Home

8:00am
Rise and shine! Nah, just playin’.

11:00
Wake up. Feel guilty for the shwarma from last night so I go for a run with Mickey my French bulldog. I get some weird stares from neighbors who are afraid of French bulldogs. “Mickey go pee on them!” Just kidding.

11:45
Showered and ready to start the day. I check a few emails and go through my Facebook and Kaixin. I just started my Facebook fanpage so I am checking on the daily interactions. It’s still blocked! Still, I can update fans in Taiwan and the States. I go to www.xihapark.com to upload a few new raps I recorded last week on my radio show, The Park. I play the fav album of the moment, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.

Power Lunch

12:30pm
I have a lunch meeting with record producer Johnny Chen. He wrote hits like Richie Ren’s “Xin Tai Ruan” and A-Mei’s “Wo Ke Yi Bao Ni Ma.” We are here to discuss my new hip-hop label, Kong Long Entertainment. Kong Long will be the premier hip-hop label in China. Johnny gives me a few valuable insights about what moves to make in choppy waters— CDs don’t sell no more :(

Sticking Up For Hip Hop

2:00
I go to a meeting at Tai He Mai Tian Records. They have a new artist, Sha Sha, who they are pushing next month. The lead single “Single Princess” is a pop hip-hop song a la Korean supergroup Baby Vox. It needs a rap part, and that is why I am here. As always, they are in a rush and have no budget so I have to tell them I don’t have time and that my price is too high. I am done with people exploiting hip-hop and treating it as a second-tier art form. No more! We find middle ground and get the deal done.

Studio Beats

3:30
Now I am at my studio with my boy Wes aka Doc J. We have a nationally syndicated hip-hop radio show called The Park. It is the first hip-hop radio show in China. For Cipher Sundays, our weekly rap, I chop “Rock with You” and find an eight-bar loop that fits. I hop on the MPC and knock out some more samples to go along with the beat. We rock the beat and lay down a rhyme.

4:20
I get an email that my new video is up online and available to see. I recently did a song for HP called “My Computer, My Stage.” Admittedly it’s a bit more commercial than I would like but it’s pretty dope nevertheless. We shot the video a few months ago and we have been waiting for the CGI. I go through a few notes with my manager and send it back for some re-edits.

6:00
Still in the lab, we get a call saying that Mobb Deep can come through for the interview. We tend to record the show in pieces so this is normal. We interview Havoc and Big Noyd, two rappers we really respect, so it was cool to get their insights for the Chinese hip-hop audience.

Food On The Go

8:00
I get hungry and order in some Mai Fu De (my food, get it?). It is a Yoshinoya knockoff but delivers in blazing time and is hella cheap. Beef bowl it is.

Doing Demos

9:00
Meilin is scheduled to come in and finish a demo I wrote and arranged last week. She is an incredible singer and appeared in the HP song that I reviewed earlier in the day. Meilin, an American-Chinese mix, is a legitimate talent and I am thinking about signing her. We knock out the demo in two hours flat and I am thoroughly impressed.

Head To The Club

11:30
Ready to head out to catch Doc J throw at Bling. He plays a dope set of the old school hip-hop and new school jams. I am kinda tired so I only want to stay an hour. Shout out to Doc J!

Homeward Bound

3:30am
So I stay a little longer than planned ... Um ... I am stummmblling hooome noooowww .... Gooooood nite!