P1280055

P1280055
Originally uploaded by Jam No Peanut

thats some oddly menacing cotton candy

HotPot, Skateboards & Section 6

Field Life--Filled Life

Lets get personal.

I must first apologize for my unintended web hiatus. It was more or less provoked by a number of items which we can file under "Field Life"--that bizzarro-gap of time-space where I am neither researcher nor participant, but some gooey amalgam of Jamel, the naive American in Beijing, and Jamel, China night-life tourguide sensation. Some days I even had to get up early. The effects have been dizzying.

In the past few weeks I've had two friends from high school, Jaysen and Jimmy visit from Shanghai and New Zealand respectively; Jaysen works as a teacher in Shanghai and is hoplessly infatuated with the Shanghai EXPO, and Jimmy is in the middle of a world tour with his girlfriend Kristen, and just biked across Southern China. Jerome, a mainstay of my life in China and professional college home boy popped up from Nanjing to catch a glimpse of Beijing springtime. I also got the chance to kick it with Tekupu, a globe-trotting Maori hip-hop documentarian, emcee and activist from Aotearoa (the settlers call it New Zealand). Tekupu was finishing up a 6 part rapumentary series about hip hop and political activism in 20 countries around the world--so I gave him a hand finding the right people in Beijing to talk to. And then theres Mom dukes, a globetrotter in her own regard, has travelled to at least a dozen countries in the past 5 years, and decided to take down China, and had three days of a two week tour to see her (not so) darling son.

Tekupu AKA D-Word

mom, barry, and the goldmines crew

To add to matters, the apartment I left isn't tumbling down as soon as I had anticipated, which now, according to the real estate company, puts me at fault for breaking lease. "But other rooms in the apartment building have already started being blown out, and the destruction of the stairwell windows is waking me up every morning at 7." Dizzying. Told you some days I had to get up early. I literally thought that I'd be walking home to dig out my Supras from underneath a pile of rubble. "Forget that", they said, "YOUR apartment is still intact, you CAN still live there." Forget about getting your deposit back homeboy, in fact, they want another two months rent (excluding what you've already paid in advance) because you 'suddenly left'. The real estate company also claimed the destruction company never contacted them, when ironically enough, I played the middle man for that exchange, so I'm pretty sure they got the message.

I guess leaving that apartment was a bit of an inconvenience for them. Now what seemingly fat-pocketed sucker will they get to rent a room in a building thats clearly about to be torn down? Waitaminute...

So here I am, in some sort of real estate political exile. There are worst things to be afraid of. Like wasting tax payers money in an economic crisis. Can I pull a patriotism card on this one?



Gentrification, and the destruction of the old hutongs and old buildings in Beijing is a driving force of social cohesion for many youth--the KABOOM destruction of courtyard lifestyle pushes the same social dynamic into towering apartment buildings, making communes out of two-bedrooms. I mean, I've only been here a year and already its pushed me out, and has had me pulled into a rap commune led by my homeboy Jahway. Hip hop offers a unique critique to capitalism and gentrification, and the ways to cope with poverty (see: hustle) and decadence (see:bling), I doubt the mutual dependency of these processes, gentrification, destruction and my lifestyle now as a live-in with Jahway, would be as apparent had I not been studying hip hop. As an ethos, hip hop has helped me in more than one way to understand the phenomena i see (and am a voluntary part of) around this city.

Now its time to put more of this science to paper.

Peace Peace Peace

BOMBED X Urban Ecology

Funny how the universe works some ways. Just as I'm thinking, "spring festival is over, and the weathers getting a little warmer everyday...lets try and get familiar with the graf scene--i get slapped with the goverment cheese-yellow tape of beijing graffiti, the 拆 (chai) symbol.

Nothing to motivate your spring cleaning better than the impending demolition of your surroundings.

Luckily enough, its a fair enough reminder of the role of the process of "chai" and its importance in the graffiti and street art movement in Beijing. State-produced types of graffiti, such as this one, which means to 'tear down', and mark a building for demolition, dot the beijing cityscape, alongside a plethora of painted slogans proclaiming china's green future, olympic spirit, and the importance of being 'civilized' (讲文明) among other nationalistic topics.

Zhang Dali, the artist who is said to first bring graffiti to Beijing, drew on the process deconstruction with his "Bighead" (大人头) series in 1995. His tag, the simple expressionless outline of a human head, often targeted decrepid buildings, and buildings commissioned for deconstruction --the very same target of the 拆 symbol. However, his was a symbol with no particular meaning, and deliberately left open for interpretation. He only clear intention was to bring his art closer to reality--to the street. His works would go on to inspire a feeling of uncertainty, manifested through a symbol that would not jump out to passers-by, but when reminded, they would somehow recall. Some critics call the Big Head a reminder of everyday situations one occurs in a city; people's daily lives, the construction/deconstruction process, and urban sprawl which both excites and incites us with uneasiness... that the pure, singular head implies that the street composes the body. When the police eventually came knocking his way, he opened up completely, and after proving his legitmacy as an artist and explained his intentions...and they never asked about it again.



But don't say you heard it from me.

KFC is the Debbil!

