The Communist Youth League, a government-backed Communist youth movement, sponsored CD Rev, also known as Chengdu Revolution, a hip-hop group, released the song "This is China", in June 2016, and "No THAAD" in May 2017. įrom 2016, the Communist Party of China began supporting hip hop music as a new propaganda outlet. The 2017 show The Rap of China brought hip-hop to new levels of mainstream success, with billions of online views, Notable rappers that achieved mainstream success include PG One, GAI, Jony J, and After Journey. Ĭhengdu rap group the Higher Brothers became popular following their 2016 mixtape release, and toured the United States in 2018. There is an official annual Chinese Hip-Hop Awards Show (中国嘻哈颁奖典礼).
His opponent from Hong Kong snaps back to the beat in a trilingual torrent of Cantonese, English, and Mandarin, dissing the Beijing rapper for not representing the people." īig Zoo became a popular Chinese hip hop group, but in 2008, one of the crew members, Mow left the team, and rapper Free-T released his song "Diary of Life," signaling the return of Big Zoo. "One rapper spits out words in a distinctive Beijing accent, scolding the other for not speaking proper Mandarin. One underground Chinese artist, Hu Xuan, recorded all of the tracks on his album in Kunminghua, the local dialect spoken in the area of Kunming (Go Kunming, 2007). They like karaoke and doing someone else's songs." (Foreign Policy, 2007). As an American that was so odd for me you can't say anyone else's rhymes, you just don't do that. I'd say, 'Let me hear you rap', and they'd just do a karaoke thing, repeating a few lines of Eminem or Naughty by Nature. "The few rappers I met were rapping in English. However, there was considerable uptake of "Dakou CDs" – "surplus CDs created in the West that were supposed to be destroyed but were instead smuggled into China and sold on the black market" (Steele, 2006).ĭana Burton, an American, started the Iron Mic competition, an annual rap battle which encouraged more free-styling and less karaoke-style performances, in 2001 (Foreign Policy, 2007). "In the wake of the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989, interest in hip-hop waned as the government attempted to revitalize reverence for traditional Chinese culture and socialism" (Steele, 2006) and "the government still keeps a tight hold on radio licenses" (Trindle, 2007). Chinese is not suitable for rap music because it's tonal." XIV of the rap group Yin Ts'ang put it clearly, "I can tell you about what we don't rap about: gangbangin', pushin' drugs, or the government, that's a good way to not continue your career (or your life)." Hip-hop is often performed in English and many believe Chinese is not suitable for the genre "people said, straight up, you can't rap in Chinese, Chinese does not work for rap. Then maybe after 10 or 15 years, maybe they can have their own style." ). Ĭhinese DJ V-Nutz (Gary Wang) claimed, " young, local kids really enjoy Western things right now. The group was featured in full-length articles in the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times. The album was co-produced and written by British DJ Mel “Herbie” Kent, while being entirely recorded in his home studio.
Yin Ts'ang (隐藏) released a full-length album, Serve The People (为人民服务) (2002). The first song in China to feature rap style content was by rock and roll artist Cui Jian in the early 90s, though viewed as experimental. In 1992, China got its first regular hip hop nights (Fridays/Saturdays) at Kunlun Hotel Crystal Disco in Beijing. At the time there were no other clubs in mainland China but Juliana's, which was already receiving monthly deliveries of records from London featuring labels such as Sugarhill, Tommy Boy, and StreetSounds. The first DJ in China who played hip hop music on a daily basis was a resident at the first Chinese nightclub Juliana's in Beijing in 1984. In Chinese culture, the rhythmic delivery of insulting or humorous verse – or Shulaibao – pre-dates contemporary hip-hop.