A couple of days ago I had the great experience of becoming one of the few foreign hip-hop artists to visit the People’s Republic of China.

Common and the Roots had been before, but Jay-Z and Will.i.am have been denied entry due to their artistic content. China was not the first communist country where my lyrics had to be reviewed before I got there; that would be Cuba. I do curse in my music, but it seems that ideas and intentions bother these governments more than words — a fact that’s even more interesting when you consider the ridiculous debate this country is having over words in rap songs. After spending days getting work visas together and watching CNN reports on how f—ed up Chinese toys are, I got on an 11-hour flight to the Far East, not knowing what to expect. I’m always up for a challenge, though.

The economic state of China did not hit me until I saw the shanty towns as I was flying in. The Great Leap Forward was a proud time in history for many Chinese, but revolution is painful, and you can see the effects of China’s growing pains from up in the sky. As we touched down in Beijing, I went through a surprisingly easy customs and immigration process. For those who keep score, the drug-sniffing dogs were in full effect! I was with my business partner, Corey Smyth; my tour DJ, Chaps; and my sound man, Efrem Jenkins. We settled into the hotel, drank some Tsing Tsao and headed to a local club. They were playing hip-hop, but it was mainstream, like Fatman Scoop party records, mash-ups and weird choices, like Bow Wow’s basketball record. I must’ve heard Memphis Bleek’s “It’s Like That” three times that night. It’s a shame they won’t let Jay in — they feeling Bleek in Beijing.

The next day we got up early to go check out Tiananmen Square. However you feel about Mao Tse-Tung, what he built in China is impressive. I’ve never seen so many people so proud of their country, except in Cuba. We happen to be there on October 1, which is the day Mao declared China to be free in 1949, so it was a holiday week and the Chinese were out, all billion of ‘em, it seemed. We walked from the square to the Hall of Supreme Harmony, where the Chinese emperors lived and the scene from “The Last Emperor” was filmed. We saw ancient Chinese artifacts that showed how advanced they were in arts and sciences back in the day. This took the whole day, and we went for dim sum in the early evening.

The Chinese have a saying that goes, “We will eat anything with four legs except for the table.” I don’t know if that’s derogatory, because I was told that by a Chinese girl, but it certainly seemed true. After dodging all the pork, the fish, rice and dumplings were very good. I did not like the chicken’s feet though.

I performed at a place called Star Live with Ozomatli from SoCal and Faithless, a dance band from Europe. I was looking forward to challenging myself with an all-Chinese audience, but the Chinese were not there! The audience was 75 percent foreigners who spoke English, which made it easier to rip the club apart, but it wasn’t the cultural exchange I expected. The Chinese who were there were the biggest fans because they never get to see anything like this. We have a lot of work to put in as artists. My man DJ Wordie, a three-time DMC World DJ Champ, brought his peoples MC Webber with him. Webber ripped the mic in Chinese, filling in for Jean Grae on “Say Something.” After I did my thing, Ozomatli wowed the crowd, and I jumped back on with them. We then headed to the hotel for an after party and got on that Johnnie Walker Blue Label. Wow … humble.

The next day, as my crew went with the Ozomatli crew to the Great Wall of China, I stayed behind because I had mad interviews. Plus, I was dying to get into the studio. When everyone got back, they told me I missed the chance of a lifetime. I tried to console myself by convincing myself that I was coming back soon. It was also my birthday, so I asked a Chinese girl I met at the hotel what I should do. Her answer? “Go to the Great Wall. It is said he who has not visited the Great Wall is not a man.” Oh, word?!

I did get some work done (thank you, David Banner), and I met an MC named Andreas who let me use his studio, so shout out to him too.

When I got back to the hotel, the Ozomatli crew had a huge cake for me and Chaps was spinning classics in the hotel bar. We partied till the wee hours and boarded a plane for Shanghai.

Shanghai was more metropolitan then Beijing. As soon as we got there, we met a 60-year-old Chinese gentleman with a Porsche Cayenne on dubs, working out at the gym with his diamond-encrusted watch on. He was definitely not a communist. We headed to a press conference in Pudong at a restaurant overlooking the Bund, which is a famous promenade that boasts one of the world’s greatest skylines. The Chinese architecture is crazy to me, and beautiful. The press wanted to make sure we were there for cultural reasons, not just financial gain, and we met some of the local Chinese bands we would be performing with the next day. After this, I took a nap and then headed out to the Shanghai Cotton Club to catch the end of a jazz set. You learn more about a country by just walking the streets than you can from any book.

I performed at the Yue Festival the next day with Ozomatli, Faithless and about 10 local acts. This was Shanghai’s first outdoor music festival. Imagine that! I was very proud to be a part, plus I kept running into people I knew from New York who just happened to be out there. It is becoming easier to travel there and Americans are taking advantage. The show was great, the kids asked for an encore again, and I went back out with Ozomatli, who do they thing on that stage. After the festival we went to a real loungey spot that overlooked the Bund, but it was too laid back. We found a young hip-hop club called Bling (chuckle), where they kept bringing us Grey Goose while the DJ played Nas and Wu mixed with Beyoncé and Akon.

China has been here forever, since before Jesus was born, and its history is measured in centuries, not years. As someone who loves history, it was great to see how an old-school place like that is moving forward in the 21st century. There are customs I did not understand — like leaving slits in your baby’s pants for them to go wherever, instead of using diapers (imagine a billion diapers), or drivers who stop in the driving lanes on the highway and just chill out. Also, there are people like Paul McCartney who call for boycotting China because of the government’s policies, but that don’t have nothing to do with the people. I came for the people, and they embraced me and showed me a good time. They need to see us to understand that not every American is a capitalist pig, and we have much to learn from China’s rapid growth. My son is studying Chinese because it is the language of future commerce, for real. He was able to teach me simple greetings, which was nice as well. I know I will be back someday soon, and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you.