Author | Wang Yanxin Editor | Fan Zhihui
Last week, on the 2v2 stage of "New Rap 2024", contestants Tuzi and Huizi from Beijing Guangshun Club performed an authentic Beijing rap "Northern School", which stunned the audience. Although
ultimately lost to Xinjiang player athree with a score of 1:6, their stage performance sparked heated discussions on the Internet.
Baldy said in the pre-show that their goal in participating in the competition is to bring "Beijing rap back to the country." Although the results are still unknown, the popularity of the song "Northern Pai" has indeed made many listeners pay attention again. Go to Beijing to sing.
Beijing, as the birthplace of Chinese rap, gave birth to the earliest hiphop group in the mainland - Hidden, as well as a large number of seniors who became all-powerful in the Chinese rap circle such as Longjing Rap, Xinjiekou, Yin San'er, Gentian Zi, and Little Tiger. figure.
However, since 2013, Beijing rap seems to have gradually faded out of people’s sight. Except for a few groups such as Danzhen Beijing, there are few young rappers who can carry the banner of their predecessors.
Beijing rap, which once represented the highest level of Chinese rap, has gradually become less popular.
The Golden Decade of Beijing Rap
Three keywords that cannot be missed when talking about Beijing rap: Hide, Gentian Purple, and Dan Town Beijing. The three labels
also represent the three historical stages of Beijing rap. As one of the first cities to accept Western culture after the reform and opening up, Beijing children are naturally the first people in mainland China to be influenced by Western culture.
In 1995, the foreigner Lao Zheng played American hip-hop music in a bar called Solutions in the west gate of Peking University. This refreshing style attracted the then singer Wang Bo, and finally they hit it off and formed the Hidden Band.
Subsequently, the team gradually added Mark from Canada and He Zhong from the United States. In 2003, they released their first album called "Serving the People". Its pure Beijing accent and call for reflection on the current social situation made this album a classic in the Chinese rap circle in the future. One song in particular, "In Beijing", has become a spiritual pilgrimage song for many rappers.
At the beginning of the new millennium, Beijing’s underground rap culture was gaining momentum. The iron mic competition hosted in 2001 was China's first freestyle battle competition and an important channel for selecting new Chinese rap talents underground in the future.
Every year Iron Mike attracts hundreds of listeners, in a small and stuffy bar, with a simple sound system and a crowded crowd. The lyrics spoken by the Beijing MC are not just dirty words, but more of an insight into society and a reflection and understanding of human nature.
2010 iron mic national champion Ma Jun second runner-up David
Beijing rap of that era, whether it was works or freestyle, adhered to the purest hiphop spirit on the east coast of the United States, focusing on love and peace, fighting against authority and oppression, and expressing anger. and dissatisfaction.
These Beijing children who grew up in hutongs use their own lives and personal experiences as templates to describe the gap between rich and poor, the conflict between ideals and reality, and the living conditions of ordinary Beijingers.
As sung in the song "Poor Child" by the well-known Beijing rap group Gentian Zi, "A poor child lives in a city with rich people, trying to use spirit to fight against material things", which has become the creative inspiration for many new generation rappers in the future.
From 2000 to 2010, it was the golden decade of Chinese rap’s infancy. At the mainstream level, Jay Chou’s rap had a profound impact on Chinese-speaking audiences. In the field of independent rap, Beijing's Longjing, Xinjiekou, Yin San'er, Northeast's Weren Culture, Shanghai's Zhuyouren, Guangdong's Jingqishen, Hunan's c-block, Taiwan's Naughty Boy mj116 and Hotdog mc hotdog, each The rise of Chinese musicians marks that Chinese rap has entered a period of development in which a hundred flowers bloom.
Various forces complement each other and jointly create the glorious decade of the old era of Chinese rap.
But after 2013, this situation was broken.
"Change of Dynasties" under the Internet Wave
In 2013, at the scene of Iron Mike, Beibei, who was born in YY live broadcast, and MC Mirror, who will be MC Zhang Qian of Danzhen Beijing in the future, had a battle showdown on the stage. Beibei is a rhyme maniac, he is steady and ruthless, every sentence rhymes but every sentence is cursed, while Zhang Qian's freestyle basically does not contain any curse words. He counterattacked Beibei: "You don't do hip-hop to rhyme, but how to use your heart." Knock the opponent unconscious", and finally mc mirror won the game.
Recalling this collision many years later symbolizes the beginning of a transition between the old and the new era.
mc Zhang Qian (right) vs. Beibei (left)
Zhang Qian once said in an interview that one of the characteristics of Beijing rap is seriousness. Because of its seriousness, it is not marketable enough and cannot be as popular as everyone imagines.
Underneath the seemingly cynical tune of Beijing rap, the background is very traditional, serious and humanistic. Just like the difference between East Coast rap and West Coast rap in the United States, the East Coast is more like rap art, like a documentary, rough and heavy. The rap on the West Coast is more free, relaxed and unrestrained, like a party mv. The later rise of Sichuan and Chongqing rap belongs to the latter.
