No one is born to be a rapper. Today's glamorous rap stars have also experienced a lot of struggles and struggles before becoming famous. In order to earn money to support themselves, many of them have done many jobs that are completely unrelated to rapping. While trying to make money, while using their free time to practice flow, write lyrics, and improve their musical skills, this was the norm for many rappers at that time. Until one day, they seized their own opportunity and shot straight into the sky.
You may envy the rappers for their freedom and spontaneity, but their efforts behind it are often overlooked. Today, let's take you to a good look at what rappers did before they became famous.
Before the launch of "China Has Hip Hop", it was a fantasy to be a professional rapper and earn money by rapping to support itself. But the emergence of "China Has Hip Hop" has changed the entire industry ecology, and the most core beneficiaries are, of course, the contestants who participate in the show. Therefore, we may as well start with the contestants of "China Has Hip Hop".
Gai's pre-fame career should be the most widely known – he was a bar singer-in-residence. Before becoming the most successful rapper in the mainstream, GAI spent 8 years in various bars and was invited to be a wedding singer for 360 yuan a night.
Even so, this kind of work is not every day, and the income of three thousand yuan a month is only a drop in the bucket for him who still has to play music. Because of this, he wants to seize the opportunity to change his life and destiny more than anyone else. "China Has Hip Hop" gave him this opportunity, and then GAI firmly grasped it.
Also singing in the nightclub is GAI's good brother Jony J. Jony J graduated from Nanjing Institute of Visual Arts with a major in music performance, and is also a rare rapper from a class in the rap circle Chinese.
Not only that, but he also signed an agency that let him learn 1 song a day, which is 30 songs a month. After learning well, I went to various nightclubs and nightclubs to sing to people. And I can only sing two of my own songs a week, but most of the time the response is mediocre. Even so, Sprouts hasn't given up on his dreams, saying he's bound to "root down and grow upwards." Obviously, he has done it.
VaVa also sang in the bar. Because of rebellion to do what she wants, she ran away from home at the age of 15, sang pop love songs at the bar at the age of 16, and once proposed to sing rap, but was rejected by the bar owner. Later, VaVa studied under Wang Xuanlong and became famous by participating in variety shows such as "China Has Hip Hop", so that he could chase his dreams.
In his early years, Ouyang Jing worked as a waiter and delivery clerk in a Chinese restaurant owned by his family. His parents immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong in their early years and encountered many blank eyes, which also made Ouyang Jing want to be angry and try to change the status quo. Later in the United States, he came to Hong Kong to develop, ran dragon sets and performed stage plays on TVB, and became an artist with multi-habitat development. In 2017, Ouyang Jing chose to participate in "China Has Hip Hop" as Hip Hop Man. On the show, he also won the respect and praise of everyone.
Ghost Bian used to have the ID suffix "Ghost Teacher" because he is currently a Chinese teacher and class teacher at the Forest Experimental Primary School in Shapingba District, Chongqing. As the only rapper in "China Has Hip Hop" with five insurances and one gold, coupled with a very distinctive voice, Ghost Bian has been loved by many netizens. However, after the show, due to the invitations to the event after the explosion, Ghost Bian quit his job as a teacher and concentrated on making music.
Xiao Qinglong worked in the Highway Bureau, and this job can be regarded as the iron rice bowl that everyone envies, and he also goes to the bar to sing at night. At that time, Xiao Qinglong was already the champion of major Battle competitions, and it happened that his friend MC Fei called him to make music, and Xiao Qinglong resolutely resigned.
A song called "Time" that set fire to The Little Green Dragon and also to Huizi, who sang with him. As a Beijing kid, Huizi was not as well-fed as most people think, and living in "Thong Rivonia", he described himself as an "artist from the slums". Usually participates in Battle competitions and does rapping, and the rest of the time, Huizi relies on dirty braids to make a living.
