麻豆约拍

How Chinese can hip hop be?

As Beijing teenagers embrace hip hop style, Stephen Armstrong talks to performers employing traditional instruments and regional dialects to create their version of this urban American protest music.

In 1998, there was one underground club to meet Chinese hip hop fans who had heard American performers on pirated CDs.

Now hip hop style is fashionable and there are clubs and DJ competitions, but how is the fledgling recording industry trying to create a specifically Chinese version of this brand of music or is hip hop style an example of the Westernisation of China ?

Stephen reports on the visit to Britain of the Dragon Tongue Squad and interviews radio show hosts Doc J and Steady Eddy, DJ Lychee, promoter Li Hong Jie and and artist Cao Fei.

Producer: Robyn Read

First broadcast on 麻豆约拍 Radio 4 in April 2008.