In 2016, the Beijing rap group Danzhen Beijing was established. Its members include Huang Shuo, Saber Liang Weijia, Sweet, Sheng Fan, Eddie, etc. They adhere to the hardcore style of boombap and hardcore and have now become the backbone of Beijing rap. In an era when rap was still not enough to make a living, underground rappers were able to express their thoughts more purely. However, after encountering commercialization, this persistence also limited the development of rap in Beijing.
In 2010, the Chengdu Rap Club was established. Four years later, the manager Xie Di appeared on the stage of CCTV's "Chinese Good Songs". The song "I'm Not Going to Work Today" became popular all over the country, bringing Sichuan and Chongqing rap into the mainstream.
In 2011, Honghuahui, the largest rap group in the northwest, was established. It is managed by Hun Jing and has members Beibei, pgone, Ding Fei, mai, etc., and it was instantly popular. In 2015, the Chengdu rap group Higher Brothers was established and developed in North America after signing with 88rising. The single "Made in China" became a phenomenon on the overseas Internet.
higher brothers (Higher Brothers)
Since then, the focus of rap has gradually shifted from Beijing and Taipei to Xi'an and Sichuan and Chongqing.
In 2016, Yang Hesu, who was still unknown at the time and would later become the new rap champion, formed a low-key group with his teammate Zhang Xinyue and shined on the stage of "The Voice of China". Also participating in the competition was Wan Nida, a female rapper from Fuzhou. Her song "Cowboys Are Busy" was praised by the instructors.
It can be said that in the years when the mobile Internet and online music have developed rapidly, southern rappers have seized this opportunity, actively participated in competitions, and appeared in the mainstream. This pavement also laid the foundation for the explosion of Chinese rap in 2017. Solid foundation.
At the same time, the smoothness, softness and rhythm of the Sichuan and Chongqing accent are very suitable for rap. The lazy state of urban temperament in Sichuan and Chongqing also coincides with the trend of young people's pursuit of individuality and independence and instant gratification.
In the following years, although Beijing rappers also participated in competitions, they did not achieve very good results.
Looking back at the OGs who also came from the old era, Dong Baoshi, who is from Chinese culture, found nourishment from Northeastern culture and brought rap to the stage of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Dasha and Liu Cong from Changsha c-block collaborated with gai to create Jianghuliu, and found their place in the Chinese rap circle.
If I could sum up the reason for the decline of Beijing rap in one sentence, it would be: That era has passed, but they are still persisting.
The loneliness of Beijing culture
In fact, it is not just Beijing rap that is lonely, the entire Beijing cultural circle is withering.
From the end of the last century to the beginning of the new millennium, the reason why Beijing was able to create cultural brilliance was because Beijing had the country’s top educational and cultural resources and essential capital, coupled with its status as the capital, so in the 1990s, It attracts musicians from all over the country to "go north" to make music.
With the continuous shift of the economic center to the south and the rapid development of coastal open areas such as the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, urban culture has blossomed everywhere. It has gradually changed from Beijing, the only cultural center, to a hundred flowers blooming across the country, forming a kind of urban culture. "Cultural equality".
Specific to the music industry, the threshold for music production and distribution has been infinitely lowered. Music can not only be produced in Beijing, but can be produced anywhere as long as there is equipment. At the same time, cities with a slower pace of life are more conducive to the growth of youth culture. This can be seen from the increase in the number of live houses and the continuous increase in performance income in southern cities in recent years.
The economic base determines the superstructure, which is why it is not difficult to explain why the focus of rap music will gradually shift from the north to the south.
At the same time, the "dad flavor" of Beijing culture has gradually been eliminated by the times. At the end of the last century, Wang Shuo, Jiang Wen, Yingda, Feng Xiaogang and other big-time disciples once built a discourse system for Beijing culture, with the core being rules, youth, and patriarchy. However, times have changed, and "daddy taste" has become the most popular among young people. Disgusting words.
Stills of "Sunny Days" Wang Shuo, the "stubborn master" in Beijing
Just like the battle scene between Zhang Qian and Beibei, Zhang Qian kept "educating" Beibei, rap requires love and soul, but in admiration In the context of the era of individuality and independence, this principle obviously cannot win the favor of today's young people.
Perhaps, works written in a specific era can only belong to that era. Beijing used to be home to the largest number of intellectuals and artists in China, but times have changed, and literary and artistic workers are also demanding new changes.
Danzhen Beijing has tried it. Members Shengfan and Sweet participated in the variety show "The New Generation of Rap". Shengfan sang "Leli" with heart and soul, which told the story of a man's responsibility and growth, which moved countless listeners.
The bald man from Guangshun Club is also working hard. He can not only write excellent Chinese-style rap works such as "Qingyun Ladder", but also perform the magical and abstract "Walk Up Porcelain", constantly getting closer to the context of Internet communication.
Nowadays, with the rise of dialect rap, representing one's hometown and speaking out for the spirit of the city has become an important creative matrix for the next stage of Chinese rap.
As the capital of China, Beijing has a profound historical heritage and rich cultural resources. Its short-term loneliness may be to accumulate energy for the future. How to choose between opportunity and change, Beijing rappers will give the times an answer.
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