[durootrium]

So it's like the Wu-Tang Clan, in reverse?

[Indian Butt Magic]

I've heard that Mandarin Chinese just doesn't lend itself very well to hip hop, specifically to the poetic rhymes and rhythm manipulation.

In English, the word structure is irregular enough so that you have to work pretty hard to get inspired harmonies, whether it's having a series of words sound alike or fixing their place in a beat so that it makes sense.

In Chinese, the characters are all one syllable long and they fall into a set of limited endings. So one criticism I've heard levelled at Chinese rap and hip hop is that (oddly) the language makes it "too easy" to come up with a flow.

One thing I've always wondered, though. Chinese words can have completely different meanings if you alter the tone. So "Ma!" means scold, but "Ma?" means sesame, and so forth. The one thing about singing in harmony is that you lose all the tones.

So...

Why hasn't some Chinese comedian written songs filled with double entendres based on ambiguous tonality then?

[jeaccatty]

^ Cake.