Jay-Z Banned From Rapping In China

You would have thought that China would currently be a bit more worried about its nutjob next-door neighbour letting off nuclear bombs than a man in a tracksuit mumbling over a song from Annie, but you'd be wrong.

For one reason or another, Jay-Z decided that he'd announce the end of his hopeless retirement by playing a concert in Shanghai. After all, China is the most exciting country in the world at the moment - and Shanghai its best city - and the thought of the 1.3 billion potential album sales might have appealed to a businessman like Jay-Z. However, it wasn't to be; Jay-Z has been banned from playing in China. Ostensibly this is because the Chinese government has deemed Jay-Z's lyrics to be too vulgar, although there's also a possibility that they heard the news that there was a Jay-Z/ Coldplay duet on his new album and banned him for obviously having something wrong with his brain.

For the last couple of years Jay-Z has been content in his retirement, writing letters to the local council about noisy binmen and only feeding Beyonce syrup. But now Jay-Z is out of retirement - having made friends with Nas and cleaned up some African water and listened to other rappers mock his shoes - and he's firing on all cylinders ahead of the release of his Kingdom Come album. Well, maybe not all cylinders - duetting with Gwyneth Paltrow isn't the most gangsta thing Jay-Z could have done - but Jay-Z is definitely firing on most cylinders. What's that? Jay-Z isn't allowed to perform in China any more? Oh, balls to this cylinders thing then. Forbes reports:

"Some of Jay-Z's songs contain too much vulgar language," the state-run Shanghai Daily newspaper quoted Sun Yun, of promoter KS Production Co., as saying to explain the ministry's reason for refusing permission for the Oct. 23 concert. The concert would have been the Chinese debut for the rap icon, whose real name is Shawn Carter. The New York rapper's use of profanity and songs about drug dealers, pimps and violence apparently offended the culture czars.

Still, at least Jay-Z finds himself in good company by getting banned from China. The Rolling Stones were censored when they played there, The Da Vinci Code can't be shown there and Paul McCartney won't play in China until they stop throwing dogs off buses, even though we do sort of get the feeling they only do it to make sure Paul McCartney never visits there in the first place.

Read more:

China Cancels Jay-Z's Shanghai Concert - Forbes

[story by Stuart Heritage]