China made a shocking move towards the end of January 2018. The government banned hip-hop culture along with tattoos from television.
XXL reports that the ban may not only affect mainstream media. There are widely popular rap reality shows living on the Internet that might slowly diminish. For example, Rap of China, co-produced by Kris Wu, will probably “be pulled off the air as sponsors quickly flee.” Another producer, Billy Koh, stated that the government’s ban is aimed in particular at artists who became famous on the said show. Rap of China gave birth to artist like PG One and Gai, who are now clearly singled out by the Chinese government.
Marcus Rowland, A&R for the Beijing-based Outdustry, told Billboard, “This ban is the government saying what most of us always knew: that the government sees hip-hop as part of low-level society and not appropriate for mainstream audiences.”
Given that China is technically a communist country, which by default is against any form of individualism, perhaps this ban should not be that shocking after all. Possibly, the next move for the rappers is to become underground.