Sun Bayi was a small boss of a hollow brick farm before, and his daily job was to run business and do business, and on weekdays, he dealt with workers, bosses, debtors, and salesmen. Participating in the show is a business fan, but also the costumes needed for business, and the song "Pay Back" is completely derived from the real experience of debt collection in his life.
Because Huang Xu needed to spend money to participate in the Battle competition, he and his friends opened a restaurant selling spicy chickens next to the university alma mater, and the business was still prosperous. In this year's "China New Rap" Demon King Competition, Huang Xu's victory over Will's "Landscape in the Middle of the Mountain" talked about this matter: "When the red fried chicken, the takeaway store delivers spicy chicken during the day, the rain in Beijing at night, the microphone is a wiper", you can imagine Huang Xu's hardships. We also found a very short video of the interview where Huang Xu talked about his experience on the show.
GAI's brothers in GOSH are also rich in experience, "Chongqing Peng Yuyan" Wang Qiming's work path is more difficult, he went from the beauty salon salesman to go to the aluminum factory to move steel bars, and finally through the recommendation of GAI to do the anchor, the result is that GAI does not do it, he is still doing. Wang Qiming wrote his bitterness in "A Thousand Turns", and he encountered many obstacles in the middle, but finally persevered and became the runner-up of "China's New Rap".
Bridge, also from GOSH, once sold milk during his college internship and delivered it to his door. The world was in a hurry but the silver was broken, and Bregitte, who wanted to be the boss, once bent his waist for five buckets of "milk".
Since we talked about GOSH, we have to mention the rap club. KnowKnow sold insurance is also widely spread, if there is no Ty.'s invitation, Higher Brothers will lose their melody responsibility, Nanjing's insurance industry may have one more legend.
It is worth mentioning that unlike many rappers who want to avoid or even conceal their past occupations, KnowKnow himself is not disgusted with this meme, some time ago in order to celebrate the 7th anniversary of the establishment of an insurance company, he specially wrote a song "I'm Sell insurance", this song once released triggered countless netizens to discuss, on Douyin set off a wave of national "selling insurance".
Ma Siwei graduated from Chengdu University of Technology majoring in decoration design, found a job, every day is to distribute leaflets, run sales, accustomed to free and casual, he soon tired of this job, chose to devote himself to rapping. Melo worked at the zoo, mainly as an infrastructure supervisor and occasionally as an animal keeper, earning the nickname "foreman".
If you want to ask Xie Di's profession, I can only ask you: What profession can you have as a boss? Can that be called a profession? Of course, this is a joke. Emperor Xie's famous work "Lao Tzu Will Not Go to Work Tomorrow" clearly shows that he is a typical worker.
In fact, Xie Di worked in an advertising agency. He had little interest in the job and was tired of the intrigues among his colleagues in the workplace, but he couldn't do anything about making music. Later, Emperor Xie put "Don't Go to Work Tomorrow" on the CCTV stage, and since then it has soared. After the program was broadcast, Xie Di's company was said to have also closed down.
After talking about the rap club, it is time to talk about their old rivals living dead. Pharaoh graduated from Zhejiang Textile and Garment Vocational and Technical College, and the Berkeley Conservatory of Music joked about it in his Weibo profile. He sang in "The Teacher" that "think about whether I should go to the textile factory to weave cloth if I insisted on my college major", apparently the pharaoh did not do this.
During his internship, he sold hammers for a year in a hardware store. During that time, he was very successful, as the only college student in the store who could open a computer, he could be said to be in charge of network technology and was deeply used. However, for the sake of his musical dreams, he found Jiaxing 80House Recording Studio and followed the famous local musician Zhou Jianguang as a producer.
Yang and Su have not yet graduated, and they do not have formal careers. But he said in "The Living Dead 2018 Cypher" that he was "from underground to aboveground", which refers to the fact that he became popular from an obscure rap fan to participate in "The Voice of China" by forming a low-key group, and then joined the Underground label Living Dead to return to the underground after two years of mainstream development. However, today's Yang and Su are obviously back on the ground again because they won the championship of "China's New Rap", and this experience may be unique Chinese rap circle.
