No drugs, no sex: how hip hop in China bounced back from censorship and exploded in popularity
- 2018 was a banner year for rappers in China – but then the country’s media censors came down upon them. Many worried that this was the end for Chinese hip hop
- They need not have worried: hip hop has since exploded in popularity – but, in a ‘success for the Chinese regulators’, song lyrics have to toe the party line
In 2018, the censors who oversee Chinese media issued a directive to the nation’s entertainment industry: do not feature artists with tattoos and those who represent hip hop or any other subculture.
The genre had just experienced a banner year, with a hit competition-format television show minting new stars and introducing them to a country of 1.4 billion people. Rappers accustomed to operating on little money and performing in small bars became household names.
The announcement from censors came at the peak of that frenzy. A silence descended, and for months no rappers appeared on the dozens of variety shows and singing competitions on Chinese television.
But by the end of that year, everything was back in full swing. What had looked like the end for Chinese hip hop was just the beginning.