When "China Has Hip Hop" was broadcast in 2017, it was played in less than 40 minutes but exceeded 100 million plays, so that the rap culture was revealed in the mainstream vision in an explosive way for the first time.
After that, a vigorous debate began in the black fear circle: black fear originated from the underground culture, so after moving from the underground to the mainstream, are those black fears or real black fears?
To this day, the debate remains fruitless.
But after watching the second season of "Rap Listen to Me", I would like to say that some people are really small in the pattern -
Rap shows have generally been sluggish this year, but judging by how much viewers buy it, the second season of "Rap Listen to Me" may be one of the most underrated.
The main reason the show has been questioned is the Gemini format that combines pop and rap:
According to the format, after rapper performances, pop singers need to combine the advice of rap recommenders and finally decide which rapper to perform with. Rappers who want to win the championship also need to be careful about choosing their own pop singers.
To put it simply and crudely, rappers and pop singers have a special bond of life and death in this show.
Seeing this format, as an old black lover, I was also very puzzled, and deeply confused by the show's forced fusion of rap and pop.
But after I chased after a few episodes of the show with the mentality of "watching a good spit", I realized that I was small in the pattern.
In the rap X pop thing, I didn't have any surprises in the first two issues. But I never expected that every issue from the fifth issue onwards was using a very high musicality + stage integrity to refresh my expectations for any rap class.
People who regard popularity as black fear of original sin are really small
As the first domestic music synthesis that dares to cross-border linkage of popular X rap, not only the outside world has a negative evaluation of the second season of "Rap Listen to Me", but even the rappers who came to participate in the competition have questioned this matter:
"Will singers only think about pop and not about rap?"
"Did the singer come to play crossover because he was not satisfied with his own land?"
In the face of this doubt, pop singers made their attitude clear from the beginning.
The most impressive thing was Gong Linna's answer.
Just as you can't imagine Ultraman and Marilyn Monroe performing on the same stage, I can't imagine that when Rapper blew up the whole scene with rap on stage, Teacher Gong suddenly sang a chinese rhyme and beautiful voice, and whether the audience would immediately be at peace.
But for how to cooperate with rappers, Gong Linna's thinking is clearer than many so-called Chinese-style rappers:
She thinks that if you just suddenly insert a piece of Peking Opera in rap, then this can only be regarded as a chaotic stew at best.
The so-called fusion is to start from the more essential level of lyrics and tone, and find the beauty of the Chinese in rap.
Letting pop X rap blend in from its musical roots is the ambition that was made clear from the beginning of the second season of "Rap Listen to Me".
It is reasonable to say that since the ambition is so big, the program group should try to find as many mature rappers as possible.
However, the program group chose to take the sword to the side, believing in "eclectic talent"——
In the show, many rappers are rap newcomers, or some elderly people who have creative experience but less stage experience, and some friends will be nervous to the point of shaking their hands after taking the stage:
Therefore, in the first few episodes of the selection stage, because of the tension + lack of experience, most of the rapper's stage effects and works can be said to be "rough and tender", and the show has suffered a lot of criticism in the early stages.
For this kind of audition idea, I didn't understand at first, why I didn't play cards according to the routine.
It wasn't until later in the show, after seeing rappers and pop singers violently impacting the stage of my imagination, that I realized.
In the fourth issue, Gong Linna, Round2 Good Morning and Li Yijie collaborated for the first time on "Quest", telling a story about a conflict between teachers and students but finally reconciled.
In the early days of the work, Pharaoh and Liu Cong, who were rap recommenders, both expressed concern about the rhythm design of "Quest".
A song of four minutes and thirty-nine seconds, Gong Linna at least let Good Morning and Li Yijie change three or four different flows.
At that time, everyone was a little worried that such a complex singing method and arrangement would not be too strong and destroy the memory points and rhythmic dynamics that the rap work should have driven the audience?
In this regard, Gong Linna said that this "shortcoming" is exactly the drama she wants, she wants to make "rap serve the stage", and finally present a "rap musical" to further challenge the possibility of black fear: to be able to step on a more unexpected stage.
If it is replaced by some rappers whose self-style has matured, are unwilling to break, or whose thinking has been solidified, they may question whether Gong Linna is messing around in the early stage.
But Good Morning happens to be a rapper with both rap strength and a "good student" who is willing to learn from different stage experiences.
Therefore, when Good Morning met Gong Linna, the learning process without boundaries between the two made "Quest" the most unique work in the fourth issue.