Unlike Yang and Su, who have already become famous, Fox has gained huge traffic entirely by relying on "China's New Rap". Before he did rapping, he left school early, he spent a year to obtain an accounting qualification certificate, and later worked as a clerk in a foreign trade company in Yining, Xinjiang, because he did not want to be so mediocre all his life, so he chose to do rap. Now Fox the leper has become the musician Fox, and he can also be regarded as the person who writes his profession on his face.
The living dead's brother labels Free-Out and the Red Flower Society are also worth mentioning. Guangguang graduated from the Southern School of Photography of Nanjing Forestry University, and after graduation, he chose to work in his university major - broadcast hosting, and went to FM103.5 to become a radio DJ. In that show, GuangGuang and his colleague Zhou Ying often talked about some popular science about rapping, and then the reason for Guangguang's resignation was also very pragmatic, two words, less money.
Gao Tianzuo worked at the construction site, and the good brother 20,000 worked as a welder in the Volkswagen repair factory before, and both of their lives were very boring. It wasn't until he received a phone call from Takatenzo asking Himwan to go to a Battle competition that the rap trail began for both of them.
Ding Fei, the big housekeeper of the Red Flower Society, started by selling HipHop costumes in the retail market of Xi'an" by selling HipHop clothing, and thus there were spiders, shells and other people gathered, and several people formed the original Red Flower Club. The former spider and now Mercy, because of the failure of the second examination, chose to leave Xi'an.
Thanks to his father's relationship, he came to Shanghai and worked in a clothing company of his father's friend, starting as a marketing specialist. It wasn't until later, at the invitation of Little Tiger, that Mercy came to Beijing and returned to the rap industry as a behind-the-scenes player. The controversial "color rhyme" of "China's New Rap" was created by Mercy. Today, Mercy is the director of "Wave WAVE".
In Beijing, Danzhen, which is rooted in Beijing, also has a considerable number of members who "work two jobs". Shengfan's job is a sales manager at a watch company, and "Underground Shit" also mentions that "buy a watch and ask me to give you a 70% discount." After 12 years in the industry, he will come into contact with a variety of people every day, and it is precisely with this senior workplace experience that Shengfan will write thoughtful and in-depth songs such as "Standing" and "Seeing the World".
Sweet has done a lot of work. He got a job after graduating from college and paid thousands of dollars nine to five, but Sweet, a high-achieving graduate of the National People's Congress, was still confused. Sweet later resigned to open a small shop, but the business was not very good.
Soon, someone else asked Sweet to be the anchor, asking him to play Battle Mc's specialty and face the screen Freestyle. Sweet refused, and in his view, rap was an art, and he wouldn't allow anyone to abuse it badly.
But as he sang in the song, "Temperament is always defeated by reality, has red eyes but no one can take the pulse for me", because his father is critically ill and needs money, Sweet has to be the anchor. In the end, Sweet also wrote about his experiences in the song "100,000 Pieces".
Zhang Qian is a signed actor of Happy Twist, and has also participated in "Happy Comedians", acting as an assistant to Allen and Wang Ning. Liu Rui of Danzhen Beijing is also an actor, graduated from the Central Academy of Drama and has starred in many films.
Huang Shuo and Liang Weijia Saber are junior high school classmates. Huang Shuo is one year older than Liang Weijia, and it can be learned from "Fat Sausage Rice Bowl" that the two are Xi Shi's shoulder handle plus the number one blacklist. During that time, underground rap was difficult to do, and Saber and Huang Shuo opened a pet climbing shop called Monster Park, which they operated together.
