That’s a rap
Hip-hop showman Gai brings brand of music to masses
I came from a poor family but I never feel ashamed. I sing about my pride out loud in my songs.” Gai, Chinese rapper
Zhou Yan has long been a “troubled” son in his parents’ eyes. They never understood anything he cared about — hip-hop, tattoos and loose outfits — or any of the choices he has made, such as giving up a stable job in his hometown of Weiyuan county, Sichuan province, to pursue his dream of making music in Chongqing.
The 30-year-old welcomed the new chapter in his life as he competed in a hip-hop reality show this summer.
The Rap of China, a reality show produced and broadcast by iQiyi, one of China’s largest online streaming websites, placed the once underground art form of hiphop music in the spotlight for the first time in the country.
Zhou, known by his stage name, Gai, won the championship along with another rapper, PG One, or Wang Hao, from Harbin, Heilongjiang province.
The 12-episode show ran from June to September and featured four celebrity judges — Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu, Taiwan rapper MC HotDog, or Yao Chung-jen, singer-songwriter Chang Chen-yue and Wilber Pan. The show attracted about 2.7 billion views on iQiyi.
“They finally recognized what I’ve been doing,” says Gai, referring to his parents, who run a small business in their hometown. “I came from a poor family but I never feel ashamed. I sing about my pride out loud in my songs.”
“Everything happened so fast. One of the biggest changes in my life is that I don’t have to worry about money again,” says Gai, who graduated from a vocational school and fell in love with music at the age of 18. Now, he has about 2.5 million followers on the Chinese micro blog Sina Weibo.
As a bar singer in Chongqing, he used to make about 200 yuan ($30) a night. The job was not stable and he felt guilty that he couldn’t help support his parents as the only son in the family.
“Now, I can proudly give money to my parents and tell them that they don’t have to save money for me because I can send them more,” he says with a smile.
Sitting in a music studio in Beijing, Gai, who is dressed in an oversized red hoodie and a pair of white pants, appears humble and polite — very different from the rebellious and outspoken impression he left on the audience from The Rap of China.
On the reality show, Gai, rapping in the Sichuan dialect, confidently announced that he would win and that he was not afraid of any of his competitors.
The songs he performed on the show, such as Kong Cheng Ji (“ruse of the empty city”), which borrows its name from a well-known Peking Opera play, and Huo Guo Di Liao (“hotpot broth”), combine elements of traditional Chinese culture with hip-hop, and won him a large fan base.
Over the past three months, Gai has been working to a hectic schedule, performing at commercial shows, outdoor music festivals, TV shows and starring in films.
He only has time for songwriting during flights or on train journeys, yet he still plans to release some new songs. One of them will reflect on his experiences of participating in The Rap of China.
“I am the winner of the show but I don’t want to be overwhelmed by temporary success. I will keep on doing what I’ve always been doing and my goal is to let more people hear my music and appreciate the messages I deliver in it,” Gai says.
He received a 1 million yuan prize for winning The Rap of China.
“I once dreamed about buying a car for myself with the money or giving it to my parents. But I decided to donate the money to charity instead,” he says.
He donated the money to the China Youth Development Foundation, a nonprofit founded in Beijing in 1989, to help build four Project Hope music classrooms in Weiyuan.
“I want children in my hometown to have the opportunity to enjoy music as I do,” he says. “Although I never received any musical training at school, I would like to share my stories with them one day in the music classroom.
“I believe that I will make more than 1 million yuan in the future and that this is just the beginning.”
According to Liu Zhou, music director of The Rap of China, the success of the reality show has been beyond his expectations. What made him most excited is that the show has successfully brought underground Chinese rappers like Gai to public attention.
Veteran producer Liu, 36, has worked with Chinese pop stars like Han Hong, and has produced a number of popular TV reality shows. He recently launched his hip-hop record label, Door & Key, in Beijing, which is now home to 50 or so Chinese rappers, including Gai and After Journey, a rapper from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, who won third place in The Rap of China.
The rappers will join a national tour, the Door & Key Hip-Hop Tour, which kicks off from Beijing’s Cadillac Arena on Dec 3.
“The rappers have been overlooked for years. After having struggled in China’s underground music scene, they have finally been recognized for their talent. But there is still a long way to go ahead of us,” says Liu.
One of the main focuses of Door & Key, according to Liu, is to localize hip-hop, an urban music style that took root in the United States in the late 1970s and started to gain popularity in China only about 10 years ago.
“We will integrate traditional Chinese cultural elements, such as Chinese poems and folk tales, into hip-hop music, to make it unique to our own culture,” says Liu.
The plan is to have the 50 rappers release at least three new songs every year.
“Hip-hop music is about self-expression and with our long Chinese history, we are confident about the future of rap music in China,” Liu says.