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China Travel: Putting Down Beats From One Host Country To Another

Finally, someone to speak for the expats: Rapper Eli Sweet found his niche as a performer-slash-English teacher after moving from Hotlanta--to Chengdu, China.

His MySpace page still lists him as Atlanta-based--and as "the dopest white rapper without a fade"--but after graduation from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, Sweet, who had been studying Chinese on and off for years, took an unconventional path to musical recognition in becoming perhaps the only white rapper in Chengdu. NPR's videos of Sweet in Chengdu present a completely different side of the Olympic hosts, but inspire us to visit just as much as those sweeping shots of the Watercube.

We wish Sweet were a more regular blogger, based on a March '07 entry about the popularity of the combover, the state of the bathrooms and what Chinese people think of their neighbor, Thailand. His on-the-ground knowledge of what Asian rap sounds like alone is priceless.

Related Stories:
· American Rapper Eli Sweet Reflects On China [NPR]
· This Is Why I'm Hot [Eli Sweet's MySpace Blog]
· Beijing Olympics 2008 coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of a rap concert in Shanghai: nicklui]