dee!” I’ll ask my friend if she can dig it up, but I doubt it. It was probably made by some local kids.
Funny, I was just thinking of some old school rap recently and saw this thread. Ok, DMX isn’t that old, but he was probably the last rapper I listened to.
