*** NOTE PROFANITY IN SOUNDBITE 6 and 9 ***
Los Angeles, 21 May 2018
1. Medium pull to wide shot Xinzhu Wang walks onto stage during "The Rap of China" tryouts
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Xinzhu Wang, student-aspiring rapper:
"So hip-hop in China is really big. Everyone is listening to it and everyone would love to hear more, like more new style. But it's kind of banned last year because some bad thing happened – I don't know what's going on, but people were banning hip-hop. So all the rappers right here, they got a lot of pressure on them, because once this show is going to come out and everyone is going to watch, then people is going to see how it is – the new form of Chinese rapping."
3. Medium Xinzhu Wang performs
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Xinzhu Wang, student-aspiring rapper:
"But I really just want to do my own real hip-hop music instead of being taught or being told to do some things that I really don't like. But this is the reality. You've got to face it, right? So I'm thinking it's like once I get in or anything, I'm just going to focus on my own music and I'm going to do it well. I'm going to go hard on it."
5. Wide Xinzhu Wang performs
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Xinzhu Wang, student-aspiring rapper:
"I don't know if the show is going to allow me to say that, but right now I can't say curse words in my lyrics or like show my aggressive on everything. But basically hip-hop is a thing that you can show your expression onto it and you can show the people how you feel about the things and all that. So I think that's the real hip-hop. It's not like oh people love to hear 'what' and you just say 'what,' you know? So what I'm doing is like I'm going to be a good girl now, but maybe later create my own stuff and I don't f**king care. Sorry. I don't care if people say this is right or this is not."
7. Cameraman at "The Rap of China" tryouts
8. Medium zoom to wide Xinzhu Wang performs
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Xinzhu Wang, student-aspiring rapper:
"I don't really like to do the things that they want me to do, but I'm just trying to get into this industry. Because once I get into this industry in China, blah blah blah, they will approve me, then I'm going to start to do my own sh*t, my own real sh*t."
10. Wide William Chen with 'RICH'-branded hat
11. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) William Chen, iQiyi Senior Vice President:
"Last year, about six months after the show ended, a few individual contestants have done things that were not morally responsible and even illegal, these incidents have left the negative impression on the hip-hop culture in the eyes of the Chinese public or law enforcement. These behaviors were isolated incidents but still left a negative impact and may have created some bias towards the culture. However, the show itself is audited by the government and there's no problem with it. This is why we are able to continue with the show and bring it to a bigger scale. The responsibility of the show is to produce high quality content, shine a more positive light on the culture, and enable the hip-hop culture to grow positively in China. I believe same thing also happened in China. For example, a lot of lyrics in raps are negative, but there are lot of singers or platforms, the songs they play or created are without curse words. The mission of 'The Rap of China' is give a platform to more rappers who represent a more positive image of hip-hop to the Chinese public, so they understand that hip-hop is not just a underground movement, or full of curse words. This is our mission."
12. Wide Xinzhu Wang performs
ASPIRING CHINESE RAPPER HOPES TO MAKE 'REAL HIP-HOP' DESPITE CENSORS
Hip-hop has gone mainstream in China thanks to the massively popular reality competition series "The Rap of China" -- but some rappers have been pushing the limits of what's allowed under government censorship.
Xinzhu Wang was among the 30-plus contestants who tried out for the online show this week in Los Angeles. Originally from Harbin, China, the 19-year-old is set to attend New York University, but is first spending some time in LA hoping to break into music. She's hoping to make "real hip-hop" - but says she first needs to play along with the positive, clean rap endorsed by the government.
"So hip-hop in China is really big. Everyone is listening to it and everyone would love to hear more, like more new style. But it's kind of banned last year because some bad thing happened – I don't know what's going on, but people were banning hip-hop. So all the rappers here, they got a lot of pressure on them, because once this show is going to come out and everyone is going to watch, then people is going to see how it is – the new form of Chinese rapping," she said.
Finalists for the first season of the show last year became celebrities in China, but then faced backlash after their older "underground" songs came to light - that included content deemed undesirable by government censors, including profanity.
"I really just want to do my own real hip-hop music instead of being taught or being told to do some things that I really don't like. But this is the reality. You've got to face it, right? So I'm thinking it's like once I get in or anything, I'm just going to focus on my own music and I'm going to do it well. I'm going to go hard on it," Wang said.
"I don't know if the show is going to allow me to say that, but right now I can't say curse words in my lyrics or like show my aggressive on everything. But basically hip-hop is a thing that you can show your expression onto it and you can show your people how you feel about the things and all that. So I think that's the real hip-hop. It's not like oh people love to hear 'what' and you just say 'what,' you know? So what I'm doing is like I'm going to be a good girl now, but maybe later create my own stuff and I don't f**king care. Sorry. I don't care if people say this is right or this is not."
"The Rap of China" series is set to air from July to September on China's YouTube-like platform iQiyi.
Company Senior Vice President William Chen said the show is intended to introduce hip-hop to mainstream Chinese culture by focusing on "positive" aspects of the music.
"Last year, about six months after the show ended, a few individual contestants have done things that were not morally responsible and even illegal, these incidents have left the negative impression on the hip-hop culture in the eyes of the Chinese public or law enforcement. These behaviors were isolated incidents but still left a negative impact and may have created some bias towards the culture," he said. "The mission of 'The Rap of China' is give a platform to more rappers who represent a more positive image of hip-hop to the Chinese public, so they understand that hip-hop is not just a underground movement, or full of curse words."
