Two years ago, in the summer, the audition of "China New Rap 2019" was broadcast, and countless people's eyes once again turned to this show. After experiencing the Waterloo of "China New Rap", general director Che Che issued a so-called "apology letter", expressing his apologies and secretly praising himself between the lines, conveying the message that "China New Rap 2019" will be more "Real".
It's hard to know if the show Real isn't Real, but the lineup of contestants for a show doesn't lie. That year, many heavyweights who had not participated in rap variety shows appeared in the audition list. In addition to C-Block, the most concerned of these people is the Theo and Fog.
Coincidentally, these seeded players were actually assigned to the same group of assessments. Considering that the hot dog Zhang Zhenyue only issued 3 gold chains per group, for the other players in this group, this is the most real "death group" - there is no possibility of promotion.
However, the plot development surprised everyone. The two producers first sent the first chain to the veteran Sun Xu, and then the second chain to the well-behaved Mustafa. The third chain specially added was given to He Meiyan, the girl who took the lead in standing out, and the last chain, they gave the most stable technical flow of the whole group, Xiaoku Coola.
The three C-Block people who watched the battle in the stands were also shocked to see this scene, and the big fool directly asked in doubt: "Gave a child?" Of course, the big fool would say this, and that's because he wasn't watching the test next to Xiao Ku's group.
If he hears Xiaoku's play with his own ears, and compares Theo, who forgot his words and made mistakes, and Fogdu, who lacks charm because of the lack of Auto-Tune, maybe he will also recognize Xiaoku more like the hot dog Zhang Zhenyue.
Xiao Cool Coola, who got the chain before many excellent predecessors, was no longer obscure from this moment on, and even the senior Ding Fei openly expressed his appreciation for him.
But perhaps the "technology flow" is always tied to the "low key", and in the subsequent shows, Xiao Ku disappeared directly and never saw the mirror related to him again.
After several twists and turns, we finally found XiaoKu's performance screen in the derivative program of "China New Rap 2019", the "New Rap Official Bot" with reviews and "accompaniment".
XiaoKu competed against CSC's hardcore rapper Severn in the 60s 1v1 Battle segment, and the track he chose was "New Life".
The singing difficulty of this song is very high, and Xiao Ku is obviously a little nervous, and there is a problem of insufficient breath in the back of the singing, and finally it was eliminated with a 1:4 vote, ending his "dark horse journey".
Although the overall participation experience is somewhat "short-lived", Xiaoku, who made a deep impression in the first episode of the show, still gained a group of fans.
From being a fan of other rappers to gaining his own fans as rappers, Xiaoku did not take too long. Xiao Ku's real name is Zhang Junming, the stage name is Xiao Ku simply because it is "easy to remember", and "Coola" is because of the harmonic sound "cool a cool".
Hearing Xiao Cool's skillful fast-mouth technique and hardcore tone, it is not difficult to guess that the rapper he first listened to was the HipHop enlightenment of most people, MuYe Eminem. In his junior year of high school, Xiao Ku's eyes retracted from overseas to China, and he discovered the charm of Cee and Egg Castle, the two OGs.
While Cee and Egg Castle are the leading figures in Chinese jazz rap, they also have the technical prowess to stay ahead of their time. When Xiao Ku heard the works of Pharaoh and Little Andy, he was even more impressed by this pure skill, so he also repeatedly polished and practiced his basic skills such as rhyming, Flow, and fast mouth, and finally evolved into what we saw in the show.
In the new generation of rappers who rely more on labels such as "tone" and "melody" to become popular, the technically skilled xiaoku is like an outlier.
In 2017, Xiao Ku, who graduated from high school, came to Shanghai University of Technology to study graphic design. Although he read a major that did not seem to be compatible with rap, Xiaoku still insisted on his love for rap.
At the end of the year, he made his first work. In 2018, Xiao Ku silently accumulated strength and prepared for his own blockbuster. In 2019, he first went to participate in the Shanghai competition of "Listen Up", but unfortunately stopped in the top ten. Subsequently, he surprised the national audience in "China New Rap 2019".
"China New Rap 2019" is not the end of Xiaoku, because Xiaoku then signed up for the eight-mile Shanghai race. In the eight-mile works competition, XiaoKu used "New Life", "Go Ahead" and "Like I Ain't Remix" to defeat the powerful A$en of the leading label, the female rapper Apollomi who played jazz rap, and Arman, who was shortlisted for the main competition of "Rap Listen to Me", and officially won the Shanghai championship.
For Xiaoku, 2019 is like a dream. And in 2020, he is still walking and wants to go further. His figure appeared in the Shanghai selection of "China New Rap 2020", and after the competition was postponed to August, he went to Wuxi to participate in the recording.
This time, Xiaoku showed a more stable self, but continued his fate in "China New Rap 2019" - there was no camera.
As the number of contestants selected to advance was expanded to 179, the length of the performance was increased to 100 seconds, and the 100s performances of a large number of strong players were not broadcast, and even the contestants who joined the producer label did not necessarily get the shots.
