By Shuang Wen
Club
Cirque , London - 24 March 2005
The past Thursday night (March 24) saw club birds, rap fans or youngsters with whatever labels flocking into Club Cirque for a live date jointly performed by British Punjabi star Juggy D, and U.S. Chinese rapper Jin. It’s hard to distinguish where the big attraction came from, the relaxing night before Good Friday or the expectation as to what the two Asian rappers would bring.
From 10pm, people started flooding into the dim light of Cirque. Interestingly, young faces with Indian or Chinese traits formed a majority of the crowd. It reminded me of the night’s theme, ‘East Meets East’, and I began to question, ‘what will happen when east meets east?’
In the first couple of hours, people kept dancing while waiting for Juggy D and Jin until one o’clock, when the stage was finally made up with lights focusing on it. After a bit of Drum & Bass, the start of what was to be an exciting night was announced. The presenter shared bare jokes with the audience, before introducing the rappers, (describing Jin as “the only rapper from the preserved and quiet Chinese community”), and encouraging a fairly mad two-pair flirting contest. I am happy to say that all of these efforts, as well as an eight-strong dance, lay a hot base for the upcoming performance.
At half past one, Juggy D finally hit the stage in a green jacket and was warmly applauded. He first brought out the single ‘Nahin Jeenah’ with a rarely-found affection in rap music, and many of the audience chanted with him, “I don’t want to live if I can’t get your love”. It was a good kick-off for the night, and was followed by faster paced tracks like ‘Billo’ and the critically acclaimed single ‘Dance With You’, ending with a great response from ‘Sohniye’ before Jin made his entrance.
Jin appeared in a more dramatic way by rising up from the center of the stage with a group of dancers. He was better at controlling the atmosphere, and even more so in stirring up hype for this Chinese rapper from the NYC-based Ruff Ryder stable. He jumped down from the stage into the crowd, took off his trousers whilst performing, and asked those who love Chinese food or make love four days a week to make some noise. Who could keep silent at this moment? While performing his debut single ‘Learn Chinese’, he rapped “we don’t speak English, we speak Chinese” and the audience just followed him shouting “Chinese, Chinese, Chinese!”
Juggy D and Jin successfully kept the whole night on a high, each bringing different strengths to the show. In Juggy D’s joyful singing, you can find and enjoy the Indian elements everywhere from the tune to the rhythm to his more mature style, while Jin conquered the crowd with his dynamic spirit which, to be fair, is more American than Chinese. And when they came back together to the stage, they collaborated and brought the night to a climax in their one-off India Meets China live event.
The ravers went crazy again when the hour-long performance finished and they started another dance. When I left Cirque at half past two in the morning, I felt sober enough to ask myself the question again - What happens when East meets East? The answer? A smash!
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