Hong Kong hip-hop. 你識唔識聽廣東話?
[Video][Website]
[4.83]
Jonathan Bogart: The thin knockoff of the “Float On” guitar sample that underpins this Hong Kong hip-hop song is a pretty good metonym for the song as a whole: the best things about it are borrowed from either US or Korean originals. C-Kwan and 6-Wing are perfectly fine rappers — the percussive phonemes of Cantonese don’t hurt — but they slip into gooey inspiration-hawking far more easily than these rock & roll-bred ears are comfortable with.
[5]
Patrick St. Michel: FAMA seem to be one of the most popular groups in the Hong Kong hip-hop scene, and also one of the most influential. It’s a shame that this song has to be my introduction to them, because this and its sub-Soulja-Boy-song synths just come off as gratingly peppy, the whole track like a carefully coordinated group hug.
[2]
Iain Mew: Knowing nothing about them, my initial favourite part of listening to this was the ridiculous soft focus keyboard intro turning out to be a fakeout for some sprightly hip-hop. As a sometime peruser of the Hong Kong charts, I took this as satire at the expense of the ballads that make up a great deal of them. Thinking about it more, though, the fact that the song is so uplifting owes as much to a genuine seeming appreciation of the cheesy as it does to the bubbly arrangement and rapping. Without the crooned singing sections, key change and communal chanting at the end it wouldn’t have such an impact.
[7]
Brad Shoup: Google Translate was no friend this time (unless they’re actually saying “Seems that they want to ban the generous system of microphone management” — if yes, TEN). So the impression I’ve got is a nakedly inspirational, lurching little pop-rap number (hell, it’s practically a sea shanty), lots of chunking on-beat syllables and suspiciously familiar sampled guitar runs. It’s essentially all chorus, making the Kinkadian key change a feature instead of a bug.
[8]
Anthony Easton: The lullaby sweetness of the first few seconds is genuinely lovely, it sort of collapses after that.
[4]
Will Adams: No. You aren’t allowed to present me with what sounds like the end theme of an N64 game and make me prepare for a saccharine ballad only to fake me out and give me dope-faced saccharine rap. Nor are you allowed to employ an “inspirational” brass section and make it sound as depressed as Eeyore. Sorry if that sounds unfair, but if you’re trying to get me to sway along to your namby-pamby uplift you have to play by my rules.
[3]