The concept of bombing has its particularisms in Beijing, which like many modern day urban centers, it has a large amount of urban sprawl. The city is designed like a series of hubs with multiple epicenters...its almost a joke to ask about a 'downtown' Beijing, as there are several, floating 'downtowns' which are a mixture of old and new development projects: CBD and Guomao for business, Sanlitun and Workers stadium for nightlife, Beixinqiao and Dongzhimen, Dongsi, Wudaokou for students, and Dawanglu to name of few.

In the case of graffiti, despite a few pieces spread out along random underpasses, or private pieces on homes or stores, most of the city remains coated in a sticker-less, graffiti-less, dust.
However, areas such as sanlitun bar street and the 3.3 underground parking lot are filled to the brim with throw-ups, top-to-bottom burners, and scribbles. Bar walls are littered with tags, many of whom share the same "Kilroy was here" purpose of pre-hip hop american graffiti. The 798 Art District is almost a safe haven for writers, whose once decrepid factory walls are now being restored for a commercial art space. All over the city one can catch glimpses of perhaps the most numerous graffiti in China, the characters 办证 (banzheng) followed by eleven digits. Apparently, these numbers are for obtaining illegal documents: passports, housing registrations, and ID cards. This type of graffiti, usually stencilled and sprayed over, occupy underpasses, overpaasses, light posts , steps, walls, bus stops, anywhere there is due to be mass people traffic--which, in a city like Beijing, is almost everywhere. While the more elaborate pieces usually gravitate near or around one of these hubs.

A wall in 798

Amongst them are the few who employ graffiti as a way to 'bomb' in the traditional sense--that is, to 'get up' with a name or particular set of characters Nowadays, crews such as the BJPZ (beijing penzi, 北京喷子, beijing sprayers) and guanyin crew (欢音) bomb the urban scrawl of beijing.

some of Li Qiu Qiu's (BJPZ) work, 3.3 Underground Lot

甲毛警长？

its all fun and games until he fires the gun.

Cypher Studies--November Edit

Beijing Breaks--November Cypher from Jamel Mims on Vimeo.

I arrived at Yugongyishan club at around 7 pm, on a mid-November evening, just as the weather was starting to chill, putting everyone in danger of the Beijing cough (which I'm still coping with to this day). This was my second battle in Beijing, and was a little more oriented about who was whom, and had previously attended some practices with the 36 chambers crew, who formed the basis of this film, at their dance space on the south east side of town. I headed backstage to set up my recording equipment (see: digital SLR and squeaky tripod) and munch on some fried chicken and sushi platters, courtesy of the hosts, Melon and Tiki. The backstage room of Yugongyishan is splattered with bits of graffiti, and the namesakes of all that have passed through, from Goldie, to the fellas over at Peoples Republic of Skateboards, Twisted Machine and so on.

At around 9:30, the room began to fill up, and a circle gradually formed in the center of the dance floor. The event was hosted by an emcee, DS, Devil's Son, a 21 year old Beijing native producer-emcee with a penchant for dirty south and post-millenium gangsta rap. You know, big thumpin' bass, lots of swears, dolla dolla bills yall. Regardless of the seemingly stylistic anachronism of DS and breakdancing (that is, one new, one old), fans and dancers crept to the circle.

The Devil's Son himself

The breakers chose to represent themselves in a style of dress which, like many permutations of hip hop in Beijing draw from multiple time periods at once. Some preferred the Perhaps the most outstanding stylistic feature of these battles are the personalized crew t-shirts, with print lettering, which harken back to the days of Roc Steady and Dynamic Rockers. Brands on the whole are downplayed and instead participants opt for more diverse color schemes and personalized gear. Cyphers like these are also the few events in Beijing where i see Kangol bucket hats worn...next to fitted baseball caps, next to skateboard brand caps, skullys, fedoras and foam hats emphasize the anachronistic juxtaposition of hip hop styles among Beijing b-boys. Unlike concerts, where the audience is passive participatory, ery few people in jeans, because of their restrictions in movement. the pants of choice were definitely khakis, red, tan, grey, or black, and sneakers with colored laces.

It was time to warm up. DJs Tsingmu and Takunori were all about feel good music, and threw on a heavy set of soul-sampled breakbeats, sometimes pausing for more ambient instrumentals and scratching. It began as individual dancers confined to a particular point or path in space, arrow-like; one would throw themself into flares in the corner, and quickly get up, or from a low position go into a baby freeze or backspin ...at some point, someone simply redirects their movement from outward, away from the rest of the participants, to inward, towards them, and the group dynamic shifts from individual rehearsal to a group rehearsal.

And then the cypher really begins. The first was in the upper corner of the dance floor, about 8 meters from the stage and was drawn tightly enough to prevent light from entering. Cyphers evolve as participants enter, from sporadic moves and exits, to funkier uprock and longer sets with freezes to finish. a physical manifestation of toasting--there is pressure to have clean moves, and even competition to one-up the preceding person in the cypher, but without the direct and pointed attacks of the battle cypher. At one time there were two warm-up/freestyle cyphers going on at one time, whose participants were designated by ability, as far as I could tell. While their younger, sometimes less confident brothers rocked the circle closer to the stage.

