88rising is bringing its flagship Head in the Clouds music festival to Guangzhou, but it’ll have to navigate the risks of delicate geopolitical tensions and historic censoriousness.
, which first aired in 2017. “This kind of mainstream popularity,” says Wang, “confirmed that Chinese hip-hop can exist in forms that are suitable for Chinese audiences as well as compatible with Chinese culture.”
But it wasn’t immediately compatible with the Chinese Communist Party. Two of the program’s winners were. Wang Hao, who went by the stage name PG One, was lambasted for his “lewd lyrics” and “low-taste content,” and he has since struggled to make a comeback. Zhou Yan, known as GAI, was abruptly pulled from another popular television show in 2018 amid the state’s crackdown on hip-hop.
Members of the rap group Higher Brothers perform at the Head in the Clouds festival in Los Angeles in 2018.These issues aren’t new to 88rising. “Every market has its approval process,” Wong, the part-management, part-marketing company’s China president, tells TIME. “We cannot just copy and paste what’s happening in the U.S. or globally … into the Chinese market. We need to respect the local audience.
In 2018, Chinese social media users started accusing 88rising of being anti-Chinese and supporting the Tibet independence movement, after the Tibetan flag was reportedly included in the company’s early promotional material. In response to the backlash,, CEO Miyashiro dialed down the marketing strategy for a single that was soon to release, deciding that it “wasn’t worth the potential drama.”
Artists linked to the label have also previously made adjustments to avoid ruffling feathers, not just in Beijing. Rich Brian changed his stage name, which used to be Rich Chigga, in 2018 amid
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