Combining rap rhythms, stage lighting, lyrics and stage action designed by the plot extension, as well as elaborate makeup costumes, the sound and light elements are closely grasping the audience's attention. Once you understand what the quest is telling, you will be completely brought into the stage performance:
When I saw the climax part of Gong Linna encouraging students to chase their dreams freely, and the "good student" finally broke free of the shackles to be himself, I thought that I had met a similar mentor in high school, and my eyes suddenly warmed up.
Such an immersive experience, saying that "Quest" is a pop or rap song is really not comprehensive, this is a "mini rap musical".
Since the spark of collision with Good Morning in "Quest", in the next eight issues, the cooperation between the two has become more and more tacit, like a pair of gold medal partners, and six high-quality works have been produced.
The eleventh issue of "No Worries" is the representative work of Good Morning and Gong Linna this season-
The memory brought to the audience by the Divine Comedy "Trepidation" is quite apprehensive, but when Good Morning sang on the side to overcome the dangers and obstacles and move forward forever, Gong Linna's passionate "Ah Hiss, Hiss, Hiss" cleverly reversed the "Trepidation" into a fighting spirit of "never trepidation", and also extinguished the doubts of the outside world for them:
You know, before that, someone had teased Gong Linna for engaging in rapping than funny.
In the face of doubts, Gong Linna and Good Morning chose to speak with their works, and in the tenth issue of "Joker Monologues", they sang loudly, even if they were not understood, they would not give up new musical attempts, because —
In the increasingly homogeneous rap and pop markets, they "don't just want to be a meteor for a moment, they want to be a sun."
The passionate collision of the pop X rap Gemini stars reached a climax in the final final.
The theme of the final was "Dare to Ask Where the Road Is", and each group of pop singers and rappers released a big move after a long run-in.
You Changjing and Deng Dianguo played in the first round, and the work was "Top Player". When Deng Dianguo finished outputting his inner monologue with accurate flow, the last sentence "No one is at the top" was 0.01 seconds, You Changjing immediately withdrew the climactic part "I will wait for you at the peak" with the high note, which completely ignited the hot blood momentum that Deng Dianguo had laid before and struggled to reach the top of the musical mountain.
The music critics directly praised the cooperation of You Changjing X Deng Dianguo, which is a textbook-level example of the fusion of pop and rap:
And Zhu Jingxi and Ah Juli's "Sun Rain (Four O'clock in the Morning Version)" boldly played the punk chill wind.
Echoing the title of the song at 4:00 a.m., the stage is sprinkled with green laser rain, which immediately brings the audience into the background of the story setting of "Sun Rain". Ah Zhu Li's relaxed flow and Zhu Jingxi's relaxed and flexible voice line are even more incomparable.
Even in the tense finals, this combination can't help but relax immediately.
Hu Yanbin and AJ Lai Yuzhe's work "Thanks" begins with a very ingenious idea: all the voices of the end of a whole season of competition are written on paper, and they become small planes floating deep into the stage.
Then the spotlight came on, and both men were dressed in white.
Hu Yanbin was originally a singer, so when he and Lai Yuzhe sang "love is not extinguished, say thank you to the world", the simple melody + stage design immediately let the complex emotions that are not simple hit everyone's heart.
The combination that finally ended the championship suspense was the twin stars of Gong Linna and Good Morning, who were the most unpromising before.
In the final, she and Good Morning's "Hooha Upward" also reached the peak of the balance of cooperation between the two.
When Gong Linna and Good Morning worked together before, the tone of the rap part has been slightly insufficient. But in "Hooha Up", she cleverly led the audience to keep "Huh! Under dantian's strength, the audience's mood was immediately dragged into this battle song by her.
And good morning after several rounds of cooperation + independent stage tempering, the typhoon has also completely stabilized and matured, coupled with Gong Linna's "wahahaha
Finally, in the second round of competition, Gong Linna played the ancient rhyme style after the heroic Chinese style, and the popular rhythm was matched with the silky rap of good morning, which finally made the crossover king of kings group win the second season championship.
On the stage, Gong Linna was dressed in a pink Tang costume and tied with a pill head, and she was not at all bound by the "national rhyme and beautiful voice" persona, twisting more freely than good morning. Coupled with clear and bright words, she and Good Morning are like little immortals from Peach Blossom Garden, playing a real "chill Chinese style":
From the "accumulation" of rappers in the early stage of the show to the great success of the stage, all this is not only due to the tacit efforts between rappers and guests, but also to the soul pillar of the show behind the scenes.
Gemini format.
Without the Gemini format, there would be no stage where pop and rap could really collide, and it would be impossible to have the surprises brought to the audience by the audience in the second season of "Rap Listen to Me".
