The OG is back. It feels good when one of the superstars that put Asian Hip Hop on the map makes a comeback. It feels even better when the music is hitting as hard as HotDog’s new single, ‘They Ain’t Rappers At All’ is. The single, his first release in three years, is just a warm-up for a new album that is going to be released in June.

MC HotDog could throw away the microphone, disappear never to be heard from again, and he’d still be considered one of the biggest rappers that Asian Hip Hop has ever seen. His song, ‘我爱台妹’ [I Love Taiwanese Girls] broke down a lot of barriers in clubs in Asia. In a night in the mid-2000s, if you didn’t hear it two or three times, something was wrong. In China, where only a year or two before, the DJ would be kicked off for playing Chinese music, people requested MC HotDog so much that if a DJ didn’t play it, he might end up having trouble with gangsters.

‘They Ain’t Rappers At All’ doesn’t fall into the R&B love song vibe of ‘我爱台妹.’ Instead, it’s HotDog at his rawest telling all these new rappers that they need to do something he hasn’t seen before. It’s not a diss to any single person in particular, but just a warning shot for rappers to do better. Remember this OG was a judge on the Rap of China and is over there now waiting for filming to resume for the latest season once the lockdowns ease up.

The video is in Taipei, but it has a raw gritty mid-90s New York City feel to it. The black and white shots of butchers, bing lang girls giving lap dances, skateboarders breaking their decks, and the MC himself look incredible while he flows over a dope Boom Bap beat by Tipsy Kao. If this is the new HotDog going back to the old HotDog, we want more.

Check out MC HotDog’s ‘They Ain’t Rappers At All’ below.