Born and raised in Southeast Washington, DC, I gained an appreciation of art as a means of cultural expression at an early age, spending his pre-adolescence in my late father’s jewelry shop, located in a centre for African American art.  Like many an eighties-baby, I’ve  been a lifelong aficionado of hip-hop and pop art; spending afternoons looking for deals at record shops and perusing comic book stores.

I began studying Mandarin at Sidwell Friends School, and continued through university—but it wasn’t until 2007 that I had my first interaction with Chinese hip-hop: joining up with Anna Sophie Loewenberg and Luke mines at a monthly cipher, Section 6, for SexybeijingTV.   

 Fast forward to 2008—after graduating from Boston College, I received a Fulbright grant for the proposal, “Understanding China through Hip-hop”.  I spent the following year in Beijing as a sociologist compiling a multimedia ethnography—a combination of photos, essays, and film—on the city of Beijing’s unique experience with Hiphop subculture.  

Now living in New York City, I currently exhibit this body work as “The Misadventures of MC Tingbudong” in galleries and universities in New York City; while earning scratch as a mandarin teacher and translator, and continue to profile street culture and music through photography and digital media.  

Thats about the jist of it.  All Jam.  No Peanuts.

Enjoy.