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The Yin Ts’ang legacy began when MC Webber, a local Beijing b-boy, and XIV, a club DJ from Alabama, met at an underground MC battle late in the year 2000. From their mutual interest in hip-hop music and culture a solid friendship developed and the duo began scouring Beijing in search of nightclubs equipped with two turntables and a microphone. In one years time, relying solely on guerilla marketing and word of mouth, a small dedicated following emerged and their hip-hop parties were attracting profitable crowds. It was at these events that, Sbazzo, a Chinese national raised in Toronto, and Chicago native, Dirty Heff, proved themselves as MC’s that could help the struggling Chinese hip-hop scene move forward. In late 2001, disappointed with the Chinese pop music market’s exploitation and misrepresentation of hip-hop music, MC Webber, XIV, Sbazzo and Dirty Heff united to form China’s first rap group, and named themselves Yin Ts’ang, which means “obscure” or “hidden” in Chinese. The group’s mission was to use the Chinese language to produce hip-hop music that could re-educate the hoodwinked listeners. The four MC’s began recording their Chinese rhymes over simple homemade drum loops and one year later the group picked 15 of the fifty-plus tracks that they had since recorded and distributed a demo CD to all the record labels in Beijing. Scream Records, known mainly for their punk rock releases, reluctantly signed the group to a one year contract. Using a friends home studio on a meager US$1000 budget, the first official Yin Ts’ang CD, For the People, was released 6 months later in December of 2003. To everyone’s surprise, the first single: Welcome to Beijing, made it to #3 on the Chinese National Radio Charts and won the members of Yin Ts’ang a Chinese National Radio award for “Best New Band” of 2003. (To this day Welcome to Beijing is one of the only Mandarin rap songs that can be found in every legitimate Karaoke parlor in mainland China.) Although the release of Yin Ts’ang: For the People solidified this crew as the leaders of the local hip-hop movement in mainland China, a music market controlled by wealthy labels, pop superstars and piracy led Yin Ts’ang to abandon the powerless Scream Records at their contracts completion. They chose to return to the underground scene from which they came, promoting and supporting themselves by way of nine self-produced street albums (Yin Ts’ang Mixtape, Sbazzo-King of Beijing, Kinetic Raw Mixtape Vol.1&2, Section 6-Double CD, MMXIV-Gomer and the FAR DVD Mixtape, Dirty North Vol.1&2), a yearly street DVD magazine documenting the developing hip-hop scene in China (FAR DVD), a live monthly hip-hop showcase (Section 6 @ the recently demolished Club YuGong YiShan) and an esteemed hip-hop website, www.yintsang.com, which provides an online platform for local artists and producers to gain much needed exposure. Over the past couple years Yin Ts’ang has had the opportunity to perform alongside foreign rap legends such as The Jungle Brothers, Ugly Duckling, Kid Koala, Jin the MC, and DJ Dopey, also China’s Godfather of Rock & Roll: CuiJian and Hong Kong’s now defunct rap superstars LMF. Yin Ts’ang has recorded commercial jingles for Nike, LiNing, White Rabbit Candy, TaiShan Beverage Company and the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). They’ve collaborated with Zhang Yadong on albums featuring China Supergirl Competition winners Crystal Lee (2006) and Zhang Liangying (2007). Yin Ts’ang has been featured on CCTV’s “Super 6+1” and BTV’s “Deal or no Deal” and performed at packed stadiums throughout China, making appearances at The 2003 Pepsi Music Awards, where they were nominated for Best New Rock-Rap Group and the opening ceremony of the 2005 Chinese Golden Rooster Awards (the Chinese equivalent of the American Oscars) Today, more than half a decade later, a stronger, more experienced Yin Ts’ang continues to dominate the Chinese hip-hop music scene and is preparing to make history once again with the release of their sophomore studio album. Produced and distributed with the help of Beijing’s only exclusively hip-hop label: Kurrent Kid Productions (Dragon Tongue Squad), the new Yin Ts’ang album will not only demonstrate the group’s ever-progressing talent and lyrical ability but will once again bring real 100% homegrown Chinese hip-hop music to the mainstream listeners.