China's fledgling hip-hop culture faces official crackdown

remaining summer time, a fact show known as the rap of china took the us of a through storm.

the show introduced hip-hop tune from the underground into the limelight and made it a multi-million dollar commercial enterprise. numerous of the top contestants shot to stardom.

in the past few weeks, but, matters took a stunning flip and the buzzing hip-hop scene become quickly muzzled.

all of it commenced with pg one, one of the  rappers who gained the rap of china. he changed into accused of getting an affair with a married movie star.

the accusation, which was never substantiated, snowballed right into a case now not most effective in opposition to pg one, but against hip-hop track in standard.

'vulgar and low taste'
kingdom media led the crusade in opposition to pg one, calling his lyrics sexist and decadent. the influential communist youngsters league criticised one in every of his antique songs, christmas eve, for promoting drug use with lyrics about "white powder walking at the board".

china girls's news accused pg one of misogyny over his use of obscene language to describe women.

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the incident also appears to have precipitated a crackdown at the entire tune genre.

a memo surfaced closing week after a meeting of the nation authority which oversees press and television and has almost overall control over what can seem on air. the memo said programmes should no longer feature any hip-hop content material or artists.

all programmes shall adhere to the "4 notes" in terms of inviting on-air visitors, the memo says. "do not use celebrities with low ethical values; do no longer use folks that are vulgar and of low taste; do not use the ones whose mind and fashion are not delicate; and do now not use folks who are involved in scandals."

because the memo circulated on-line, the opposite winner of the rap of china, gai, all of sudden left the reality show he was performing in, which become referred to as i am a singer.

some leaked screen grabs of chats with gai's control team appear to signify that he give up due to "stress from above".

gai's agent, zhang xiaotao, told the bbc that the team had no response as to why gai quit, but that he had by no means heard of any hip-hop ban.every other television show, glad camp,  removed vava - the most popular woman rapper who rose to repute from the rap of china - from their latest episode.

no-one knows exactly why she became eliminated however in what seems like a quick-restore answer, happy camp republished their promotional video after erasing vava. she became awkwardly cropped out of all their pictures.

'it's what hip-hop is'
as the state issues more stringent guidelines on what the general public can and can not see, many rappers, which includes gai who was a "gangsta" style rapper, have modified their technique to participate in mainstream nation television programmes.

they have got, in interviews, spoken about the "positive energy" of song and socialist "middle values" that the chinese language authorities promote.

for many hip-hop lovers in china, this type of authorities reaction to the speedy recognition of the style changed into an inevitable consequence of cosying as much as the authorities.

"i knew this will take place ultimately. hip-hop subculture does not fit into the socialism 'center values'," one social media consumer wrote.

every other said that lyrics approximately white powder, cash, women, intercourse and violence had been "what hip-hop is".

"it is for folks who like it. criticising its 'darkish spots' is like criticising peppers for being highly spiced," they said.

confronted with giant pressure, rapper pg one took all of his songs offline and blamed his lyrics on have an impact on from the "black music".

"i'm able to add extra fantastic power in my song works and serve as a higher version for my lovers", says pg one on his legit weibo account.

many different rappers, however, did no longer agree with how pg one connected his loss of life to the influence of "black tune" and have accused him of racism and insincerity.

so is this the quit of the rap track explosion in china?

mc webber, one among china's most respected underground rapper, does now not think so.

he says the mainstream modern hip-hop scene became now not real hip-hop besides. he calls what is pop out of the rap of china "xi ha", a term that is translated from "hip-hop" but become mostly used in hong kong and taiwan.

al rocco, a rapper based totally in shanghai who additionally participated in the rap of china, says he is not worried approximately the future of hip-hop.

"the authorities, they don't apprehend the lifestyle yet, so they're scared," he informed the bbc. "we have a unique system here and it is simply evolving now.

he told the bbc that certainly one of his latest suggests in chongqing got all of sudden cancelled following the hip-hop ban.

"they have usually asked to test my lyrics, however i feel like it is a great deal tighter now," says al rocco.

of direction censorship and legitimate disapproval is not anything new to the hip-hop scene. in the us, where rap music originated, there has been a public and legit backlash within the past due 1980s in opposition to what some considered to be a violent and obscene tradition portrayed in hip-hop.