撰文： Adan Kohnhorst

在苏州同里古镇即兴表演街舞，但拍出来颇有一股功夫大片的味道……

回想起来，我和嘻哈文化的联系几乎可以说是一场意外。

Looking back on it, my connection with Hip-Hop culture seems almost like an accident.

作为一个在德州长大的白人小孩，我曾经非常不待见嘻哈文化。我总会告诉别人，有三种类型的音乐我不喜欢，乡村、重金属以及嘻哈（现在我也可以欣赏重金属，不过乡村我还是欣赏不来）。我父亲祖籍是荷兰，我小时候也在那里生活过一段时间。在那儿，我经常和我祖父母在一块儿，而他们基本上只听古典音乐，老得甚至连爵士乐都不听。我一直把父亲作为我的榜样——每次一有人放嘻哈乐，他就会皱起眉头露出一副厌恶的表情。他会评价说，“这垃圾也能算是音乐吗？”我便在一旁点头表示同意。在我看来，真正的音乐要么是有小提琴，要么有吉他，要么有歌唱组成的，而不是一群人在那儿 rap 婊子，金钱和毒品。所以每当有同学跟我讨论 Lil Wayne 或者 Eminem 的时候，我有一种优越感——毕竟，我听的才是真正的音乐。

Asa white kid growing up in Texas, I used to hate Hip-Hop as a rule. The threekinds of music I couldn’t tolerate, I would explain, were country, heavy metal,and Hip-Hop (now, I can appreciate heavy metal - country music is still hard to enjoy). My dad’s side of the family comes from Holland, where I also lived for a while as a child. I used to spend time with my grandparents, whose musical taste was essentially limited to classical music. They were too old-school even for Jazz. My dad was my biggest role model - whenever Hip-Hop music came on,his face would curl up in disgust. How can they say this garbage is music? he would say. And I learned to agree. Real music is made of violins, or guitars,or singing, I decided. Not people rapping about hoes, money, and drugs. When kids at school would talk about Lil Wayne or Eminem, I felt superior to them -I listened to real music, after all.

而就在那段时间，我爱上了另外一样东西——武术。在我拿到了跆拳道黑带后，我意识到自己真正想学的是中国功夫。看了李小龙的电影后更是让我坚定了决心。他那迅捷而又矫健的动作，实在是太酷了。我也想成为那样的人，所以我开始了功夫训练，同时阅读大量关于功夫的书籍。我下了决心，功夫就是我这辈子最大的志向所在。我想创造我自己的风格和招式，并教授给其他人。

Around that sametime, I was falling in love with something else - martial arts. I got my blackbelt in Tae Kwon Do before realizing I wanted to learn Chinese kung fu. Seeing Bruce Lee in movies is what really did it for me. He was so fast, so strong, so cool. I wanted to be like that as well, so I started training every day anddevouring books about kung fu. Kung fu, I decided, was my life’s aspiration. I wanted to create my own style and teach it to other people.

柯豪丹捂脸翻出15岁的旧照，一招一式已经耍得有模有样了

在这个阶段，我还是讨厌嘻哈乐。我觉得嘻哈不是音乐，也不能算是一种艺术表现形式。而颠覆我这一切看法的其实并不是嘻哈乐本身，而是嘻哈舞。一直以来，跳街舞的人对我而言一直有种魅力。他们身体舞动的姿态完全无法用文字来诠释。街舞和功夫一样，有着一种独特的优雅、力量、速度和美。所以当我终于有机会可以学习街舞的时候，我想都没想就答应了。

At this point, I still hated Hip-Hop music. I felt like it wasn’t musical, and that it wasn’t art. The thing that really ended up changing my path wasn’t Hip-Hop music, but Hip-Hop dance. I’d always looked at breakdancers with huge fascination. The things they did with their bodies defied explanation.Breakdancing had the same kind of beauty, grace, power, and speed that drew meto martial arts, so when I got the opportunity to learn some breaking, I jumped on it.