From thick accumulation to thin hair, what is the good format of gemini stars?
For a long time, there was a joke circulating in the black circle:
If you want to be a rapper, as long as you can climb over the wall, it is enough. Youtube grab a beat, follow yoyo and you're done.
So does singing conflict with pop music? The answer given by Zhu Jingxi on behalf of the pop singers is:
Rap X popular crossover, "in fact, there is no boundary", pop singers are not to compete with rapper whose works are more powerful, but to learn from each other in terms of musicality and rhythm, in order to make the most explosive innovative music.
In the history of rap development, black fear singers have also been eclectic, sampling reggae, rock, funk, jazz and other music, so some people have laughed: "Black fear is not music, but a music game." ”
So from the perspective of the development process of rap music itself, it has no boundaries.
Dare to break the border for cooperation, in order to achieve a win-win situation. This is the core of the Gemini format, and it is also the meaning of music playing flowers.
The Gemini format also ensures that the cooperation between pop singers and rappers does not fall on the surface of "musicality":
In the second season of "Rap Listen to Me", the recommendation officer and pop singers focused on Rappers who were musically top-notch and dared to break through themselves when making choices.
For example, Ahajuli, who is only 18 years old, successfully blew up the whole scene with a very changeable "Eleven" with a flow song and a tone that no one has ever heard before.
After the song was sung, the pop singers and recommendation officers present could not sit still and launched a robbery battle. Zhu Jingxi ran to the stage after directly giving the coin, but at the same time Wu Kequn pressed the reverse button and exclaimed, "You are the first person today to make me hear brain cramps." And Ahjuli, who finally reached the final, also became the biggest dark horse of this season.
In the choice of stage, pop singers also focus on musicality and breakthrough spirit.
In the third issue, Hu Yanbin unabashedly shouted out this appeal. He directly led the rappers to sing a song "Kaishan" on the stage, singing loudly: "If you want to mix in the comfort zone, don't sing this show", and all the rappers on the stage also sang in unison that they must break the past routine and use innovation to further explore the future of rap.
In an instant, all the pop musicians and rappers on and off the stage were on fire, which was the common voice of everyone.
Resources brought into the group along with excellent rappers and pop musicians, as well as a first-class music production team behind each singer.
For example, when You Changjing participated in the final, he specially brought guitars, basses, and drummers who had previously cooperated. With a more tacit team operation, it is enough to ensure the presentation effect of the work and the standard of live performance.
Throughout the second season, many Gemini works not only received praise in the show, but also hit singles with more than 10,000 reviews on the music platform:
Including the competition format of "pop singer selection and cooperation rapper", which has been criticized by many people, it is also in order to make the adaptable rapper and pop singer join forces as much as possible in limited resources and stage, in order to maximize the collision of wonderful works.
From a long-term point of view, only the typhoon and the rapper who are more all-round to adapt to the style can go further under today's music market.
For example, good morning, in this season of the show, has successively challenged a variety of styles such as musicals, cute boys in the back garden, street burst boys, and inferior clowns. Can control the changeable typhoon, in order to get out of a different "flower road".
In the eighth issue, Good Morning and Li Yijie fought bloody battle on the stage
Let rap no longer stop at 808 drum beats but integrate more popular music into the melody and musicality;
Let the imagination of young rappers not stick to the form of rapping, but land into innovative works;
This is the best part of the gemini format of the second season of "Rap Listen to Me".
Some of the Gemini works and musical concepts in the show may seem to be more or less advanced or immature now, but I believe that only by making the first step of cross-border exploration, Chinese rap will have more diversified and interesting possibilities in the future.
If the entire season of the show is denied because of some flaws in the initial attempt, so that everyone does not dare to eat crabs, how can we talk about the diversified future of Chinese rap?
From this point of view, the underrated second season of "Rap Listen to Me" really deserves to be seen by more people.
From another point of view, in fact, the core of the format of "Rap Listen to Me" is still inheriting the "variety temperament" of Mango Taijia's specialties:
From the "Super Girl" of that year, to the recent "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves", "Brother Who Cut through thorns", and this "Rap Listen to Me", no matter when, many variety shows on Mango Station have the brave soul of "daring to cross borders" and "daring to break through", so these variety shows can constantly collide with new sparks across borders.
And Chinese rap on the road of breaking through itself and breaking boundaries also needs such a soul that dares to be the first in the world. From this point of view, although this season's "Rap Listen to Me" has come to an end, Chinese rap should no longer stick to the border, but let this dare-to-do fire of hope burn more fiercely.
THE END
Author of this article
Ding-ding cat
Bad guy rat tail juice!