Chinese Rappers Speculate on China’s Hip-Hop Ban

HYPEBEAST Features Friday February 23, 2018 [hypebeast] Chinese Rappers Speculate on China’s Hip-Hop Ban On January 19, reports that China has banned hip-hop culture and individuals with tattoos from appearing on television surfaced. The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People’s Republic of China (SAPPRFT) — the country’s top media regulator — enforced a new legislation that TV programs should not depict hip-hop culture, sub-culture and “dispirited” culture, including actors with tattoos. “Absolutely do not use actors whose heart and morality are not aligned with the party and whose morality is not noble. Absolutely do not use actors who are tasteless, vulgar and obscene. Absolutely do not use actors whose ideological level is low and have no class. Absolutely do not use actors with stains, scandals and problematic moral integrity.” - Gao Changli, director of the administration’s publicity department Rap music and culture became extremely popular in China in 2017, mainly due to the success of IQiyi-produced Chinese rap reality show The Rap of China. Based on a South Korea’s Show Me The Money, The Rap of China reached 100 million views in four hours when its first episode aired and reportedly accumulated 1.3 billion views in a little over a month. The show made hip-hop a mainstream and highly commercialized phenomenon throughout China, and several of its contestants became national superstars. The Rap of China was taken off air and upcoming seasons were cancelled following the ban. [hypebeast] The motives behind the legislation are not yet made clear, but most assumptions have been similar. “From the government’s perspective, these rappers were quickly becoming major pop celebrities, and celebrities at that level are supposed to self-censor and be good role models, upholding Chinese values.” Marcus Rowland, head of A&R for the Beijing-based music-services company Outdustry, told Billboard in an interview. “This ban is the government saying what most of us always knew: that the government sees hip-hop as part of low-level society and not appropriate for mainstream audiences.” The ban was enacted shortly after a rapper named GAI was removed from Hunan TV’s Singer, a popular singing competition show in China. After the legislation was made, video clips of the rapper were taken off of Hunan TV’s official Youtube channel. PG One, another well-known contestant on the show, was forced to issue an apology after his tracks “Christmas Eve” was criticized for “degrading and out of line” lyrics that promote drug culture and misogyny. VaVa, another notable rapper, was apparently cut out of the variety show Happy Camp. TIME points out that a contestant on the show Super Brain even had his hip-hop-style chain blurred out. To learn more about the ban, we spoke with several individuals in the Chinese rap industry for their take. First is Shanghai-based rapper Al Rocco, a contestant on The Rap of China who dropped a diss track aimed at the show shortly after he was eliminated. Bohan Phoenix is a New York-raised, Chengdu-based rapper who has collaborated with Higher Brothers and was, according to him, initially invited to be a contestant on the show. Dough-Boy is a Hong Kong-based rapper-producer who has worked with notable TROC contestants like MC Jin and Tizzy T as well as Higher Brothers. Finally, Allyson Toy aka DJ Toy is an industry multi-hyphenate based in Shanghai with experience in management, marketing and PR for rappers. "Why is China banning hip-hop?" Al Rocco: China is not banning hip-hop, I believe it’s more about control and finding a new system that suits Chinese culture. Bohan Phoenix: I’ve been doing shows in China since 2015 and I’ve been watching hip-hop in China grow slowly. But in the last year, it went from underground to mainstream in a matter of weeks. To me, China is just going through changes and growing pains. Supposedly the ban all started with the lyrics of some rapper named PG One, but honestly anytime Western influence can cause such a ripple in China — and hip-hop is most definitely Western culture — China will react, especially when younger generations are so obsessed. I’m not surprised at all that China has tried to ban hip-hop, but whether it will actually work is another thing. [READ FULL ARTICLE ON HYPEBEAST →]( More HYPEBEAST Features [[hypebeast] Going Behind the Scenes at Christopher Bailey's Final Burberry Fall/Winter 2018 Show]( [[hypebeast] Street Style at Milan Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2018 Was Gucci on Day 1]( [[hypebeast] VHILS Talks Preserving Local Culture Through Art, New Exhibit & Mor]( Follow Us Download Our App Free on iOS and Android 2017 Hypebeast Limited. All Rights Reserved. [Unsubscribe](