于是，我便同时开始练习街舞以及武术。我每天的日程基本上是，起床，跑步，在学校练习摔跤，做负重训练，在课后练习街舞，然后晚上去练习功夫。不过在这一切中，街舞和其他任何一项都有着不同。受到街舞文化的熏陶，我觉得我之前的见解开始有了转变。我感觉我终于有了一次醒悟。我开始接触到嘻哈文化的历史，从1970年代布朗克斯的诞生直到今天。我渐渐理解了这些鼓点和节拍是如何让人们舞动起来，那些歌词和韵脚如何让没有发言权的人们第一次发出了自己的声音。而因为嘻哈而认识的那些人，改变了我的人生。我终于体会到这种音乐如何引发人的共鸣，并将一个群体联系起来。之后，为了参加街舞比赛，我开始四处旅行，渐渐接触到了越来越多和这个群体有着紧密联系的来自五湖四海的人们。

I started to practice breaking, in addition to martial arts. My schedule used to be wake up in themorning, run, go to wrestling practice at school, do weight training, practice breakdancing after class, and then go to study kung fu at night. But breakdancing,an art, was unlike anything else in that list. Spending time inside the culture, I felt my preconceptions melting away - it was an awakening for me. I learned the history of Hip-Hop culture, from when it was born in the Bronx in the 70’s until now. I grew to understand the drums and rhythms that moved people, and the lyrics and rhymes that offered a voice to people who didn’t have one. I met people through Hip-Hop who changed my life. I learned the stories of people who were all connected by this music that spoke to them.Later, I would travel around the world competing in breakdance competitions,connecting with people like this from all different walks of life.

Adan 的第一个霹雳舞队

而同时，作为一个在德州的小孩，我也因此接触到了一个不同的群体。街舞在几十年前刚诞生的时候，主要是由纽约的黑人和波多黎各人创建的。但在今天，许多最好的街舞艺人都是亚裔。中国、日本、特别是韩国，都有着世界上最厉害的街舞团体。而在德州，许多亚裔小孩也注意到了这点。许多华裔及韩裔美国人通过街舞，在一个以白人为主的社会里，在主流文化没有认可他们的情况下，建立了自己的一种身份象征。街舞对于他们而言，是表达自己的一种方式和一种追求；同时也引领着一种潮流，让非亚裔群体更认同他们。几乎所有和我一起跳街舞的朋友，不是华裔，韩裔，就是越南裔。同时，这也是我第一次真正接触到中国和亚洲文化。每当我们练习到很晚，我就会和朋友们去他们家，他们的祖父母就给我们递上一杯热气腾腾的开水。我们一起吃好丽友派，出去喝奶茶，一起看功夫电影，看韩剧，和他们的家人吃家常菜。

But as a kid in Texasin the meantime, it introduced me to a different crowd. Breaking was created by black and Puerto Rican people in New York decades ago, but today, many of the best breakdancers are Asian. China, Japan, and especially Korea all have powerful crews that make up some of the best breakdancers in the world. In Texas, a generation of Asian-American youth took notice of this. Chinese and Korean Americans latched onto breaking as a mode of self-identity, in a majority white society that still didn’t really understand what they were all about. Breaking was a way for them to express themselves and pursue something,while also being cool and understood by non-Asian Americans. Almost every one of my friends that I practiced with was either Chinese, Korean, or Vietnamese.This was my first real introduction to Chinese and Asian cultures. We would come home late from practice or a competition and be greeted by my friends’grandparents with warm water. We would eat choco pies and go out for milk tea.We watched kung fu movies and Korean dramas, and ate homestyle dinners together with their families.

在一个“美国亚洲人领袖学习会议”上，Adan 与知名韩裔嘻哈歌手 Dumbfoundead 相识，“为什么我会在那儿？因为我是个 weeb（哈日的死宅）……”

这时候，我一个德州的白人小孩，已经深陷各种亚洲文化的交织中。这一点，以及我对功夫的热爱，引领我开始学习中文。当时的我认为，如果我要真正学习功夫，就一定要去嵩山少林寺训练一番，所以我决定不再上法语课，而是选了基础汉语课。

At the time, I was living as a white kid in Texas, tangled in all these Asian cultural currents. This, and the fact that I still held kung fu as my life’spriority, offered my path into the Chinese language. I decided I could notexcel in kung fu without traveling to Henan to train at the Shaolin temple, andso I dropped my French class and enrolled in introductory Mandarin.

