It's On! DJ Wordy CD Launch Moved to Tango Tonight
Originally scheduled to take place at Yugong Yishan tonight (May 27), DJ Wordy's launch party for his new album of instrumentals, WordySoulspeak, has been moved to Tango's first floor following Yugong Yishan's temporary closure. Perhaps best-known right now for his ever-popular Hot Pot parties at Punk, the three-time China DMC champion has rubbed shoulders with hip-hop’s finest, from Talib Kweli to Q-Bert. Wordy sat down to tell us why he believes his new album is a milestone for Chinese hip-hop.
On background
“I was born in a small city in Shaanxi. My parents wanted to send me to the US to study, but I dropped it because I wanted to do my music. Now they’re pretty happy, because I can support myself. They don’t really listen to my music, though.”
On discovering hip-hop
“The first hip-hop I heard was Public Enemy, N.W.A., early Cypress Hill, Wu-Tang, all that. I was listening to a lot of rock ‘n’ roll at that time, but when I heard hip-hop I was like ‘This is my sound.’ When I started to DJ, my heroes were Qbert and DJ Craze. But my real hero is J Dilla – his music is forever.”
On Beijing music
“We don’t have good hip-hop in Beijing. That’s why we don’t have many people following the scene here. When my album comes out, you’ll know what good hip-hop is.”
On musical seduction
“What song would I play for a girl coming over to my place for the first time? Hip-hop. Haha, Dr. Dre! ‘What’s the Difference’ from 2001. I actually did that once. But seriously, now it’d be ‘Mary Jane’ by Rick James.”
On his new album, WordySoulspeak
“World-class hip-hop. Originally I wanted to do the album with MCs, but they all took so long working on the lyrics that it became an instrumental album. I’ve given beats to a lot of rappers, including Curren$y and MC Webber. Even RZA – I gave him two beats. I’m just waiting for them to get back to me and I’ll put them out.”
“You know that dish fo tiao qiang (“Buddha Jumping the Wall”)? You put all this expensive stuff in a bowl and boil it into a soup for 24 hours. My album’s like that. I’ve put all this great stuff in the pot, and cooked it for a whole year!”
WordySoulspeak is available at www.djwordy.com.
Catch DJ Wordy at the album launch party at Tango on May 27 or at Hot Pot on May 20 at Punk.
DJ Wordy’s three-track playlist to start the summer
“Won’t Do” by J Dilla
“Passin’ Me By” by The Pharcyde
“Ms. Jackson” by OutKast
Photo courtesy of DJ Wordy.
