Graf art? Hardly.

TGL – We (and everyone else) have commented on this Hip Hop explosion before. As it becomes the new black for those who are anything but, TGL takes another local look.

So where are we at with this hip hop thing then? Just a few short months back, well, call it a couple of years, hip hop was hardly buzzword on anyone’s lips. What was in two years ago? Not even bubble tea… but we digress.

In a relatively short time, we’ve left behind the bunch of cat’s whose musical interest didn’t so much span the distance from John Lennon to Curt Cobain, more just drew a line from one to the next and called it good enough. Now we are at a point where every man and his five year old shoe shine boy brother are totally down with it all.

Eminem? word.

Of course, the problem is that when you do anything at a great rate of knots the edges get blurry and it can be hard to distinguish one exact item from another. Like driving a car really fast in down a forested lane, it can be almost impossible to tell the hip hop woods from each individual tree.

Thus a few scant weeks back when the South African Embassy threw their annual cultural bash, we were treated to a random collision of teenage Vietnamese hip-hop crews waving their hands like they just didn’t care to a bunch of house DJs (with one exception – on paper – who did in fact end up playing the gayest house this side of the black stump).

Two years ago a gig such as this would’ve pulled a troupe of dudes sporting the finest of their fine black pants, tucked into which would be their sharpest of the sharp knockoff YSL white long sleeve work shirt. Someone however has been flooding the local markets with enough hip hop gear to make a man feel outdated, although it’s not ever that I try to dress hip hop.

My own style is a southern hemisphere adaptation of urban skate punk, but that hasn’t stopped it being labelled “hip hop” by everyone from fashion photographers to clothing store staff. Herein lies the point: so often in these parts are new concepts picked up, themselves often from adapted versions from MTV Asia, that they often barely resemble the original concepts. On the flip side of that particular coin, when dealing with new concepts that don’t themselves have a ready explanation, they are often allotted into the closest approximation.

House and skate thus become hip hop. I despair. Hey, it’s not that I don’t like hip hop, I just hate house with venom. When I’m told I’ll be hearing hip hop, then that’s what I’d like to hear thanks. House makes me want to run amok with a switchblade. Always has.

But let’s dig down to the real core here shall we? The real people who are the real local deal. The Big Toe crew have made more than a small splash on the local scene, given that for something like a decade, they really were the local scene, having picked up the dance moves from Korean exchange students.

TGL found them over a year back practicing in a kindergarten, where their massive abilities more than made up for the mockery of the cutesy bunny rabbits painted on the wall in lieu of tags and bombs.

The grand finale of the South African sponsored bash saw the Big Toe boys take the stage to “battle” guests the 021 boys, who are resident dancers of the Big Yo TV Show, beaming straight outta SA.

With their usual flair and ability to dance forever, the big toe boys fairly took the 021 boys down. Pulling out some outrageously fly moves unseen before on the Giang Vo exhibition centre stage, the Big Toe boys showed exactly why they are the top local dogs. 021 fell by the wayside somewhat, having a smaller number of members and a seemingly small repertoire of moves.

One that took the cake however, was when one 021 dancer produced a butchers apron, which he donned through a series of dance moves, before busting out with the weirdest choppiest kung fu styled routine ever put to music. Capauere inspired routines were also on the boards, with aggression being the name of the 021 game, suggesting a more “krumping” style. But the Big Toe boys held their cool, pulling out increasingly sophisticated and acrobatic moves before finally embracing the 021 crew and yielding the floor for the MC to close the proceedings.

The MC was more than a little hilarious hisself, constantly chanting “Viet Nam, Viet Nam” while the South African DJ, accompanied by a burly black man bashing the bongos, was spinning. An oddly self referential chant to encourage to a thousand or so kids wearing SA flag bandanas, which themselves smelt like petrol. Go figure.

Turf.

Along with shits in clothing styles, musical offerings and maladjusted understanding of the latest MTV inspired lifestyle (actually, MTV is plugging the gayest version of punk ever at the moment – I’m too upset to even speak about it), is the marked increase in graffiti. I know we here at TGL have advocated some, particularly that out there on The Road To Nowhere, but I have actually quite enjoyed living in a city where the extent of graffiti was the concrete cutter dudes spraying their phone numbers on lamp posts and outside worksites.

Really, the last thing any city needs is graffiti. Unless it is really, really well done, it is extremely ugly and depressing to look at. Frankly, if we are to have a bunch of young people go out and smear paint all over public property then get the four year olds from Kinderworld to do it, because their daubings will at least have some innocent cred to them.

Check out the newest attempts at graf art down Nghi Tam (including the hilarious NASA – mice and safe attitude, and the dude who could think of nothing better to put than his name “David”). It’s so lame its actually draining creative ability from other local artists, as can be seen by the sheer nonsense by Fam Luc that Vine has incredulously hung in the Annex.

Someone also finally figured out there is a never used cycle lane along the top side of the wheel of death at the Chuong Duong bridge overpass, from where you can spray undisturbed but road users below get a good gawk at your art when they pass through the intersection below. Now, such a prime spot you might think would command n authoritative artist. Sadly not; just another arse offering.

To put it simply, assuming any of you graf artists can read and are interested in some advice, do what every other artists does: plan your work and practice your design before you go and hung it on a public wall. If it’s good people won’t mind it so much.

So we are with all this? What we seem to have is a fledgling scene in a developing country, where the art of emulation is an extremely common means of employment, yet through misunderstanding and blanket labelling we’ve accidentally ended up with a load of old cobblers.

Come on people, like Public Enemy said back in the day, “brother’s gotta work it out”, and if that has to be explained to you, then you still won’t understand.

The Good Life