短短几年内，我就获得了中文三级证书，并且成为了学校汉语荣誉协会的副会长。不过我的中文水平仍然停留在一岁半小孩的水平，可以说是讲得很烂了。而我高中毕业后，去到了纽约大学。纽约和德州完全是两个世界。突然间，我被各种各样的文化和艺术包围，而我身边的朋友也都一个个有着丰富的创意力。我被我身边的人的决心感染到了，同时也被各式各样的艺术及创意形式吸引住了。因为学习武术对一个大学生而言价格不菲，所以我开始专注于街舞、写作，直到我开始自己制作音乐。

In those few years, I got to Chinese level three and became Vice President of Chinese Honor Society,all while speaking about as much Mandarin as a one-and-a-half year old. I wasterrible. But I graduated from high school and went on to study at New York University. New York was worlds away from Texas. I was suddenly surrounded by a huge influx of culture and art, and new friends who were all trying to do something creative. I was impressed by the drive of the people around me, and became fascinated with art and creativity in every form. As martial arts becametoo expensive for me as a student, I started to devote more and more time to breakdancing, and then to writing, and then to creating music of my own.

Adan 开始自己创作嘻哈音乐前，总需要在唱片店泡上一会，花很多时间在听黑胶上，如果对他自己的音乐感兴趣，YouTube 上搜索“Lao Wai 老外”便是他本人了

随着这一切的发生，我搬来了上海。作为我们学校的交换项目，我大三一整年都可以在国外学习。于是，在我人生中的第一次，中国文化不再只是书本里的内容，它活生生的出现在我面前——中国人，中国菜，中国话。作为一个美国人，这一切对我而言都异常美妙。因为我爸爸是欧洲人，所以相比大部分美国人，我已经算是见识了不少其他国家的文化。但中国是一个完全不同的崭新篇章，一切都如此令人兴奋。我觉得我来到了那个之前我只在功夫电影里见过的世界里。很快我加入了这里的街舞团体，认识了一些与我志同道合的当地朋友。他们和我有很多相似的地方，但同时也非常的不同。在这里，我继续跳舞，写作，做音乐。

In the middle of allthis, I moved to Shanghai. I went to study abroad for one year during my Junior year of university, and for the first time, Chinese culture existed as something outside of a book. It was all around me - Chinese people, Chinesefood, Chinese language. For me as an American, it was amazing. Because my dad was from Europe, I’d already seen more of the world than most Americans would see in their lifetimes. But China was something entirely new and exciting. It felt like I was living in the same world I’d previously only seen in kung fu movies. I became involved with the local breakdancing community out here, and got a peek into a group people who were the same as me, but also so different.I continued to dance, write, and make music.

2014年刚来中国，Adan 和朋友跑来西湖边跳街舞，没有伴奏，他们就让周围游客鼓掌打节拍，“每次随意开始跳街舞都会有好多人来看，太奇怪了……”Adan 至今还对被热烈围观觉得很不解

一年的时间很快就过去了，我回到美国的时候其实心情很沮丧。我这个刚开始的冒险之旅就这样结束了吗？我还不想走，但我知道我还会回来的。回到纽约，我得完成一篇高强度的毕业论文才能毕业。我不想写一篇我以后可能再也不会拿出来看的论文。所以，我决定把我所有的兴趣结合在一起，来做一个深度的多媒体项目，来记录正在中国飞快发展的嘻哈文化。我申请了研究经费，并用这笔钱回到了上海来开展研究。回到上海，我找到了那些之前认识的跳街舞的和一些艺术家来协助我完成这个项目。最终，我的毕业项目诞生了，一个结合了文字、音乐、采访、照片和视频的多维度集合体，我们给它取名叫《中国嘻哈的道》。终于，我多年来错综复杂的这些兴趣点，嘻哈、中国、艺术和写作，终于联系到了一起，活灵活现的展现在我面前。

