This summer's "China New Rap" is over. I often wonder what it means for those practitioners, including me, a hobbyist, and what it brings us. To be honest, Danzhen Beijing can be called my favorite label. Everyone in the team has their own unique style, lamenting Huang Shuo's hardcore fierceness, Saber's self-innovation, Zhang Qian's unique lungs, but now they are reminiscing about Sweet's realistic heart.
In Danzhen's series of videos", the chubby man records songs and composes music in his own recording studio, and he speaks funny, giving people a sense of humor and cheerfulness, but it seems difficult to understand the real him in just a few minutes in the video. I spent an afternoon listening to all of Sweet's music and wanted to talk to you seriously about this young and thoughtful Beijing rapper.
Sweet, whose real name is Liu Yongtao, has a high degree and graduated from Chinese University. His musical style was heavily influenced by Nas, always using outspoken words to expose the dark side of the reality of street life. He began his rap career at the age of fourteen, and when he was in high school, he also released his first Mixtape "Seven Disobedience, Eight Ministries Not Angry".
The first time he played in Battle, because of the tension and inexperience, Sweet did not perform very well. After finishing the race, he had ten dollars left in his pocket, and after participating in the competition, he walked back to the five pines from the starlight scene. At the age of sixteen, he had faded his youth and timidity when he appeared on the stage of the Battle of dragons and tigers, but due to his lack of experience, Sweet's results were not very prominent.
In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that Sweet is the strongest Battle MC in Beijing. We have tweeted in detail about Sweet's Battle experience, and you can click on the link in the back to see Sweet, the Battle King who came out of the tube building, representing the young people of the five pines
In 2011, Sweet participated in Iron Mic and won the Beijing Division. The most impressive thing was his showdown with Pict, which resulted in a victory for Packert, but Sweet's performance was equally remarkable. Later Sweet did a rap news show called 187, when he was not yet eighteen.
Interested friends can also go to NetEase Cloud to listen to danzhen radio, which details Sweet's favorite rap music and his rap process, and come together to protect the world's best marmots. In the summer of 2013, Sweet created his most famous original masterpiece, "Tube Building", which was translated into Korean and placed on hip-hop website HIPOPLE in South Korea, which received a lot of praise.
The dilapidated tube building carries all the memories of his childhood, the three- to five-storey row building, the dirty environment, the old wall skin and the oil-stained staircase handrail, the long corridor hanging over the outer wall or in the middle of the corridor, the small cubicles of each door and family next to each other, and the crowded and highly similar apartments replicate the daily life of each family. But I don't know when, I have become accustomed to life in the tube building, because this is where I grew up, here are the people I love, here are my friends, always loyal.
During the new rap audition, Sweet, who was born as Battle Mc, successfully won the favor of Pan Weibai with his freestyle. In 1V1, against rap OG Dong Gem, the song "Wild Style" successfully advanced with its changeable Flow, beautiful Punchline, and calm and excellent performance.
"In the first season, they took away my necklace and they didn't know the goods, and the son's fault I think it was all the fault of the father." The director said that I was old but ginger or old spicy... Now people are all betting for rhyme, and if I were a mentor their songs should be forks..."
Dare to sing in the show, it is enough to see sweet's truth. Each of Sweet's songs tells its own story, and it's very audible. Narrating the trajectory of his life, representing the lowest voice, conveying reality, triggering fans' quiet thinking, and now the impetuous rap circle, Sweet, there are not many like this.
We can't decide where we come from, but we can choose our own lives. The dilapidated and crowded tube buildings of his childhood forged Sweet's fortitude, and he would never forget where he came from. In Spirited Away, Hakuryu says to Chihiro, "Never forget your name, once your name is taken away, you won't find your way home." "Never lose yourself, never forget your original intention, and always be clear about what you really want."
In 2017, Sweet's second original album, Bittersweet, was released, with a total of eight songs on the album. Like the name of this album, life is to make fun in suffering, to feel the good with the heart, in order to make our life different, suffering is a kind of wealth, it will hone our will, thank you for experiencing. All the emotional torment is nothing more than a grind of life, and if you love this place enough, you will write a song for it.
In "Summer in Beijing", as a person with a Beijing complex, Sweet expresses his sincere feelings for his hometown. The rhythm of catching your ears immediately pulls you into the summer of Beijing, accompanied by the sound of cicadas and sunshine, the middle of the summer glass bottle Arctic Ocean, the jingle of broken ice hitting the wall. Wear flip-flops and walk comfortably in alleys and alleys. Many things happen in the summer in Beijing, and many things happen in the summer in Beijing. I hope that youth continues, and the story between you and me is not finished...
"I always dare not tell you about my family, for fear that you will be abandoned, that you will leave, that this is the worst case scenario. But you never shy away from it, and you try to share it with me, lean on my shoulder and say, share my bitterness and happiness. ”
In this "Wedding Dress", Sweet depicts his love with his wife, no ring, no accessories, nothing, only the registration of the Civil Affairs Bureau, and when Sweet has nothing, his wife still resolutely marries him. Still water, deep currents, vicissitudes and songs. The life behind love is complicated, but love itself can be simple. Now, they have a lovely son.
