Hip Hop and Rap with Chinese Flair

Kungfoo may not be China's first hip hop band, but they have every intention of being the
one with the purest form of hip hop. And,with "Chinese characteristics".
The band consists of three boys in their early 20s.They're in Beijing this month to promote
their first album"lmpulsion".
"We divide the songs into two groups---Down and Up,"Yang Fan, the band's MC
(mic-controller),told 21st Century on Sunday."The Down part includes some sad love songs. The
Up part is just the reverse,we want a happy ending with some cheerful music".
The three are natives of Tianjin. Yang Fan, 24,started tow bands when he was in senior high
school. But in was not until his college years at Tiajin Science and Technology University that he
got serious about hip hop.(1) However,it wasn't a common interest in hip hop that brought them
together.(2)The other tow---23-year-old DJ Fan Jinpeng and 24-year-old keyboarder Jiao Yang
---happened to frequent the small stores around the city. That's how they became friends.
Fan was a veteran of the Tianjin pub DJ scene.(3) Jiao, who grew up in a family of
musicians, was no stranger to the bar music scene, either.(4) A commercial gig the trio got in
2001 made them realize that they could do something on their own. They named the band after
their favourite part of Chinese culture.
(5)Their initial appearances on local TV programmes and college campuses generated a
fairly good response. Then they shot to fame at a college singing competition in 2002 with their
single"2001".In the final round of competition, an improvised single,"Impulsion," caught the
attention of Warnes Music China, which offered them a contract in February 2003.
Work on the "Impulsion" album began last March but was put off because of SARS. Still,
Kungfoo didn't waste time just sitting around home waiting for the epidemic to pass. They
produced several more songs for the album, including "Need No More","False Love"and
"Sunset."
Kungfoo are proud of their uniqueness."Kungfoo is Kungfoo, we don't imitate anyone."they
said."We might be influenced by some Western hip hop bands."Yang added."But we rap in
Chinese,and in a very clear manner. That makes us distinctive.We love hip hop, but first of all,
we love Chinese culture. Maybe someday you will hear us rap using Peking Opera tunes".

中国式嘻哈音乐和说唱
Kungfoo尽管也许不是中国第一支嘻哈乐队，但是有可能成为兼具纯嘻哈风格和中国特色的第一支乐队。这支乐队有3个20出头的小伙子组成。本月，他们正在北京宣传他们的首张专辑“lmpulsion”。星期天接受21世纪英语报采访时，乐队主唱杨帆说道，“专辑中的歌曲分为两部分-悲伤和欢快的歌曲，悲伤部分的都是些悲伤情歌，另外一部分则刚好相反，我们还是想以一些欢快的歌曲结尾”。这三个小伙子都是天津人。杨帆，24岁，在高中的时候就组建过两支乐队，却是在天津科技大学读书的时候才真正对说唱认真起来。（1）但是，真正让他们几个走到一块的却不是说唱。（2）其他两位，一个是23岁的DJ老手范金鹏，另一个是24岁的键盘手焦阳。以前他们常常出入天津的小商店，后来才渐渐成为朋友的。范是天津酒吧场所的资深DJ。（3）焦成长于音乐世家，是酒吧音乐场所的常客。（4）2001年的一次商业演出，让他们突然认识到可以独立尝试一些事情。他们用自己最喜欢的中国文化给乐队命名。（5）他们首次在当地电视节目和大学校园亮相后，凡响不错。 2002年，他们在大学歌唱比赛中演唱了单曲“2001”而一举成名。在决赛时，他们即兴演唱了歌曲“Impulsion”，立即引起了中国华纳唱片公司的注意，并在2003年2月与其签约。去年3月，乐队就在准备专辑“Impulsion”，但是专辑却由于非典而延迟了。但是，乐队并没有因为非典而停止创作，相反还为专辑创作了多首歌曲，包括“Need no more”,"False Love"和"Sunset”。乐队成员因乐队的独特而感到自豪，他们说“Kungfoo就是Kungfoo，我们没有照抄任何人，也许我们是受到西方某些嘻哈乐队的影响，但是我们说唱的全是汉语，而且说唱的很清楚，这就是我们的独特之处。尽管我们热爱嘻哈，但是首先我们更热爱中国文化。以后，我们说不定还已京剧的方式来说唱呢。”