When the year was over and I had to return to America, I was sad. Had my adventure in this new place come to an end? I didn’t feel ready to leave, but I also felt that I knew I would come back. Back in New York, I had to complete an intense graduating thesis to receive my degree. I decided I didn’t want to write a long essay that would sit in a drawer after I was done. Instead, I chose to bring all my different passions together, into a longform multimedia project that would document China’s growing Hip-Hop culture. I applied for a research grant,and got funding to return to China to create the project. Back in Shanghai, I reached out to the breakdancers and artists I’d become friends with while I wasliving there. The result was a diverse collection of writing, music,interviews, photos, and videos that we called The Tao of Hip Hop. Finally, the complex web of currents I’d been surfing for years of Hip-Hop, China, art, and writing had coalesced into something tangible.

快进到今天，我已经生活在上海。我的中文进步了很多，但还不是很好。我现在在一个网站担任编辑。这个网站致力于将最新最前沿的中国文化新鲜事传递给大洋彼岸的美国年轻人，而我最大的聚焦点就是嘻哈。在我的业余时间，我也给类似于街声的其他网站写作，跳舞，做嘻哈乐。与此同时，嘻哈乐在中国发生了发生了爆炸性的变化。像 Higher Brothers 之类的 Rapper 已经在美国也有了相当的知名度，而吴亦凡也在到处问别人有没有 freestyle。现在的我很难想象我小时候居然觉得嘻哈乐低俗。但不管怎样，我现在过得不错，而如果没有嘻哈乐，我可能也不会走到今天这一步。

Fast forward to today, and here I am living in Shanghai. My Mandarin is way better,but still not great. I’m an editor at a website that brings new-school Chinese cultural content to American millennials, and my biggest area of focus is on Hip-Hop.I spend the rest of my time contributing to other websites like StreetVoice,dancing, and making Hip-Hop music. Meanwhile in China, Hip-Hop is exploding.Rappers like Higher Brothers are known by all my American friends, and Kris Wu’s face is everywhere asking people if they have freestyle. It’s hard to picture myself as a kid, dismissing Hip-Hop as uncivilized. But as it turnedout, my life is pretty good, and I would never have been able to make it hereat all if Hip-Hop hadn’t found me.

Adan 纪录的2016年上海霹雳舞 DYM Jam 的最后一战，作为毕业作品《中国嘻哈的道》的素材之一。29秒那个扎着丸子头上蹿下跳的外国小哥就是他了

这基本上概括了我和中国嘻哈的故事。当我在中国和别人说起这些的时候，他们都说这个故事听上去很古怪。我承认是挺怪的。然后他们总是会问我一些问题，所以我在这先回答几个别人常问我的问题。

That about sums up how I got here. When I talk to people about it in China, theyalways tell me it’s a really weird story - I guess they’re not wrong. And theyalways have some questions, so I’ll do my best to answer some of the ones I getfrequently before I sign off here.

1、你是怎么听说这些中国音乐的？

How did you get to know all this Chinese music?

多亏我刚刚提到的那些美国的华裔朋友，我从小就对中国流行音乐有所接触，不过也就是像周杰伦这类的比较大众的流行乐，不过那时也只有这些。当我开始听嘻哈乐后，我会在网上自己找音乐听，所以发现了像是“隐藏”这样的嘻哈团体（呃，他们真的挺烂的……）接下来我会去一下现场演出去看看有什么新发现。在上海我去了 Iron Mike freestyle 比赛，在纽约的时候我有幸现场看了 MC Jin（也就是“嘻哈侠”欧阳靖啦）。Jin 其实在美国就很有名了，基本所有听嘻哈的都看过那段他在 Freestyle Friday 节目里秒杀全场的视频，因为他可能是第一个能做到这样的亚裔 MC。我有一阵子很迷他。上周我有幸通过 Radii China 的平台采访到了他，但我没告诉他我们其实曾经见过，因为我不想让他知道我曾经是那个拿着滑板让他签名的脑残粉。

