My neighbor was bumping it.

My uber driver was bumping it all.

My friends were bumping it and I was bumping it to, but there wasn't any music from people who looked like me.

So whenever I want to bump some stuff from home, I would go tunnel vision on this YouTube channel called Junk TV.

It would pose music, videos, interviews and documentaries of rappers in China.

It was like a library of Chinese hip hop before the world even knew what Chinese hip hop waas.

It's a lower, and it was all thanks to this guy stuff guys in 22 k and I'm the founder of its own TV.

Don T.

V is the number one hip hop platform outside of China, and we've been around since 2010.

So this is our year number nine, which is crazy.

E was born in Taiwan, but I never really lived there.

When I was one, I moved to Singapore, so I actually grew up in Singapore until I was seven on.

Then I immigrated Canada, while Vancouver, Canada, when I was eight years old e Don't even think I had a lot of friends, like up until I moved to Canada.

You know, I was kind of like the quiet, always in the corner.

And like a lot of young kids, 22 k struggled to figure out what he wanted to do with this life.

E always thought that I was gonna do something that was gonna affect somebody, like, you know, affect someone in the masses.

Like when I was 15.

16.

Um, my family actually got into like that.

Lost.

It was pretty detrimental.

Like in terms of how effective My mom, my dad, and the whole family nuclear because, like, a 10 year thing, I didn't wanna be home.

You know, I just just be out because, you know, there'd be a lot of fights to be a lot of, you know, the whole atmosphere, the whole, um, vibe family vibe was pretty.

It was pretty messed up during that time, so I kind of sort of hanging out with the wrong crowd during those years.

E Larry.

Yeah.

And then, you know, one thing led to another.

Yeah, back then I was like, I was like, harsh raver So I was partying a lot.

And, like, back then, like in my twenties, nine out of 10 times, I would have been alright.

I'm there, you know, on.

Then I'm like, Okay, this is getting way too stressful, like in terms of, you know, my health and my mind.

And in 3 2001 of my best friends was killed.

Um, he was killed, like, outside of a club.

Yeah, he got he got shot in the head in and yeah, e kind of took his death pretty hard because e I was only 23 at that time.

So during that time, three of my boys got shot to went through the hand, went through the mouth, so that could have been me.

The crazy thing about that was that I still remember at my friend's funeral, right.

Um, I was the only one actually crying, and that kind of struck a chord with me, you know, like after the wake, everybody's like, Oh, what do you guys wanna go eat?

You know, like it was like, no big deal.

And I was like, and that kind of like, maybe Okay, this is kind of weird.

You know, like this environment that I'm living in.

So I just knew I had thio.

I had to leave, you know, like I moved to Shanghai without knowing anyone.

I just went, you know, like two suitcases.

Um, I sold my car here.

I was living downtown apartment.

I got rid of my apartment and I just moved in Shanghai 22.

Case started making music videos for Chinese rappers.

It combined his passion for film and his passion for hip hop.

I studied, uh, directing as well as a new media back then.

E this is how you see in terms of on TV, you know, like graphic design, video editing, um, you know, shooting videos.

And then that was when I kind of decided thio do something that was more fulfilling.

After a couple of videos, I was like, Man, I'm gonna just a I'm gonna create a brand, and I just wanna do a platform.

And so that's kind of how everything started.

But I think at that time frame when nobody even knew about Chinese hip hop like the best thing you could do is just keep on pumping on content.

Content is keep, you know, content is king.

So yeah, like no breakthroughs just keep on putting on content and then wearing their meeting.

People like hitting people up like on a boat back in the day, you know, and just want to, like, put instant work.

It's like back then, the circle is so small that if you were doing hip hop, if you're doing something positive in the Chinese hip hop community, like everybody, kind of just like, you know comes together.

22 kids started building up John TV's reputation in China.

He worked with members of King Kong, considered the first hip hop group in China, and C Block, a rap group from Changsha.

A I Wanna take a walk.

Slowly, John TV expanded outside of China, and soon it was curating content for artists and publishing them on YouTube.

In early 2019 22 K released a video saying he wanted to suspend the channel indefinitely.

The reason.

He believed John TV had achieved this goal of promoting Chinese hip hop to the rest of the world.

You guys just want to give a big shout out to everyone who's ever watched and supported platform.

It's on TV, Digger sounds once early eating.

Virginians starting Junior.

Yeah, crazy, right, right.

But yeah, we're done by because during those eight years when he was working on John TV, Chinese hip hop blew up shows like the Rap of China made hip hop mainstream in China.

It's kind of like American Idol, but all rap and in Chinese.

Thought Show got three billion views on Nike and labels like 88 Rising brought Chinese rappers to the rest of the world.

22 k believed John TV had served his purpose, and he was ready to move on.

But right after he released his last video, he received messages from fans showing their love for John TV and hoping it would stay on.

It's in the Big Don Don.

Your pink modeling, uh, can soothe about the launch like a multi brand store, one again to events this year, bringing like some Chinese artists over two events trying pulls, you know, right, because even though Chinese hip hop is big now, John TV was there before it blew up.

I think part of what TV represents, or even hip hop culture represents, is the fact that, you know you should always be doing something that you're passionate about.

E was here for the there was a higher brothers show.

Oh, yeah, that was a huge Yeah.

So then e guess that railing would be gone like hip hop has always been something That was me, you know, I started Listen, hip hop like when I was 13 12 like Criss Cross was what got me And then I was dancing.

It was be boring.

It's always been part of of my personality.

So looking back, I think everything happens for a reason.

I think now, like I have a pretty good understanding in terms of, you know, ones like the ups and downs.

I think I kind of just roll with the punches like I don't really dwell know anything.

Everything is just like for Go, go, go!

Yeah!