The Lab’s conception marks a turning point in Shanghai’s hip hop scene. While club nights and the annual DMC Championship (which V-Nutz won in 2002, making him China’s first DMC champion) are highlights on the hip hop calendar, The Lab provides a permanent, non-club environment focused on education and skill transfer–an essential component for any scene looking to break out of its event-driven niche.

V-nutz, or Gary Wang to friends, helms one of Shanghai’s biggest regular nights, Thursdays at a club called Pegasus. It’s the de facto hip hop night in town, and the soundtrack is a hit parade of the hip hop charts. But V-Nutz’ personal tastes veer towards the obscure and unique: rare groove from the late 60s and 70s, which he occasionally plays out on 45s. He picked up his habit when working at a Harajuku hip hop store while he attended Nippon University studying food economy from 1995 to 1999. The ‘V’ in his name stands for vinyl.

V-nutz came to hip hop in 1988 the way many youths in Asia get their culture: through the black market.

“I got into hip hop in 1989,” he says. “I was at a black market on Yan’an Road that sold all kinds of tapes, from heavy metal to Hong Kong music. I grabbed one of the tapes without knowing what it was. It was so hot I checked it out when I got home – it was Run DMC.”

In many ways, V-nutz’ story captures the mashed-up, multi- everything world we live in: Born in China, educated in Japan; fluent in both languages and English; introduced to hip hop by the black market, but now promoting it altruistically. In any case, The Lab’s experiments in Shanghai’s pop culture should produce some interesting results.

The Lab
Address: 5F, 343 Jiaozhou Road, Shanghai
Tel: +86 (0)21 5213 0877