‘The Rap of China’ drops underground rappers into online battles

China 24

The online show ‘The Rap of China’ launched in June 2017, and already has hundreds of millions of views on its channel. The show has quickly put hip-hop artists, and their music genre, into the limelight.

CGTN’s Sun Ye reports.

‘The Rap of China’ airs on one of China’s most popular streaming sites. Over the past month, it’s racked up more than 600 million views.

It could be the power of the music. For rapper PG ONE, the former underground battle MC and his group, it meant landing a major record deal.

“We’ve been doing hip hop for quite a while now, but it’s all underground. Standing on this stage, we get to show Chinese hip hop. That it’s just as good. I feel the door has opened for us,” he said.

“Clubs are playing our music now. And it’s good to see everyone, including foreigners, swaying to our beats,” rapper BRANT B. said.

Their rise to fame may be sudden, but the Rap of China said the time is now.

“We think it is on the threshold of becoming REALLY big and mainstream. So we think we can give it a bit of push and let Asia, and the world know that, hey, we’ve got great, rising Chinese hip hop. And we did just that,” Chen Wei, chief producer of the Rap of China said.


Chinese-American ‘Hip-Hop Man’ talks music and culture in China

For more on the growing presence of hip-hop in China, CGTN’s Mike Walter spoke to the ‘Hip-Hop Man. He’s a Chinese-American who has embraced the freestyle, hip-hop performance lifestyle.