A little look at Shanghai's hip hop history, from Thursdays at Club Pegasus to–thank goodness–The Lab

How did Thursday become the default hip hop night in Shanghai? To paraphrase DJ Vnutz, former resident DJ at Pegasus and now running The Lab, back in the day people were only familiar with house/trance clubs, so it was impossible to compete on a weekend. They started hip hop on Thursday nights, and geared the night towards a younger student crowd. It took off and just became the norm.

For years, Club Pegasus dominated Thursday nights in Shanghai. Their hip hop weekly was simply the place to be. Pegasus was also the first to bring to Shanghai such hip hop luminaries as Ice T, Roc Raida, and DJ Krush. Pegasus closed months ago, but it's certainly left its mark: Several venues around town are keeping alive the Thursday hip hop night concept, such as Guandii, Bonbon, Windows and the new Level 2.

Unfortunately, most of these hip hop nights are cheesy, commercial affairs with generic played-out hit songs and juvenile gimmicks like bikini contests and free drinks for ladies.

By contrast, the good folks at The Lab are keeping it real with public workshops, DJ lessons and practice sessions, and parties around town. With names like Back to the Roots and So Much Soul, you get a good idea what this crew's intentions are–an alternative to the mainstream hip hop nights.

So Much Soul started at the beleagured Tanghui back in September, but things didn't quite work out there. So after searching for a workable venue, they settled on the new 4 Live. Check it out weekly on, yes, Thursday nights, for live hip hop and turntablist scratching mixed with a team of the town's best DJs and MCs, such as DJs Vnutz, Fortune, Shige, HBD, L-J, plus guests Mr. Stokes, Mr. Tsang and MC Redstar and Mojo.

Level 2, in the space formerly known as Zin, is making moves to become a nightlife destination; however, we haven't been impressed yet. Thursday (again!) is a hip hop ladies night, although we've also seen ads for salsa and reggae these nights. We wonder if the club / restaurant combo will work with that audience.