Thanks to all those Chinese-American friends I’d mentioned, I’d been listening to modern Chinese music since I was pretty young, but it was all just stuff like Jay Chou. Pretty standard pop stuff, because that’s kind of all that existed at the time. Later when I started to get more into Hip-Hop, I started digging online and finding otherstuff on my own, like Yin Ts’ang. Yikes, those guys were pretty awful. And thenI started hitting up shows to try and find out more. In Shanghai I went to IronMic freestyle competition, and in New York I got the chance to see MC Jin live(who some of you might know as HipHopMan from Rap of China). Jin is actually mad famous in the states, every Hip-Hop fan has seen the videos of him smoking people on the Freestyle Friday TV show, because he was probably the first real“Asian-looking” MC to hold the mic and do something like that. I was pretty geeked out about that. Later at Radii China I got the chance to interview him,but I didn’t let him know we’d met before, because I didn’t want him to know I was the same geeky white kid who asked him to sign his skateboard.

Adan 第一次在中国开始接触上海的嘻哈社团

2、你对近几年中国嘻哈的发展有什么感受？

How do you feel about the development of Hip-Hop in China in recent years?

坦率来讲，近几年中国嘻哈的发展远远超出了之前，这点很棒。在美国，嘻哈的发展处于平稳阶段，Trap 音乐现在处于霸占榜首的位置。在美国，那种老派的，以歌词为主的嘻哈已经渐渐消失，所有人都在找寻下一个潮流。而目前来讲，这个潮流就是无脑的歌词配上简单的节拍。这不能说是一件坏事，Trap 的流行突出了音乐整体的能量感，而不强调于歌词本身。要创造出一张大师级的“愚蠢”唱片，还是需要一种特殊的才华。

Honestly,it’s moving faster than it ever was before, and that’s a great thing. Hip-Hop in the states is pretty static right now, since trap music has kind of risen to the top and is holding down that position across the board. In America, it’s kind of like all the old-school, lyrical styles of Hip-Hop have run their course, and everyone is looking for the next big thing, which happens to be super dumbed-down lyrics over really simple beats. That’s not necessarily a bad thing - the trap movement puts an emphasis on the overall energy of the music,rather than the lyrics themselves, and it still takes a certain kind of talent to craft a masterful “dumb” record.

而在中国，歌词为主的嘻哈仍然是一种主流。但同时，中国的嘻哈歌手也在向西方流行趋势看齐，越来越多的运用 Trap 音乐和“傻瓜”式的歌词(比如“bitch don't kill my dab”) 所以我觉得中国嘻哈目前最大的优势就是每个人都在做自己的东西。在美国，90%的嘻哈歌手都在做同一件事，因为这本证明是“成功”的秘方。但在中国，嘻哈仍然是一股新兴潮流，所以不同的嘻哈歌手和嘻哈乐形式都找到了自己的立足之地。我觉得中国嘻哈乐的演变速度会超过美国，并跨出国门在海外也找到属于自己的听众。说到这，吴亦凡前不久就在美国 iTunes 榜单上登顶。

In China on the other hand, lyrical Hip-Hop isn’t “used up” yet. But at the sametime, Chinese rappers are looking to the west and doing the trap-style dumbed-down lyrics too (“bitch don’t kill my dab”). So I’d say the advantage of China’s Hip-Hop right now is that everyone is doing different styles. In America, 90% of rappers are doing the same style, because it’s been proven that that’s what “works,” but China is still opening it’s mind to Hip-Hop, and yousee all these different rappers trying out different styles and sounds all at the same time. I think it’s going to accelerate the development of Hip-Hop in China at a faster rate than we had in the states, to the point that it will start reaching listeners outside of China - case in point, Kris Wu just randomly had a number one hit on the international iTunes store list.

3、那年轻的中国嘻哈粉丝呢？你觉得他们 get 到嘻哈吗？

What about China’s young Hip-Hop fans? Do you feel like they get it?

