The title cut of the group's debut CD, "Impulsion," warns against acting on teenage impulse like a distraught student who commits suicide. To underscore its family-friendly theme, a label on the group's debut album pleads: "Please recommend this record to your parents."
One person who won't be playing such tunes is Beijing-area disk jockey Chen "MC Allan" Shen.
On a recent Friday night, Chen presided over dual turn tables on a raised stage at Club Look, where he pumped a gyrating dance crowd with deafening cuts from Jay-Z, DMX and other American artists.
A few in the crowd walked around in hip-hop regalia: a Chinese man sporting an Afro, another one with an oversized Miami Dolphins jersey, a woman in a white fedora and little else.
Chen was unimpressed.
"Nobody who comes here understands hip-hop," Chen said, admitting that even he didn't fully grasp the genre. "It's just popular in China at the moment."
He refused to play any Chinese rap artists during his hourlong set.
"They can't curse, they basically have to say life is great, life is beautiful, nothing's wrong," he said. "It's not hip-hop."
