Introduction: It has been a full three and a half years since "China Has Hip Hop" began broadcasting. No matter from which aspect and dimension to look at and analyze, this show has completely changed the ecological environment of China's Hip-Hop. On the eve of the 2021 rap program about to "bloom a hundred flowers", looking back at this phenomenal "kaishan" variety show, we can still get a lot of insights from it.
To this end, Rhyming Poet has specially launched the "Dream Back to "There Is Hip Hop"" series of articles, taking the plot and story of the program itself as the carrier, combined with various events that occurred before the program, at the time of the program and after the program, to reproduce the profound impact of "China Has Hip Hop" on China Hip Hop from all angles.
Before this series officially begins, we need to use an article to sort out the relationship between the timeline, major events, and a large number of characters before the show starts. For the "rap fans" who had a deep understanding of the Chinese rap circle events before 2017, this article is nothing new, and it can even be said that it is all old sesame rotten grain.
But for new audiences who don't know this history, this article aims to be a qualified popular science article. After you read this article, you will be able to understand why the various characters on the show are making relevant remarks, why they have different positions, and even why there are many bizarre clips of the show's group.
Because the show itself revolves around the performance and growth of the characters, it is necessary for us to first make a simple classification of all the contestants who were shortlisted for the 60s that year. It is not an easy task to orderly classify the 70 players with different personalities. At this time, we are prone to fall into the inducement of the program group - that is, the so-called "rapper VS trainee" and "Underground VS Idol".
In fact, this is a typical misleading, and the so-called opposition is a false proposition. Why? Because in the top 70 in the country, the players who were determined to be trainees at that time were actually pitiful. Many people just like GAI, "think that someone is very in line with the temperament of a trainee, so this person is a trainee", and looking at people with this mentality, the result will often be ridiculous - THE "trainee" Zhao Tao, who GAI thinks, is actually a model.
But in some ways, rappers like GAI who have a strong underground atmosphere actually don't care whether the other party is a trainee or anything else, and the idea of "as long as you are not born underground, you are not a road person" was popular at that time.
All in all, how powerful the "editing" technique really is, from the beginning of this misleading point is the first sign. Even if the proportions of trainees and underground are very different, the program team can still create a strong sense of atmosphere, which involves the skill of camera assignment.
Throughout the years of the show, many contestants said that lens distribution is a metaphysics, but it is not. The most core and fundamental influencing factor, or strength, the first season of Huang Xu, no matter how ignored in the early and middle stages of the show, is still with strong strength to kill the top 6 positions in the country, shengsheng has achieved a large number of shots. Of course, the existence of a strong huang xu is too rare after all, so rappers will attribute the number of shots to "luck".
In fact, luck is still not the second most important influencing factor, the second important is the "topic degree". This topic degree can be brought by the contestants themselves, or it can be created by the program team according to the scene conditions, or even deliberately created by the program team completely out of thin air. In the above three cases, we can find examples -
PG One before the game because of the membership of the Red Flower Club was rumored to be "the internal champion", the program team naturally gave him some shots to respond to this topic, which is "self-contained"; Ty. posted a blog before the game to scare Zhang Zhenyue, and the recording scene did have some verbal confrontation with Zhang Zhenyue, which was "made according to the situation"; the pharaoh did not do anything, and the program team could also pit him on the problem of "the prelude does not count the length of the performance", which is "deliberately created out of thin air".
Of course, it is still too difficult for the program team to deliberately create a topic out of thin air, and the most convenient way is, of course, to use the intricate interpersonal relationships between the contestants to make a fuss. The so-called "trainee" opposition is basically a program group out of nothing, and the real opposition actually occurs mainly within the underground rapper.
However, the definition of underground in our article is very narrow. In this article, we only regard rappers who are "deeply involved in various events in the rap circle before the start of the show Chinese and have a deep intersection with the Chinese characters and labels in the rap circle before the show starts" as "underground rappers".
For example, GAI and Li Daben, in fact, they are underground in a broad sense, but before the start of the show in 2017, GAI's interpersonal relationships and story experiences in the Chinese rap circle may not be enough to watch 10 Li Daben.
The people we have chosen are not only famous in the underground, but also have some stories between them. The program team is familiar with these intricate relationships, thus creating a wonderful plot of a main line + multiple branches.
This thread, as we all know, is related to the show's ultimate two champions. GAI and PG One are surrounded by a full set of shots from start to finish, and they have become the "main line characters" they take for granted. Around these two main characters, two opposing "camps" have emerged.
At this point, it is necessary to mention the three large-scale beefs that occurred at the beginning, middle of 2017 and the end of the year, through which most of the first-line labels and well-known rappers in the Chinese rap circle were basically divided into their own camps (even if they did not necessarily actively join a certain camp). In "China Has Hip Hop", this camp has begun to take shape.
