Local hip hop pioneer MC Yan's debut album is a celebration of free speech
MC Yan's debut solo CD urges listeners to speak out while they still have a voice
Seventeen years into his career, Hong Kong hip hop pioneer MC Yan (Chan Kwong-yan) is finally releasing his debut solo album — although he doesn't sound excited about it. "The CD format is so outdated," says the man widely considered the "godfather" of Hong Kong hip hop. "Who listens to full albums any more? People download songs individually. The CD format is dead."
So why is he releasing an album? "To be honest, music isn't the top priority," Chan says. "It's the art." That explains the unusual CD packaging. At 106cmx76cm, it's almost 10 times the size of a standard CD case — which makes it an ideal canvas for an illustration.
Though the 44-year-old Chan is best known for being the chief lyricist of seminal rap collective LMF — whose anti-authority lyrics were so influential it was once a subject of study at Baptist University — he considers art his main career these days.
The album, titled Judge by Self, is, essentially, a marketing tool for Chan's latest series of artwork, which follows the usual "MC Yan formula" of mixing Chinese calligraphy with New York-style urban surrealism. The difference is that these hand-printed paintings have a neon glow. "I've been experimenting with fluorescent, glow-in-the-dark paint for the past few years," he says.
One piece, for example, features Che Guevara's head over a glowing outline of a king (from playing cards), wielding an AK-47 assault rifle. Each artwork was hand-printed by Chan and his assistant — only 1,000 copies were made.
"This may be the most hands-on project by an artist in Hong Kong," Chan says. "I drew the artwork, I hand-printed it on the cardboard, I wrote and sang the lyrics, and I helped make the beats."