Last month internet rumours began circulating that Nas would be performing in Shanghai in the near future. Hip hop lovers here were all atwitter at the thought of the NYC rap legend gracing our fair city with his presence, however implausible it seemed: Nas rarely performs live these days, not to mention the fact that his relationship with record label Def Jam of late is a bit tenuous.
As March turned to April, details of the Solid Vodka-sponsored event began to firm up. The date was announced as April 25 and the venue was Racks, a recently-opened pool hall. While Racks is not your typical concert venue, nowhere in the publicity materials was the Nas gig being referred to as a concert. Rather, the event was being billed with a wink as a “Hip Hop Party” featuring a “guest appearance from NAS.” The event also marked the maiden voyage of SmartTicket, the brand new ticket sales platform of online city guide SmartShanghai, which chose to refer to the NAS tickets as “door passes.” Still, ticket-buyers weren’t shelling out RMB 250 (US $36) to shoot pool and hope to catch a fleeting glimpse of the rap demigod. With the government cracking down on concert promoters, it seems the organizers of the NAS show figured it would be easier to sidestep the pesky legalities and throw a “party” instead of a concert.
Sadly, this Nas business has borne out two truisms: 1) If something seems too good to be true, then it probably is. 2) In China’s concert promotion business, nothing comes easily. Just five days after Nas tickets went on sale, the event was postponed “due to visa issues amongst the entourage” of Nas. No new date has been set as of this writing, and what “visa issues” is euphemizing remains a mystery. When reached by China Music Radar, a spokesperson for Solid Vodka refused to comment on the Nas event. Fingers crossed that the show is successfully rescheduled, and that the event organisers choose not to put other local promoters in a bad position by skirting the law and escalating the tension between the Chinese government and the nascent music industry.