In early 2017, a Weibo post by Guangguang triggered the dissatisfaction of GAI, a core member of chongqing label GOSH, and the feud between the two sides immediately spread to the entire Chinese rap circle. Soon after this eve came to an end, "China Has Hip Hop" began to air, so most of the changes in the relationship between underground rappers were affected by some of the beef. Of course, there are also people who have had grudges with each other for many years.
Contestants who are in the same camp as GAI can be known through the then-light Diss Track "Gay Grandpa Only Typing". In this song, Hikari takes turns greeting GAI, BigDog Wangke, Jony J, and Little Green Dragon, of which Jony J is more special, Hikari once had a mentor and friend, but Jony J left Hikari after his wings grew stronger.
Of course, these mentioned people are not so much allied with GAI as they are just having the "common enemy" of light and light, and the relationship is not very close. Of course, in addition to the above few, there are some people who are good friends with GAI and can be counted in the GAI's camp, such as GAI's label brother Bridge.
On the other hand, although the main characters of the Guangguang side in the "Light GAI War", Guangguang, Trouble.Z Gao Tianzuo, Safflower Shell and others did not participate in "China Has Hip Hop", but the PG One and BrAnT .B Xiaobai of the Safflower Society went quite far in the show.
Because GAI once had more or less festivals with the shell shells, shells and MAI of the Red Flower Society, the attitude of the Two Heroes of the Red Flower Society towards GAI is, of course, the enemy as the main thing. Standing on the side of the Red Flower Club is Ty of the Rap Club, who is in trouble with GAI, even more fierce than Guangguang.
Although the camp does not have many members on the show, it is indeed not inferior to the GAI camp on the sidelines. And the horror popularity of PG One is even more worthy of the sum of the other camp.
One might ask, why has there been so much emphasis on the "GAI camp" and no mention of GOSH? This brings us to the delicate relationship between GAI and GOSH. Although GAI is an important member of GOSH, the cohesion among GOSH members at that time was not as loose as that of rap clubs and red flower clubs, which made them rarely "take the initiative".
Moreover, GAI's personality at that time was uncertain, and it was often "announcing his withdrawal from the label", which also made GOSH rarely care about his personal grievances, and most of the time chose to be silent.
The identity of the underground rapper does not mean that it is necessary to get the shot, and the program team chooses the shots of the underground rappers outside the two main characters according to the strength, topicality, and even pure luck. Among them, the 8 people who were either weak, or not enough topics, or bad luck were eliminated early and hardly got any shots.
Among them, Xtina and Cola are from the show's important figure Jony J's label SHOEC; Joannne is from the label Free-Out of Guangguang, who has a bad relationship with Jony J; POP Cai Haochi is from Shantou's "One Finger Group", and 8uck Eight is from Fujian label "Coastal Friendly", and viewers who have watched "Rap Listen to Me" will not forget the grand scene of his first round of battle JD.
Of the remaining three, DK is a battle-hardened Battle MC and a rare friend of Nawuk's circle; T.Song is Tsong Liang's teacher, who is in Wuhan's "Giant Stick Music" and has clashed with the funny 3Bangz on "China New Rap"; Honey Miko is familiar to everyone, because of her unique skin color and body shape and bold remarks, she has been the number one controversial figure in the Chinese rap circle since she became famous in "China Has Hip Hop".
The most interesting thing is that DK, Tsong and MiYu have all qualified for the main competition of "China New Rap" three times, and they happen to be in 2017, 2019 and 2020. Similar to the experience of the three of them, there are also Wang Da Mole and Xiao Qinglong, who have also advanced to the main tournament three times.
As mentioned earlier, before the emergence of "China Has Hip Hop", the evaluation system of the Chinese rap circle was based on "Freestyle Battle" as the core. In this regard, all the trainees and amateurs are not involved, and only a part of the underground rapper can be called "Battle MC".
Under the category of Battle MC, the most prestigious is undoubtedly BigDog Wang Ke, who achieved the "Iron Mic" triple crown in the early years, and the second person under the big dog is "Iron Mic"'s second consecutive champion Xiao Qinglong in 2015-2016. In addition, PG One, Bridge, Huang Xu, Simba, Sun Bayi, Huizi, DK and others are also considered to be the dominant Battle King.
With the two opposing camps of GAI and PG One, there are naturally "wall-riding factions" and relatively independent "free men" sandwiched between the two camps. The word "wall-riding faction" is a bit pejorative, but the state of these people is indeed a dilemma between GAI and PG One.
