Where we're not going tonight: So Much Soul

Tonight, we were all set to show our out-of-town visitors that hip-hop is alive and well in Shanghai. The tide, we reasoned, was beginning to shift, and if the previously moribund live music scene could find its second wind, why not a bona fide community of true hip-hop heads? Of course, much of this speculation hinged on the continued growth of So Much Soul, the weekly hip-hop event sprung into action by the Lab, and hosted by everyone’s favorite hole-in-the-wall that isn’t really a hole-in-the-wall, Tang Hui.

So here’s the bad news—SMS is not on our docket for tonight. To be absolutely clear, it's not on anyone's docket. Though we’ve been promised (pinky swears and everything) that it will resurface next month at the recently restored 4 Live/Fabrique, there will be no SMS at Tang Hui tonight or any night in the foreseeable future. Which is too bad—Tang Hui is right across the street from us, and besides that whole no-drumsticks-nonsense, we were beginning to think that the place was beginning to regain its former luster. Why didn't So Much Soul last at Tang Hui? We're not really sure. They might, however, consider ponying up the dough for a new sound system, one that preferably doesn't produce screeching feedback. It’s all in the details, people.

The Lab, meanwhile, keeps on trucking. Its next hip-hop event, Soul in the Hole, is coming to Live Bar, and it’s coming this Saturday, and, well, we'll be there. Doin' the humpty dance. (No, not that one. The Digital Underground one.)

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Where we're going tonight: So Much Soul