The News Lens
Date: 2018/05/02
By: Evan Vitkovski
Credit: Kao! Inc.
A landmark exhibition shows how far Taiwanese hip-hop has come, but the underground still informs where it is heading.
When you turn on the radio in Taiwan, hip-hop from local artists MC Hot Dog (MC熱狗), Soft Lipa (蛋堡), and a handful of other commercially successful rappers occasionally punctuate the ubiquitous strains of Mando and K-pop.
Their voices represent the lyrical sword tip of an ever deepening scene, one with nearly two decade’s worth of heritage that featured in a retrospective showcase at Huashan 1914 Creative Park called “Taiwan Hip Hop Kids” on April 18-22.
Organized by Kao! Inc. and designed by InFormat Design Curating, the multimedia showcase incorporated 16 artists on four labels hailing from all over Taiwan, including Kung Fu Rap, Ainoko, MC Hot Dog’s label True Colors, and Kao! Inc. itself.
Surrounding an Akai MPC 2500 beat-making machine placed nonchalantly in the middle of the space, each artist was featured on vertically mounted monitors hung in a grid with a video of themselves gesticulating, posing, or rapping into the camera. [FULL STORY]