The most typical example is Tizzy T, as early as 2014 GAI said to him "I know you enough TT", the two can be regarded as brothers and brothers; but Tizzy T and the Red Flower Society signed MDSK in 2017, he and PG One also collaborated on a song "Rocket", and the relationship between the two sides is also good. Gai and PG One clashed, and naturally he could only wait and see.
Also in a similar situation to him are VaVa and Evgeni, VaVa has won both GAI and PG One review because of her female rapper status; Evgeni wants to follow the words of his former teammate C-Low, he can be called a "well-known hustler", he does not want to offend anyone, and tries to do all the relationships.
Speaking of "free men", there is one who has some hostility to the PG One camp, and that is Simba from NOUS. Simba himself has no grudge with PG One, but the NOUS and the Red Flower Society behind him are sworn enemies in the same city. The two labels had a gap in the results of the car against PG One in the 2015 "Dry One" final, and then deteriorated into a purely competitive relationship.
On another level, Simba and the NOUS and Evgeni behind him also have some inexplicable relationships with Huang Xu. In 2015, Evgeni and Huang Xu joined NOUS managers Pict and Admiral Kigga, and later China's New Rap champion Ai Ge on a tour called "Western Train". And Pict has worked with Evgeni on the popular "Endless Flight" and "Y".
At a time when the relationship between the two sides was extremely harmonious, NOUS even invited Evgeni and Huang Xu to join the label, and the two sides were once close to realizing this vision that now seems quite heavy, and there were rumors that Evgeni and Huang Xu had agreed to play in the name of NOUS on "China Has Hip Hop".
However, in the end, on the show, the two still played the banner of "DMOB Desert Brothers" and did not mention NOOUS. Subsequently, the rumors of Efogini's discord with NOOUS's Peckt, Fishhead and others were exposed, until 2020, Evgeni released a new song with Pakter, "Kiss. gold. Cows", only then did these rumors collapse one by one.
The other "free people", although they are free to say, are not without stories. Xu Zhenzhen is one of them, and the time he and the rap club bar are calculated earlier than GAI. Tizzy T, who was also under the ChillGun label with him at the time, chose to support him. But as time passed, Tizzy T left the label, and the relationship between the two became delicate.
Wang Da mole as early as 2013 founded "Sumo Music", there was such a member of PG One, the two can be regarded as old acquaintances; BCW and YZ Yu Yaozhi from Taiwan once belonged to the TGMF gangster gang, but BCW left the group to join the company "Mixed Race Entertainment", and it happened that Ty. was also in the same company.
Of course, in the end, we must not forget the most important "free man" - to say that he is a "free man" is better to say that he is an unfathomable "sweeping monk". After all, HipHopMan Ouyang Jing's status in the heart of the Chinese rapper is as lofty as Song Yueting. His profound English rap skills are no less than those of American rappers on the other side of the ocean.
After talking about the characters, it is natural to briefly mention the label they are backed by. For the new thing of rap variety shows, the attitude of the first-line labels in the rap circle that Chinese at that time can be summarized in two words: caution. Although there are certain risks in participating in the show, there are also many opportunities, so most of the labels did not miss this opportunity, but did not send too many members.
In addition to SUP, Jingqishen and other first-line labels did not send players to participate, the rest of the labels such as Rap Club, Red Flower Club, GOSH, Kaishan Monster, ChillGun, and Nous all sent their generals (Ty., PG One, GAI, Xiaoqinglong, Xu Zhenzhen and Simba) to participate. At that time, the relatively unknown Shooc and the living dead attracted the winners (Jony J and Pharaoh) to attend in person.
Therefore, in "China Has Hip Hop", we can also see the dark competition and wrestling between different labels. Although some labels left the game early for some reasons (such as rap clubhouse, living dead, NOUS), they still play a considerable influence, and to a certain extent, they also influence the public opinion inside and outside the game.
As for the timeline of the trends of various labels before "China Has Hip Hop", it should start from 2014. It was a year of big moves at the rap club, and several of their members provoked Hot Dog, GAI, and Xu Zhenzhen in the same year. Later, in 2015, PG One joined the Red Flower Society, and at this time GAI had not yet fallen out with the Red Flower Club.
In 2016, the living dead were established, and its presiding officer, Pharaoh, has not dealt with the rap club, so the living dead are also in a state of hostility with the rap club. At the beginning of 2017, the "Light GAI War" broke out, and the overall situation of GOSH + Living Dead VS Rap Club + Red Flower Club initially took shape. Subsequently, the Chinese rap circle will be permanently changed because of the emergence of "China Has Hip Hop".
So far, we have sorted out the intricate interpersonal relationships between the underground rappers before the launch of "China Has Hip Hop", and also introduced the timeline of the previous Chinese major events in the rap circle. Starting from the next issue, we will officially review the details of each issue of "China Has Hip Hop", and readers should stay tuned!