Ni Hao Pt.1

If you know me, you probably know that I’ve been heading to Shanghai for quite a while now…whether or not you knew that, I just touched down a couple hours ago. It’s currently 4:15 AM CST…which converts to 3:15 PM in New York.

Nothing too noteworthy has happened yet. We spent 22 hours getting here; flying from JFK to Beijing, and then from there to Shanghai. From the airport, some guy came out of nowhere, found us, and led us to a bus, and the bus took us here, to Shanghai University, where I am and will be dorming for the next month. I’ll be studying Mandarin Chinese and Chinese Economic History. I’ve never taken any Chinese courses…so, I don’t really have any hope of leaving here being conversational in Chinese. My intentions are pretty much to learn how to say I’m hungry! Where is the food?, etc. – Hopefully, I’m wrong, but I think that the 2 weeks I spent in Italy will have taught me more Spanish than this month in Shanghai will teach me Chinese. That may confuse some of you, cuz I’m constantly throwing Spanish into my lyrics…but notice I’ve never done a whole song in it…I can read and write Spanish at an okay-level…but I can’t speak well…I can listen well…but, yeah, point is, I’m not fluent.

Speaking of confusion, some may be wondering what I’m doing in Shanghai…I’m wondering too. But, long story short..I have a very generous scholarship (check http://www.hostos.cuny.edu/oaa/globalscholars.htm for more info).

Thus far, China hasn’t surprised me too much. They drive on the right, which I wasn’t expecting…but the things I was hoping were myths…are not. The water IS f***ing nasty, people are pushy, and most of them don’t speak English. Shanghai shares the same longitude as North Carolina, so the weather is bearable outside…but I’m freezing my ass off writing this. This is the main reason why I can’t sleep. The dorms are ridiculously cold. There’s an air conditioner in the room…so I thought I’d try to see if it was a heater too…and it is…but, it’s planted in the wall, pretty much on the ceiling…and warm air rises…I hope my upstairs neighbors are warm…I’ve been stanfing on my bed every five minutes to get some heat. I’m sleeping in long johns, sweatpants, 3 tees and a hoody…freezing.

Anyway, on to some music sh*t. Cuz I Wanna had a hard time getting together. The only days that landed between finals and…me going to Shanghai were December 23-26. It turned out the only day we were all down to record was the 26th, after 4PM. So, yeah—Sick With the Chill is never dropping…on to Long Distance in November 2009. We’ll drop some singles or something like that…but, other than that, look for the other releases throughout the year. I think this is probably for the best. For 2 reasons…The first being that an EP isn’t what we’re trying to drop. Our name lowers expectations, and Sick With the Chill would have certainly surpassed them; but not with the severity we’re aiming for. Long Distance will.

The Overactive Hiatus EP and LP have made significant progress. The LP is oddly coming together much quicker than the EP (sounds like Sterling might be dropping another project, doesn’t it?). A potential tracklist for the Overactive Hiatus album has been created. At the moment, it’s a 13 song, 50 minute banger. Should the EP be dropped, the LP would most likely become a 16 track piece, preceded by a few tracks that would have been on the EP, that would otherwise never be heard again. The tentative tracklist is mostly instrumental. I’ve got 13 beats that I’m like, “that’s album sh*t.” Of the 13 beats, 8 have lyrics…but only 3 are truly finished. The goal is to have completed the tentative album before leaving Shanghai.

Upon returning to New York, I’ll be able to start working with both BC, and with $1 Bin on our EP due around June/July. $1 Bin is some good ass producer type nigga from Harlem. I went to high school with him, and now that we graduated, we feel like runnin’ this rap sh*t. our EP should play like a Kweli/Madlib Liberation joint…but younger; which should mean more energy and Kobe ass lyrics…but only time will tell.

So yeah, you like how I went from 10 projects down to 4?

Avneet, I ain’t forget about you…I’mma try to take a nap…it’s 5:15 now.

Gangsigns,
Stz

PS-For more on $1 Bin:
Myspace.com/itsthenew