American artist and activist Jamel Mims has a new music video out helmed by his “Chinese rapping avatar” MC Tingbudong: “VIRAL.” The vertical video, shot entirely on iPhone and produced especially for Instagram, “takes you on a doomscrolling journey through the internet during quarantine.”
It’s also intended as a “reaction to the xenophobic environment in the US, ‘Chinese virus’ and attacks on Asian Americans,” according to Mims, who goes on to say that the track and its video are, “a reflection during the early days of lockdown on the posthuman nature of our lives online — and a call to action to create a global community in the midst of this global pandemic.”
Mims is a Washington DC-born rapper, poet and activist who became a key part of the late ’00s Beijing hip hop scene after spending a year in the Chinese capital through a Fulbright scholarship.
Last time we were hearing from his alter-ego Tingbudong it was as he took us on a VR tour of China’s underground rap scene back in February. But the man behind the mask has been typically active in the intervening months, helping organize Black Lives Matter and anti-Trump protests in New York and taking the time to discuss issues around Black Lives Matter and Asian communities with Bohan Phoenix as part of a special RADII- and Black Livity China-hosted talk:
Check out the full video via the embed above and follow Mims (and the misadventures of Tingbudong) on Instagram here.
