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Bloomberg

Labubu dolls knocked against the Chanel purses of club-goers at an after-party at Macau’s MGM Cotai in October, their fiendish smiles mirroring the faces of their owners, who bounced to the beat.
“Lai cai!” the rapper Skai Isyourgod yelled, thumping his chest.
“Lai!” the crowd chanted back.
“Lai cai!” he called again.
“Lai!” the crowd roared.
The hook – “Riches come!” – from Skai’s hit single “Stacks from All Sides” is classic hip-hop fare. Less typical is the artist delivering it.
Skai, whose Chinese stage name is Lan Lao, brought his intoxicating mix of Memphis-style rap with Mandarin, Cantonese and Hakka rhymes to the after-party for American rapper Travis Scott’s Macau concert.

With earworms like “Blueprint Supreme” and “Karma Code”, he has become inescapable in China – sparking social media dance trends and starring in ads for Alipay. But he has also taken off outside the country.
Since releasing his EP in July, Skai’s monthly Spotify streams have surpassed even those of Jay Chou, the long-reigning titan of Mandopop. But unlike Chou, whose popularity was built largely among Chinese-speaking audiences worldwide, Skai is a rare example of Chinese cultural crossover.
He spent November and December on an 11-city North American tour, following dozens of shows in cities that included Sydney, Jakarta and London. His music has found fans with no grasp of Chinese – as one TikTok commenter put it: “Understanding 0%, Vibing 100%.”
Skai’s ascent is more than a breakout success story. It represents a broader shift in the streaming era: the most locally specific music – rooted in accent, place and cultural texture – is increasingly the work that travels the farthest. The trend flips a long-held industry assumption that non-Western artists must sand down their cultural edges to achieve global reach.
For years, Korean megastars like BTS and Blackpink have drawn heavily on Western pop traditions. With Hybe launching the global girl group Katseye and the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack sung almost entirely in English, there is debate over what “counts” as K-pop.
But now a different logic is gaining momentum: the artists breaking through globally are not diluting their identities, but doubling down on them.
No one illustrates this more clearly than Bad Bunny, who with 19.8 billion plays was Spotify’s most-streamed artist in 2025 – the fourth time he has claimed the top spot. Although he is fluent in English, the Puerto Rican trap star performs only in Spanish and unapologetically opted to stage an extended residency in San Juan rather than tour internationally last summer.
“Gen Z and younger audiences really are looking for and prioritise cultural authenticity,” says Laura Fisher, an entertainment analyst at MIDiA Research.
In her June report, “International Success for Local Language Artists”, Fisher cites the global success of Gaelic-speaking rap act Kneecap, Italian rock band Maneskin and Spanish-Moroccan drill rapper Morad as evidence that language is no longer a limiting factor. Hyperspecificity, she argues, signals freshness and helps artists stand out.

Spanish singer Rosalia is testing this logic with her critically acclaimed album Lux, released in November 2025, which features vocals in 13 languages. “There are visuals of Spain, visuals of what it’s like to be a Catholic,” says Fisher. “It’s opening up that culture to a different audience rather than diluting it.”
There is “a new generation of truly borderless listeners who don’t care about long-held boundaries of language or location”, says James Foley, Spotify’s global editorial strategy lead.
He predicts the trend will accelerate in 2026 with “more Asian artists breaking through globally across a broader mix of styles and sounds” – including Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba and Indonesian indie soul band Thee Marloes.
Skai, 26, transplants the shadowy, lo-fi rhythms of Memphis hip-hop onto the soundscape of southeastern China, weaving in Cantonese opera samples, traditional instruments and philosophical aphorisms.
The video for “Blueprint Supreme” roams through iconic Hong Kong venues including the Happy Valley Racecourse and the Lin Heung teahouse. In the hypnotic track “Nin Jiom”, he raps about Pei Pa Koa – a Chinese cough syrup brand that has recently gained cachet among Western celebrities.

Hong Kong cultural entrepreneur Kevin Poon, who was in the DJ booth that night, says the rise of mumble rap over the past decade – through artists such as Future, Lil Uzi Vert and 21 Savage – has already trained audiences to pay less attention to lyrics.
“You can’t hear what they’re saying anyway,” Poon says. “It doesn’t really matter what language it is, so long as it has a good beat and good rhythm to it.”
Skai, whose real name is Chen Xukai, is from Huizhou in Guangdong province. The city is home to Mount Luofu, a sacred site in Taoism and Buddhism – influences that run strongly through his music.
He studied music performance at a university in Sichuan, then worked briefly at an electricity company and even sold Lao Gan Ma chilli sauce via livestream before committing fully to his rap career. After experiments with emo rap and other styles, he eventually found his sound.
“I was non-stop copying Europe and America,” Skai said in an interview with Chinese media. “No matter how I copied, it didn’t feel right. It wasn’t me.”
He ultimately broke through with what Leung Wai-mun, a linguist and associate professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, describes as a “unique southern accent collage”, drawing on pronunciations from Guangxi, Fujian, Hainan and Southeast Asian Chinese communities.
The embrace of linguistic diversity marks a reversal from the early years of communist rule, Leung says, when regional dialects were discouraged to unify the nation and boost literacy. Today, dialects are being rediscovered as important markers of identity, she says. They are “now seen as cultural assets rather than backward”.
Yan Jiayun, social media director for Radii, an online platform that tracks Asian youth culture, says Skai offers something fresh even to Chinese listeners. His flattened, Hakka-inflected Cantonese – a rural cousin to the variety spoken in Hong Kong – inspired Yan to learn more about the Hakka, a Han Chinese subgroup with a distinctive identity, language and culture.
“I felt like I [was] not just watching people rapping,” Yan says. “I [was] also watching a whole kind of fragment of culture that unfolded for me.”
For the overseas Chinese diaspora, Skai’s music plays into a powerful nostalgia factor. Many families left the country before the Communist Party came to power and before Mandarin was adopted as the lingua franca. Hearing an artist perform in something other than Mandarin can feel like a homecoming.
Andrew Chau, a Chinese-American entrepreneur and founder of the tea shop Boba Guys, saw Skai perform in San Francisco in November. The hybrid accent reminded him of the slightly off-kilter intonation of his father, who is from Guangzhou.
Chau was also struck by Skai’s philosophical lyrics, which he says give “words of wisdom toward a life of peace and prosperity”. Drawing on Taoist and Buddhist thought as well as Confucian ideas of filial piety, the music felt, above all, culturally authentic.
Across global music scenes, artists are increasingly finding power in becoming more – not less – specific about where they come from. Chinese artists, Poon notes, are uniquely positioned to benefit given the size of the domestic market and so do not need to worry about taking off globally.


