Thanks for doing another great show on the music scene. It would be great to hear more on related subjects in future shows.

There is one Nanjing artist who might also be of interest to your listeners. Jony J, who originally went by the surprising stage name of "bean sprout (豆芽). He is a local musician who raps in Mandarin rather than the local dialect. He has an interesting collection of good quality music videos on Youku and Douban (<a href="http://site.douban.com/jonyv/room/311716/">http://site.douban.com/jonyv/room/311716/</a>), including a short documentary on making music and the hip-hop scene.

One video that initially surprised me is Change (改变), where two guys are tossing molotov cocktails around an empty building site with bandannas over their faces. The other videos are more tame, but perhaps some listeners would be interested in seeing some locally produced hip-hop videos.

Interesting episode, but I was a bit surprised on the very brief mention about IN3 (阴三儿) and also the somewhat simplified explanation of the political message in Chinese hop hop.

These two topics are closely related, as IN3 had to dissolve a couple of years ago when their shows started to get closed down due to political sensitive lyrics. So in 2013 (if I remember right) the lead singer Jia Wei started a new band called Purple Soul (龙胆紫) together with an MC named Jiezi and a beat maker called FAC-D12 or Fengxiao.

They released a great - and political sensitive album - called W.T.F. in the end of 2014, and have since been the hottest band by far on the Beijing hip hop scene. I followed them this summer because a friend of mine was here filming them and I helped out a bit with translating. On underground memorial concerts with 5-6 bands, Purple Soul is the band that everyone waits for and everyone cheers the most for.

They are also, by far, the most outspoken band in Beijing and on the verge of their second album release the police raided FAC-D12's home and took him away, he is now facing 3-5 years in jail. Also, Jia Wei was recently detained and beaten up by police. They had all kinds of "evidence" suggesting he was being followed for months.

I won't write more details here, but I recommend everyone to see the video of the opening track on their first album here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-2KToSVGqk

This suggests that (at least some) Chinese hip hop bands are not political not because they don't want to, but rather that they are facing abuse and jail if they choose to be.