Universal Music hops to hip Southeast Asia
Korea brought the world KPop; India, the music of Bollywood. Now could the chaotic, fast-growing region of Southeast Asia be a new hotbed for hip-hop?
Vivendi ’ s Universal Music Group (UMG) hopes so.
The unveiling of its Southeast Asia headquarters in Singapore on Tuesday came with a performance from six newly signed rappers, whose bleached hair, gold jewellery and baggy clothing jarred somewhat with the business-hotel backdrop.
“We are making a bet on hiphop but I think it ’ s a pretty safe one,” said Adam Granite, who oversees UMG ’ s market development in Asia.
“Hip-hop is often about struggle and the streets and Southeast Asia has some challenging components.
“You have poverty in places … some difficult living situations, and where you see hip-hop really resonate is when it can be as authentic as possible,” said Granite.
Of the artists signed to UMG ’ s flagship hip-hop label Def Jam, Thai rapper Daboyway is the best known locally with a million followers on Instagram.
He said appetite for the genre in the region has been “crazy ” in recent years as listeners expand from long-established US acts to focus on homegrown talent.
As such, many of the region ’ s artists sing in their mother tongue to solidify their domestic support. But Granite said this is no longer as much of a barrier for international audiences, as exemplified by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi ’ s 2017 hit Despacito and Gangnam Style by Korea ’ s Psy in 2012.
But challenges for rap music in the region may be closer to home because a genre that often tackles contentious social issues can be challenging in countries, including Singapore, where free speech is curbed.
“We ’ ve all had situations where radio stations say: we don ’ t think we can play this song,” Malaysian rapper Joe Flizzow said. “We try to be sensitive but at the same time being hip-hop artists, you ’ ve got to keep it 100 [percent real] because people see right through it if you are being fake.”
UMG ’ s new Singapore hub is designed to anchor its business in the region, which now includes a Vietnam office. Finding the next K-Pop would be the icing on the cake.
“It [K-Pop] really is world class: the quality of the artistry, of the songs, of the dancing, of the outfits,” Granite said.
“What we need to do is to elevate the game in many of these other markets to get them on the scale that they can compete.” /