Mei Duo of Danzhen Beijing graduated from China University of Political Science and Law and is a lawyer at Dentons Law Offices in Beijing. Also a lawyer is JD, from the biggest pearl on "China Has Hip Hop" to the champion of "Rap Listen to Me", JD has made it difficult for him to reconcile, and he has also proved himself to the public.
There are some other heroes and good guys in the rap circle, all from all walks of life. ICE worked as a guide teacher for children's photography, and two years later, she became a photographer and opened a studio, then started a micro-business, and also opened a pet shop with a friend.
The evil boy opened a fried chicken shop, although the façade is not large, but the business is still quite prosperous; because he spends more and more time on music, the operation of the fried chicken shop also deteriorates, and then in order to subsidize his livelihood, he works in a milk tea shop, which also makes him get the title of "milk tea brother".
Wang Da mole's life experience can be said to be quite rich, he has worked as a warehouse manager, a worker, and once worked as a cook in the "Huatian Family" of Zhangzhou Second Road. It is worth noting that Wang Da Mole is not an amateur, he has passed the certificate of Chinese chef level three and nutrition chef level four, and even Deng Ziqi praised Deng Ziqi for making a good dish in "China New Rap".
Not only that, he was also invited by Cui Jian, the "rock old cannon", to be a guest of honor at the concert site. He had said before that he would go back to being a chef if he didn't succeed as a rapper, but now it seems that rapping is the right choice.
Ma Jun has been very inspirational throughout his career, and he is not only the first Xinjiang player to win the Iron Mic championship, but also the most professional filmmaker in the rap circle. Because of the difference in English in the college entrance examination, he lost his hand with nortel, and he was unwilling to pass the examination and enter the university of his heart, and finally realized his dream.
Today, Ma Jun is a contracted anchor of Hedgehog Radio, and before that, he was also an assistant to Wen Muye, the director of "I Am Not a Medicine God", and the two alumni also produced a micro-film "Battle", directed by the director of the text, with Ma Jun as the protagonist.
After years of conquest at Iron Mic, Aige became an assistant to Palhati, the runner-up of The Voice of China, who followed Palhati to many musicians and gained a lot of insight. After a year or two as an assistant, Ai Ge successfully found the opportunity to "stand on his own" and show his musical talents, and the champion of "China New Rap" was the best recognition for him.
Little Tiger studied film and television production at the Communication University of China, and after graduation, he formed a group with alumni Li Xingyu and independent animation artist Lei Lei, called "Hey!!! However, only two albums were released, and the group disbanded. Tiger then took a job as an editor for a travel magazine, but when he finished the Getaway album and started touring, he quit his job because he didn't have time to work.
Kafe.Hu went to Chengdu at the invitation of her friend K-BO and was introduced to a street dance team to do MC, but it was not long before the street dance team disbanded. In the past, he could rub his friends' living room sofas, but now his friends are gone, he has no money and no place to live, and it is the sugar bar that takes him in.
In the three years of working as a waiter in Hemp Sugar, Kafe.Hu taught himself to design while writing songs, and also designed posters for Hemp Sugar, saving a lot of production costs. After leaving Hemp Sugar, he did the design full-time and would take over the performances. Mixed in the CDC, he and Xie Di together, a weekly performance after the end of the performance, a 500 yuan, usually do not have to stay.
The old uncle Dong Gem is also a bumpy road, he has been a shopping mall supervisor, driven an online car, and sold faucets. But every year I insist on writing songs. In the words of his former boss: "Gems are incompetent, but people are good people." Later, the work was really not smooth, and the daughter-in-law thought about it, "Forget it, you still have to come back and write songs!" In this way, for at least two or three years, Dong Baoshi wrote songs at home with children, and his daughter-in-law earned money to support the family. It was not until the appearance of the divine comedy "Wolf Disco" that the uncle got out of such a dilemma.