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Bad Bunny wins album of the year at the 2026 Grammy Awards, a first for a Spanish-language album

Music

How ‘local’ stars like Bad Bunny show you don’t need to sing in English to be a global hit

Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, who performs only in Spanish, was Spotify’s most-streamed artist in 2025. Photo: AFP

Chinese rapper Skai Isyourgod is huge in China but has also taken off around the world. Photo: Instagram/skaiisyourgod

Maneskin frontman Damiano David. Maneskin have proved English is not compulsory for success in music. Photo: captured from Instagram

Spanish singer and songwriter Rosalia Vila Tobella, better known as Rosalia, has recently released an album sung in 13 languages. Photo: Instagram/rosalia.vt

KPop Demon Hunters wins 2 Golden Globes, including best song for ‘Golden’

(From left) Audrey Nuna, EJAE and Rei Ami, who provide the singing voices for the three main characters in KPop Demon Hunters, are pictured at the 83rd Golden Globes in Beverly Hills, California, on January 11, 2026. The Netflix animated hit picked up two awards at the ceremony. Photo: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

KPop Demon Hunters directors Chris Appelhans (left) and Maggie Kang (centre) hold their awards for best animated motion picture with producer Michelle Wong at the 83rd Annual Golden Globes in Beverly Hills, California, on January 11, 2026. Photo: Reuters

Timothee Chalamet poses with his award for best performance by a male actor in a musical or comedy motion picture. Photo: Reuters

The Pitt star Noah Wyle (centre) holds his best actor award with the series’ executive producers John Wells (left) and R. Scott Gemmill at the awards. Photo: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

3 times Gong Li surprised in Hong Kong films, including Flirting Scholar with Stephen Chow

Gong Li and Stephen Chow attend a promotional event for Flirting Scholar in 1993. Gong rose to fame as the muse of China’s Fifth Generation directors, starring in art-house classics such as Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern and Farewell My Concubine, but found time during the 1990s to make a batch of lesser-known commercial films in Hong Kong. Photo: SCMP

Gong Li and Stephen Chow in a still from Flirting Scholar (1993).

Gong Li (left) and Brigitte Lin in a still from The Dragon Chronicles – The Heavenly Maidens (1994).

Brigitte Lin (left) and Gong Li on the set of The Dragon Chronicles – The Heavenly Maidens.

(From left) Rosamund Kwan, Ray Lui and Gong Li in a still from The Great Conqueror’s Concubine (1994). Photo: Sil-Metropole Organisation

Cecilia Cheung: Hong Kong actress, sex scandal victim and Chinese social media star

Cecilia Cheung at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards in 2004. The actress’ personal life garnered a lot of attention in the 2000s, with tabloids covering scandals and her high-profile romantic life. Photo: SCMP

Cheung in 1999. Photo: Oliver Tsang

Cheung speaks after receiving the award for best new performer, as veteran actors Liza Wang and Danny Lee look on, at the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2000. Photo: Martin Chan

Cheung and Nicholas Tse in 2001. Photo: Reuters

Cheung in a still from Lost in Time (2003), for which she won best actress at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards. Photo: China Star Entertainment Group

Cheung and Tse at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2011, the year they filed for divorce. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Cheung and Stephen Chow in a still from King of Comedy (1999). Her feature-film debut remains one of her most memorable roles. Photo: The Star Overseas

Cheung and her three sons. Photo: Weibo

Cheung in a photo she posted on her Weibo account in 2023. Photo: Weibo

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

From Bad Bunny singing only in Spanish to Skai Isyourgod rapping in Chinese dialects, language is no longer a barrier to global fandom


From Bad Bunny singing only in Spanish to Skai Isyourgod rapping in Chinese dialects, language is no longer a barrier to global fandom.


Bad Bunny

Spotify

How ‘local’ stars like Bad Bunny show you don’t need to sing in English to be a global hit

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From Bad Bunny singing only in Spanish to Skai Isyourgod rapping in Chinese dialects, language is no longer a barrier to global fandom

From Bad Bunny singing only in Spanish to Skai Isyourgod rapping in Chinese dialects, language is no longer a barrier to global fandom