Long Long strikes a wushu-esque freeze

After a short while, the competition began, with b-boys pairing up for a shot in the 2 on 2 battle. LongLong and Skull, a b-boy I hadn't yet met, paired up, and faced off against Kosmo and his partner, a kid from Hong Kong, who'd stopped through the practice room. LongLong, who had won last month's battle, was put out in the first round this time around, aced by the Hong Kong kid's clean footwork and Kosmo's experience. In fact, the duo made it all the way to the finals, where they faced Distort and Fute (prononced foo-tuh), also members of 36 chambers. "Eye of the Tiger" played in the background--there was no love lost, even between teammates in the battle cypher.


Kosmo & The Hong Kong Kid

Distort and Fute, the night's champions


The judges had respect for power moves, but aren't swayed entirely by them, as the audience is. It takes a combination of funky uprock, clean footwork, and well executed power moves to win these batttles. In the end, Distort and Fute took home the prize money for November's battle, and took the crew out to dinner.

The judges

It was at dinner that I learned that Skull was a Korean b-boy, and that LongLong was at least bilingual in Mandarin and Korean. Apparently, the two are part of the same family/crew, which I was later to learn, was international and had members in Europe as well. Small competitions are for your family, ("Floor Gangz"), and large ones, you go to with your team (36 Chambers).

LongLong and Skull, 36Chambers and Floor Gangz

Guess dinner's for err'body though.

Head in the Sand, some methodological concerns

Guess I've been a little selfish lately.

The past few weeks i've been spending afternoons in my apartment, recalling nights past of cyphers, battles, and jams--reading back notes i've texted to myself from b-boy practices out at 5+5 dance studio, evenings playing videogames with MC Webber, being invited to perform on CCTV-7 with Sbazzo and Jeremy of Yinstang (anybody can be anybody's favorite hype-man),
the Iron Mic Chinese MC championships, and weekly hip hop parties up near the Yonghegong metro station, et cetera et cetera...and keeping them all to myself in my little black moleskin. Soon enough, I fear, or perhaps anticipate, that these instances, once singular occurences in space-time, will morph into a jumbled web of entangled experience, and become nearly impossible to tease out one without having the others come tumbling out--like some ill-fated game of sociology Jenga.

36 chambers crew practice

The key then, I assume, is to think thematically. To indulge in the natural connection of these experiences, and embrace the web. The four pillars themselves are connected, are they not? There is a connection to be made between the ethos of battle emcees and breakers, there is a relationship between the hyper visibility of senior citizens fan dancing in parks and the invisibility of public hip hop dance, there is 关系 between old and new school appropriations of hip hop and their respective images of self-authenticity (breakers vs. poppers/"new stylers", graff vs. the art studio, golden agers vs. dirty south kids, dmc vs. club dj)...


My jaw hasn't dropped in a good while, and for what its worth, its a good thing. Or maybe its just dropping so much I can't remember what it feels like to be closed. Either way, I feel like I'm getting pretty deep. The crash course of late night researching and boozed up notes is now an ebb and flow which no longer suprises me. (Careful Mims, your huberis is showing.) But, as my undergrad research methods professor advised me, pay especially close attention to days that seem "normal", for those are the best note-taking days.

This the type of undertaking in which one can merely stop, in the purest sense, you're always on the clock. Like the fat lady says, the show must go on....least until i'm done singin, anyway. The
data just keeps piling on, I already feel as if I have more raw data than I know what to do with. Analyze what you can, and share even more.

Jiezi, DirtyNan, Haifeng, Grouch & Ijapa..enjoying a breakfast of Champions, 多肥角和牛奶

There are no breaks from this type of field research, no three week trips to one's "community" followed by a one week writing hiatus. No superimposed dialectic of 'us' and 'them.' The friend-subject line runs a lot more hazily...consider them all friends, and your an interference to your own study, consider them all subjects, and you're a lonely. Consider it "their" community and you've got no place there, consider it "our" community, and get lost trying to find your role as participant-observer-researcher-producer.

Nasty Ray's an emcee & Wordy's a DJ, but where do I fit in?

For all you curious fourth grade math scholars out there, the total breakdown of my time is probably something like this:

1/2: researching at jam sessions-practices/field studies at concerts-events/ home-stays
1/16: editing videos/editing pictures
1/16: writing notes
1/16: frying chicken/frying assorted other items in pantry

ancient chinese cuisine: jam fried potatoes---甲毛炸土豆片

1/16: working on my graphic novel/murals/general doodling
1/8: paralyzed on the couch, cursing myself for not writing enough
1/16: studying chinese
1/16: kicking myself for not studying enough chinese

For the most part, days are lost getting dizzied somewhere in between "field" research and living my life day-to-day as an African-American in a city which only sees in two colors: Chinese and foreign.

And all this to say, its back to basics for me. Or rather, it has been for a while--and not just in a research sense. Startin' from the ground up: doing my first tags, practicing my six step, cracking back open the rhyme book and chinese dictionary. I read somewhere earlier that right action is about the proper balance of inspiration and motivation; when one starts running on empty, temper it with the other.