The last few are rappers who have entered the public eye through this year's rap variety show, and their careers before they became famous are also diverse. "Stand-up comedy artist" and "Prince Xiangzi" Tangoz is an air traffic controller who is responsible for the take-off and landing of the plane. Coincidentally, rappers have microphones, and air traffic control is also the longest time in a year to hold microphones.
Xia Zhiyu was also a "hit worker" before. After two years of unsuccessful rapping after graduating from college, he found a clerical job under pressure from his family. Because he loved rap very much, he did not give up completely during his work, and later at the invitation of Mingtang Records owner Li Tiangao, Xia Zhiyu officially joined Mingtang Records.
When Fang Zai was in college, he sold mobile phones and computers, opened cram schools, tea houses, opened bars, worked as a security captain, worked as a sales manager, and after graduation, he set up a music studio called "Rich John", and he was alone, and it didn't take long for him to die. Later, Fang Zai was persuaded by his family to take the graduate school and became a civil servant, and now a prison guard.
Xuan Lang once served as the head of the investment promotion section in a state-owned enterprise unit in Zunyi, Guizhou, which was a stable and decent job in the eyes of many people, but Xuan Lang was not happy. He wears a suit and tie every day, everything is done according to the rules, especially official, he can't cater to that set, so he chooses to quit his job full-time to do rapping.
The killer came to Xi'an in his early years and was not familiar with life, he first did WeChat chat, then went to sell chocolate with his brother, and then later found something to do in KTV and bathing centers. During that time, he tried to find dignity in a mixed life. This year, killer wasted on "China's New Rap" to become the top 20 in the country, but he did not get any shots. Uly Z, who also achieved good results in "China New Rap", has worked as a street dance teacher, a chef, a resident singer in a bar and many other jobs.
Gao Jiafeng worked in the bank for half a year, and then went to the marketing department of an IT company in Shenzhen for half a year. Faced with a life of nine to five o'clock every day, he felt that it was a waste of time and boring. He knew that he didn't want that, and that he wasn't here, so he picked up the saxophone and went to New York University to study experimental music. At this year's new rap audition, whether it is the styling or the Acappella he brings, he is very impressive.
Sundae's performance in "Rap New Generation" was brilliant, and his courage to speak out for the weak won a lot of praise. Before that, Sundae used to be a signed singer, but he didn't expect that the company was too bad, not only was the copyright of the work taken away, it was mandatory to make 5 songs in a short period of time, and all of them had to be done by themselves, and finally bought out at a low price. What's even more infuriating is that without the consent of Sundae, the company also signed an exclusive agreement with the music platform, but fortunately Sundae survived.
Treasure Hill's Three Volumes of Kashiwa is a sound designer who has worked on a number of animated short films, experimental images, including documentaries, as well as the design of their soundtracks and sounds; another member, Kim Jump-cho, is an independent animation director and is responsible for the post-production of the team's images.
Lazy sells grilled squid for half a year before attending the festival; shark fin is the video director of a well-known public account; Yu Zhen worked for a media company to stay in Beijing to fulfill his musical dreams; Chen Jinnan was an English teacher at an educational institution before; Oliver.Jiang was a former employee of a state-owned enterprise; Li Lollipop, who "spreads his wings" on the new rap, was a civil servant before...
Taking stock of so many rappers, it has to be said that more and more rappers in underground are going to the ground. For them, because they are young, they dare to break the rules, turn unidentified interests into careers, and heal their fellow citizens. Similarly, how many former waves have done other work just to continue their dreams.
In the stories of rappers, rap is not only a commercial platform, it is the magnetic field of these people, and it is also their "relief grocery store". Those young people who are slightly lonely in the real world have pried open the cracks of life here and seen the vast possibilities.
In this world, you always have to constantly find and identify yourself, and some people's way is just to "become rapper". Rapper is just a title, and each person is so different. "Like a kaleidoscope, we are just a beam of light in the middle." HipHop itself has a positive force, for them, HipHop is not only a rumbling form of music, but also a way to boost their inner beliefs and attitudes towards life...