As I said last Monday, my little trip to Chinatown turned out to be quite an adventure!  I was chilling, enjoying a fortune cookie with my buddies Johnny, East and May when a Kung-Fu Master suddendly appeared out of nowhere.

The rest is history.  I met up with Sifu Lorne Bernard of Académie Shaolin White Crane Kung-Fu who taught me a lot of surprizing things about this centuries old martial art.  I also met up with Alexandre Gemme who talked about this passion he's had for many years.  Finally, the episode ends spectacularly with a duel that will make everybody smile!

On What Up Gangstars this week, it's KUNG FU !!!

Ps: There are some surprises in the Goodies section ;p

Remember how my "Soccer" webisode ended? Did the unexpected apparition tick your curiosity? Haha!  Let's say that my little trip to Montreal's Chinatown a few weeks ago didn't end as planned...

I leave you with 3 video stills taken from my next episode.  Come back in 2 days to discover the answer to this plot!

[My friend Bam Bam (that you've seen in the Soccer webisode) posing with Arthur King]

During my super duper party on March 5th, I had the opportunity to meet Arthur King. It was an honor, because Arthur is a role model for me in some way. He's a multidiscplinary artist who's successful in all of his projects. Whether it is for his mixtapes, his music videos or his motion design (like for the "Just For Kicks" documentary, Arthur always distinguishes himself by his outstanding aesthical vision and his surprizing capacity to incorporate hiphop culture codes into works that might target a much larger audience than the four elements community.

For all those reasons, I am proud to say that Arthur King DJ-ed my party and that we are now really good friends! As a matter of fact, two or three days after the party, when we became closer, I used the occasion of his presence in Montreal to ask him a few questions...

Here is my interview with Arthur King!

-Could you tell us how was your first music video direction experience?

Hummmm, it was Hocus Pocus' first videoclip "Hip Hop?". They came to me because they liked what I did for the "Just For Kicks" documentary. They were still independent at the time, so they offered me a little bit of money but lots of motivation to direct the video. I did almost everything by myself and it worked out pretty well: lots of views on the Net in a time when animated typography music videos weren't a trend yet (thank God).

Read more after the jump...

My friend Goofy Welldone is the host of the best hip-hop show in the cosmos.  Okay, it's still not proven, but it's true that Goofy -and his buddies OG and Slym- are doing a great job.

Their show is called "La Rue du Hip-Hop" (Hip-Hop Street) and every episode hosts a guest who's more or less related to hip-hop culture. Essentially, the show is divided in two segments.  In the first one, Goofy welcomes his guest with a "traditional" interview to make him comfortable with the camera. In the second segment, things get spicier!

Over the years, because of his radio host or promoter roles, Goofy accumulated an incredible amount of demo CDs, promo copies or CD-Rs.  All these albums are now stored in an old bathtub!  The goal of the game is quite simple: you pick a random CD, you listen to a song and then, you judge it.  You have two possibilities: either you store it with the "real" CDs to listen to it again in the future, either you throw it back in the bathtub!

Recently, Goofy invited me to his show.  To see and/or to listen to what I stumbled upon, you must absolutely watch this!

(Yeah, sorry folks, it's in french...:-p )

Poirier is Montreal's greatest embassador. He's not an ordinary artist though, he's a beat virtuoso! His approach is remarkable: what's better than dance and music to bring all the people on Earth together? Poirier understood that very well, and for many years he has been lugging his bundle around from Australia to Brazil, passing by England, Israel and Japan.

He sets the dancefloor on fire everywhere he goes with his breathtaking DJ performances. Whether he's playing someone else's song or his own compositions, there's always hysteria amongst the crowd, as seen in this recently filmed video for the song "Arena" that he co-produced with the Italian duo Crookers. Accompanying him is singer Face-T, his buddy with whom he often shares the stage.

To celebrate his new album "Running High" release (available since March 30th), Poirier uploaded a new mixtape called "TRIATHLON". Beware, this mixtap e will burn your ears!

POIRIER - TRIATHLON MIX

By the way, Poirier will be playing at Belmont this Friday April 9th (with Face-T, Boogat, Mikey Dangerous, Hovatron & Lexis). See you there!

I won't tell you stories: I'm not the greatest punk-rock connoisseur in the world.  I know how to recognize a talented band when I see one though. And Hold A Grudge is a hell of a good band!

I have known these five musicians from Montreal since last fall (you will soon understand why ;p) and I can tell you they work hard to succeed. That's why I'm very happy to announce that they will be releasing a new album, their 2nd.  This record will be called "Doing Time" and will be officially launched Saturday April 10th at the Katacombes (1635 St-Laurent Blvd).

Believe me, that 6$ is a good investment!