中国的嘻哈粉，有懂的。一直都是有这样一群人一直追寻嘻哈，并且理解嘻哈的精髓，和他们在一起混就感觉是和我的美国朋友一起混一样。但是如果对中国的年轻人整体而言，很多人还是不太能 get 到嘻哈文化，就算他们会有几首喜欢的饶舌歌曲。如果要理解今天的嘻哈音乐，你一定要理解嘻哈乐是从哪里来的。如果这里有刚刚开始听嘻哈的新粉的话，我强烈推荐你去听一些1990年代的 old-school 嘻哈乐，比如 Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Dr. Dre 之类的。

For China’s Hip-Hopfans - yeah they get it. There has always been a base of people who listen toand understand this music, and kicking it with them feels the same as kickingit with my American friends. But if we’re talking about China’s young people asa whole, a lot of them still don’t really get the culture, even if they have afew rap songs they like. To understand Hip-Hop music today, you have to understand where it came from. For anyone just now starting to tune in to Hip-Hop,I would definitely encourage you to listen through some of the older importantstuff from the 90’s - Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Dr. Dre, etc. 

在新加坡的大商场门口“拗造型”

同样，要提防在美国嘻哈乐中曾经经历过的一些陷阱。在1990年代，也就是我们所说的嘻哈“黄金年代”之后，有一段时间嘻哈乐火到街头巷尾所有人都在听。这时候，音乐变得非常商业化，而丢失了原本所拥有的灵魂所在。当然，就算在2000年后，还是有许多厉害的嘻哈歌手，但总体而言，并不如以前。这是一个能让 Ludacris 火起来的十年。不要犯这个错误，不要盲目跟风！不要让正在崛起的嘻哈乐被大型唱片公司收购，用来做电视广告背景乐。嘻哈乐的世界非常广阔，了解它的历史是理解现在嘻哈乐必不可少的一部分。

Bewary of the pitfalls we went through in the states. After the 90’s, which wascalled the “Golden Age” of Hip-Hop, there came a point where everybody wastrying to jump on board. The music got commercialized, and lost a lot of the soul it had before. Of course, the 2000’s still managed to produce some greatartists, but overall, it was unimpressive. This is the decade where Ludacriswas popular. Don’t make the same mistake - don’t be band wagoners! Don’t let the blossoming Hip-Hop movement out here get scooped up by record execs and people making TV commercials. There’s a whole world out there and knowing the historyis important to understanding the music coming out today.

好了，这就是我的故事，和我对目前中国嘻哈乐的一些看法。无论在纽约、上海还是其他地方，请记住一句话，坚持你在做的事，别丢了你的灵魂。Peace!

Anyway, that’s mystory, and some of my own thoughts on the Hip-Hop scene out here in China. Muchlove from New York City to Shanghai and everywhere else - don’t stop doing what you’re doing, and keep the soul. Peace!

乐迷小档案

昵称: DJ Lao Wai 老外（音乐），B-boy Udon (乌冬面)（街舞）

最喜欢的乐队：Wu-Tang Clan

曾经循环最多的歌曲：

Bohan Phoenix and Higher Brothers - 《No Hook》 (2017)

最想去的音乐现场：纽约1980可以吗？

72小时：

如果只有72小时时间在你的故乡停留，你会怎么给他们独立音乐攻略？

我说说纽约吧。如果你在纽约只有72小时，那你要很忙了。首先你至少得去纽约三到四个区：曼哈顿，布鲁克林，皇后区，等等。同时你至少得每种不同的场馆去一次，不管是 Livehouse，大型演唱会，音乐主题酒吧，当地公寓里的演出。这样，你至少能尝到这座城市能带给你的一点音乐滋味。但你下次肯定还得再来！

翻译：Brian

图片来源：Adan Kohnhorst 柯豪丹

点击这里，就可以看到 Adan 的毕业项目啦

“我音乐，我存在”，是街声大事为乐迷们准备的栏目。

如果音乐对你的意义不只是一首首歌的旋律与歌词，而是与你脑海中某段记忆融为一体，音乐起，相关的人、事、物随之复苏，纤毫毕现。那么，请将这些故事分享给我们，分享给更多人。我们会仔细阅读每一篇来稿，一旦采用，奉上丰厚稿酬。 

投稿信箱：editor@streetvoice.com.cn