"Old Liu" was written by Sweet for his father. This song is deep and thick, expressing love and miss for his father. Only the family affection in the song can be touched, and the father-son relationship in the affection is the easiest to pierce the heart defense. NetEase Yunli commented on him like this: The real rapper is precious in the era of consumption first, and now you will also have your children and daughters, leaving the tube building that you don't want to go back to, but you want to hug the old Liu who lives in the tube building, if there is a next life, I still hope that you are my father.
At this year's Harbin Mailang Ice City Music Festival, Sweet sang "100,000 Pieces", and he hoped that all of us would be able to calm down and listen. The helplessness of reality in the lyrics sets off the desire for money, and the temperament is always defeated by reality, and the eyes are red but no one can take the pulse for me.
From the very beginning, I felt that what I was doing was to resist artistically to the gradual compromise because of reality, and the bitter helplessness in the meantime was really regrettable. In this real world, everyone is working hard for the same purpose, at all costs, willingly becoming a slave to money, and paying with a dead heart.
In the society of money, is self-esteem important or money important? Sweet chose money. Because only with the weapon of money can you defend the morality you uphold. At the same time, he also satirized reality, and he sang in the song: "To earn or to lose, I will recite it myself." "Is that a gain or a loss?" In order to support the family, the material is greater than the spirit, no matter what, the result will be borne by oneself. When I was a child, my stomach was hungry, but my dreams were very full. When I grew up, my stomach was full, but my dreams were a little hungry.
The effect of poverty may lie in the fact that many of the qualities that can be built up in adolescence depend on material abundance, and that children of poor families need to build themselves when they grow up. There are many compulsory courses in life, you did not have the conditions to learn when you were a child, you have to make up for it when you grow up, and you may not be able to make up for it.
But for the poor, inner liberation is far more rare than material fullness. Constantly running, only to realize their musical dreams. In April 2018, Sweet set up its own music label, Guanzilou Music Co., Ltd., and the post-production of lyrics and accompaniment was all done by himself. The world is boring, life is going to be fun. Recently, Sweet fell in love with shooting Vlogs, using Vlogs to let us understand him in life.
The album Joker is sampled from FORMOSA - Mask of Sorrow. Listen to Liu Yongtao with fluent Flow, sad lyrics hit your heart: "Heaven and earth are not kind, with all things as dogs, you and I are clowns living in the city animals need to be subsistence." ”
Mask life, we are all clowns, in order to worry about the feelings of others or even to please others, we can not express their true emotions, the mask is worn for a long time, slowly forget the original true appearance, know slowly accept and even get used to the hypocritical self. I especially like the lyrics written by Sweet, and I hope that more people will listen to Sweet's songs and listen to what he brings with their hearts.
I can't say how hot Sweet was this summer, but at least in my opinion, he proved himself. Some shows began to invite him as a guest, and he gradually appeared in more Live Houses and music festivals, and label member Liu Yue will also carry out the second half of the tour.
In August, Sweet spent 250 yuan to find Taobao to sing, and composed a small love song "Baby Call Me", a brisk and sweet Hook can make people cycle the single all day. I have to say that this 250 yuan is worth spending. In Tuzi With HipHop Radio Live, Sweet brings a fifteen-minute freestyle show that tells you what a straight off the dome is.
Now look at it, rap itself has no meaning, and whatever meaning you give it is meaning. Some people are in high places, some people are in low valleys; some people are in high places and cannot bear to be lonely, and some people are in low valleys, but they also feel satisfied and happy in suffering.
Either way, what can be seen in them is real. Children from the slums, because of the baptism of tribulations, you will be more brilliant than anyone else, I hope you can accept yourself completely, be clear about what you want, and summon up enough courage to face everything. Already married and have children, but still on the road with my Danzhen brothers.
Representing the five pines, representing the Golden River Ditch, representing the 3rd floor 34, representing all the poor people who are in pain, I hope that in the second half of your nine innings there will be a big reversal of life, insist on your dreams, Sweet, waiting for the day when you walk up!
Postscript: A year and a half ago, we had a video interview with Sweet, Huang Shuo, and Odd Couple. But unfortunately, due to technical problems, the interview video of Sweet and Odd Couple's strange Mandarin Duck was lost, and in the end we only edited Huang Shuo's video, which is very regrettable. If that video were still around, it would be wonderful.
Frankly speaking, as a peer like Sweet, my generation of Beijing children has not suffered anything since they were young. But Sweet had suffered, and now everything he got was something he had fought on his own. I don't want to package Sweet's story as inspirational, I just want to tell a lot of rap friends, no matter how you complain that you don't have money, no resources, you are not the worst one, more people than you have difficulty, they are still insisting...