And Xiao Ku just happens to belong to the kind of player who "enters the label without a shot", and one of his "Take It Back" plays well and wins zhang Liangying's putt, but does not win the favor of editors.
You may think, "Although he doesn't have any shots in the audition and 100s, but he got into the label, are you still worried about not having a shot?" But in the immediate 1v1 Battle of the team, Xiao Ku lost the shot that should have belonged to him.
His collaborative song "Enemy Down" with The Consumption (Killer Consumption) flashed in the main film, and in this flash of a few seconds, the editing shot was also more inclined to the killer consumption of the final promotion, Xiaoku became non-existent, and even NetEase Cloud Music did not hit the "Enemy Down" on the shelves.
However, Xiao Ku's trip to "China's New Rap 2020" this time cannot be said to be a white run, because zhang Liangying, the director of the label, promised to make a song for each label member, and Xiao Ku certainly has a share.
In the label compilation album "Anon." Xiao Ku submitted the answer sheet "Prison". Most of the lyrics of the song come from his 100s work "Take It Back", but after changing to a more atmospheric accompaniment, the sound of the presentation has changed qualitatively.
Even, Xiao Ku also "stepped on the floor of the finals" and won the "honor" of being labeled as a rhyme foot. And this scene actually happened because this song "Fighting Shadows" needs everyone from the anonymous label to come back to the stage to sing, so XiaoKu is also "with glory".
As for whether Xiaoku will have the opportunity to represent himself on the floor of the finals? Let me put it this way: The age limit on the early poster of "Junior Z Rap Project" was 18-24 years old, and XiaoKu just turned 22 last month. To paraphrase a bad NBA quote, "Only the sky is his limit."
Xiaoku's harvest in 2020 is not just another step forward in rap variety. At the end of 2019, the MV of "SHANG) 2019" was officially released, shocking Shanghai Beach. The Shanghai rap scene, which has not achieved true unity for more than a decade, made a collective appearance in this short video.
From the elderly BlaKK Bubble, Cee, and Spray, to the Mesozoic Naggy, Mr.Trouble, Keyso Shoujunchao, and then to the New Generation's Straight Fire Gang, Kc... And, of course, there's the little cool Coola.
As mentioned earlier, Cee is one of the initiators of Xiaoku Listening Chinese Rap, and Cee, as the initiator of this MV, of course, is not just to invite everyone to come and shoot a MV.
He wanted to increase the cohesion of Shanghai rap by holding events or creating labels. Half a year later, 1Shot was officially established, and its members included Cee, Keyso and others, and Xiaoku was among them.
But 1Shot is not Xiaoku's earliest label, before joining 1Shot, he belonged to the label "Foggy Music", which was established in January 2019, including Xiaoku, Lc, RedXxxxxx, and the old teammate Turen'er, who joined 1Shot with Xiaoku. At the end of 2019, Xiaoku and RedXxxxxx peacefully left Foggy Music.
Half a year later, Xiao Ku and Turen Er came to 1Shot and became the most promising new stars in the new team. The relationship between the two people who accompanied them all the way was naturally quite iron, and every time they took a group photo, they were handsome men in the same frame.
Although he joined 1Shot, a big brother with many labels, XiaoKu still faces an embarrassing problem, that is, his personal original works are indeed too few, and the full count is not more than 10 songs.
One of the masterpieces, "Like I Ain't Remix", is the work of Remix's famous chopper Tech N9ne, and the other masterpiece "Go Ahead" is accompanied by the Free Beat Challenge for safe landing, and Xiaoku is mistaken for a safe landing member during the competition.
"Bullet Rain", which has a good wind review, is also the work of Remix's deep blue children. And if you want to become a truly mature rapper, you can't do it without your own work. As strong as Babe, who has only released singles and not released albums for so many years, he will also be questioned as weak.
Now that 2021 is about to pass the halfway mark, and Xiao Cool's last work was released in September 2020, this song frequency is a bit too low for the energetic new generation.
Of course, this is also because XiaoKu did not decide whether to do rap full-time, this year he faces college graduation, he is bound to focus on the graduation thesis, graduation design, etc., and it is not incomprehensible that there is a delay in music.
But a new generation of rappers like XiaoKu, who have solid basic skills and excellent appearance, it is really difficult not to be popular in rapping, and he also has rich experience in programs and competitions, and he also relies on a strong label, which is almost the beginning of the chosen son.
When it comes to excellent appearance, this is really a big feature that Xiaoku can't hide. Although I know that in the power-oriented rap circle, people should not be judged by appearance, Xiao Cool does meet all the expectations of a straight man of steel for a handsome man. What's more, his strength is not inferior to his appearance at all, perhaps this is called talent and appearance.
In Xiao Ku, the appearance of excellence is by no means a burden, on the contrary, it is his perfect plus, because as long as you click on Xiao Cool's works and look at Xiao Cool's scene, you will know that he is not just a good-looking flower rack, and his output firepower may be more ferocious than all the new generations you have ever seen.
As for what the future of Xiaoku will be, we can't say at the moment, but I believe that he has all the conditions to become Rap Star, and can truly show all his strength on his own highest stage...