Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Over two years ago, I thought we may have reached the pinnacle in embarrassing Asian hip-hop moments when Chinese rappers shilled government-approved propaganda regarding THAAD. But with the recent Hong Kong protests came new opportunity for rappers to embarrass themselves, and they’ve done just that as the most prominent members in Chinese hip-hop came out in support of the police.
Higher Brothers‘ Melo and DZ Know, PG One, Vava, and After Journey all came out in support, the latter three directly for the police.
A meme calling the protests currently roiling Hong Kong a “shame” blew up the Chinese internet today. The image — which reads “I support Hong Kong police, you can hit me” in traditional Chinese characters, with “What a shame for Hong Kong” written in English underneath — was released this morning at 1:50 AM Beijing time by People’s Daily, China’s largest newspaper and an official paper of the country’s ruling Communist Party.
Rap of China champion PG One, for example, re-posted People Daily’s Weibo this afternoon with the caption: “Support Hong Kong police, resist violent atrocities!!! I hope everyone is safe and secure!” Another Rap of China star, VaVa, posted the meme to her 253,000 Instagram followerwith the English caption: “Hong Kong is part of China forever.”
Yet another famous-because-of-TV rapper, After Journey, joined the fray as well, ‘gramming the image with the caption (in Chinese): “Compatriots, remember this day, remember this moment.” Less directly, two members of what is arguably Chinese rap’s hottest overseas export, Higher Brothers, shared images of China’s national flag on their Instagram accounts this afternoon. Melo from the Sichuan trap group shared the flag with the English caption “Once again.I’m proud i’m a Chinese.”, later responding to a commenter in Chinese (and Sichuan-dialect slang), “Hong Kong has been part of China’s territory since ancient times, you dumbasses should recognize your ancestors and origins”. Three hours later, fellow Higher Brother DZ Know shared the same image with the Chinese caption “send me a [Chinese flag emoji],” promptly followed up with a comment (also in Chinese) reading, “China first [fire emoji]”.
Of course, this doesn’t even include those who are more on the idol side of things like Kris, Tao, and Jackson.
Still, it was CD Rev who came through with an actual song.
Folks, nothing more hip-hop than supporting the police and the authoritarian government.
Note: Though they employ many of the same predictable whataboutism arguments and what not, they still may not be as bad as the conspiracy theory tankies, who yell at people on Twitter while left-leaning publications seem to … well, actually understand what’s going on.
Anyway, while we (rightfully) made fun of iKON‘s Bobby for what he thought hep-hap was, this is like on a whole other level of shit that these rappers have accomplished.
