STREETHING

MC Yan was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for Blinkvile.com launch and kzzit spent a few hours up close and personal with him. MC Yan is known as a rapper, the core member of LMF (Hong Kong Hip Hop Group), a talented conceptual artist, many have known him for the work of CLOT x Air Max 1 “Kiss of Death”, a great graffiti artist, check out his site www.chinamantaggin.com

Q - kzzit A - MC Yan

What’s up Yan? What have you been up to lately, can you just introduce yourself to us?

I am Yan from Hong Kong and I am one of LMF (Lazy Motha Fucka) members and currently doing my projects like Fu(c)king Music and 宁死不屈 Ning Si Bu Qu.

A lot of people have known you for your music from days of LMF and Edison Chen, what’s your background like?

Actually I am from an Art background, I went to an Art School in France for almost 7 years and only return to Hong Kong in 1997. Music has always been my passion which I think goes side by side with art and hence my musical career. As you can see I still get very much involved in both music and art scene.

Let’s talk a little about your art which many do not know, I know you have a website focusing on your grafitti which is called www.chinamantaggin.com. Can you tell us more about the site?

Chinaman tagging is basically all about my grafitti work, which showcase my passion in combining Chinese Art and Chinese Calligraphy into the form of graffiti. I love to reverse the system or breaking through the tradition. Instead of using paper, we do it on the wall. There isn’t anything that is called Pop Art in Chinese Art history, maybe that is why so many young Asians fail to pay attention to Chinese Art. Grafitti is the best way to show the Western world we have our art too. We just work beyond the boundary. Now I still go around the world tagging and doing grafitti with other artists. So far there’s only one place which I haven’t had my hands on which is Tiannamen square. Everyone is an undercover there. Don’t even think about doing anything there. The old lady who is sweeping the floor next to you for all you know is an undercover too.

Interesting, when did you do your first tag?

I did my first tag in an anti-nuclear protest on a huge banner back in France. It started from there and I slowly explore into Chinese caligraphy and incorporate more Chinese element into my art. If you look at my tag, when you rotate it 90 degree, it is actually 香港 “Hong Kong" in Chinese (see below).

Can you tell us more about your recent project with CLOT and Nike in CLOT Air Max 1NL “Kiss of Death”?

Well, I work very closely with CLOT and one day they told me they were doing at collaboration with Nike so we sat down and came out with this idea. My initial idea is to make the Air Max into a Chinese Lantern. The toe head which is transparent supposed to be made with oil paper which is commonly used to make Chinese Umbrella and I wanted a little light bulb at the sole. You can carry it like a Chinese lantern (Laugh). But I guess Nike has their own limitation with the material so it didn’t turn out to be what I wanted exactly. The project took us almost 2 years to complete which is a long time. As for my own pair, I am planning to use them as my little aquariums to keep my fish :)

So what’s next after the CLOT x Nike project?

I am doing my line named 宁死不屈 Ning Si Bu Qu which means “Rather Die than Dishonour”. I am using the "Kefiyah" (Palestinian scarf) colourway for my products. First product out would be these limited edition glasses (as seen in pic above). They will only to be sold at JUICE (Hong Kong) and selected shops in New York and Tokyo for around USD280. The proceed will then go to a foundation for Palestinians’ Children. There’s no English pronounciation for it so I expect everyone to pronounce the brand in Chinese.

Word, Thanks a lot Yan, I wish we could catch up more but there are always so much to talk about with you. Let’s save some for the next tmeeting.

My pleasure and looking forward for the next event in South East Asia so I can bring all of our crew down. Peace.

Thanks MC Yan for the interview and there are so much more to write about him. Many might view him as a pop/art/fashion icon but to me he is a more like a teacher/philosopher. Always emphasizing on learning and education which we might have ignored in this materialistic world.