BANGKOK — Chinese-American rapper Bohan Phoenix has straddled both countries during his career. He has collaborated with Chinese rappers such as the popular Higher His Brothers, and he has always interspersed English lyrics with catchy Chinese choruses.
A far cry from the flex-heavy culture of Top 40 rap songs, his latest album, Make You Proud, is a bilingual and heartfelt exploration of the musician’s life. In it, Phoenix hits back at haters who say his Mandarin is bad, his own naivety in the commercialized space of the music industry, and what he is most famous for: China and America. It talks about a two-pronged life. .
Phoenix said the album was a personal challenge. He’s most proud of his first song of the same name, in which he raps about his average grades in China and immigrating to the United States at age 11 over his own repeating piano chords.
“When I was posting on Douyin and Chinese social media, people were saying, ‘His Chinese sounds weird,'” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. The comment reached him. “I felt like it was time to challenge myself as an artist.”
Once he decided to try, the rhyme came naturally. His lyrics often use chenyu (four-letter literary proverbs), unlike Chinese rappers who try to compete with rhyme complexity. Although the content is simple, critics say the vocabulary is easy to read at a third-grade level.
Phoenix said she was satisfied with the results, saying, “This is the first time I’ve ever been able to tell my story so clearly in Chinese.”
For artists who started rapping in English, Chinese was initially just an ornament to the music. However, as she got older, Phoenix said she felt the need to use Chinese and have more exposure to her native language. When he returned to China in 2017, he said, “I couldn’t do a sound check without someone’s help, because I didn’t know how to say certain equipment on stage.”
Although his albums touch on politics, Phoenix says he has never considered himself or his work political. However, the film’s release comes a year after China lifted its strict coronavirus lockdown. Meanwhile, passenger flights were reduced and families remained isolated due to pandemic border controls. Phoenix himself was unable to obtain a visa to return home and see his family for three years.
His music was popular not only with the rise of rap in China, but also with the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted across the United States following the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in May 2020. It touches on the sharp issues raised. On his latest album, “Love for you,” Phoenix apologized to the Higher Brothers, saying he had not spoken out in support of Black Lives Matter.
During that period, Phoenix stated that he felt there was a lack of “accountability” from the Asian rap community, adding, “As Asian rappers who have made a lot of money in black culture, I wish we could be involved and donate money.” It was natural to do that,” he said.
In addition to 88Rising, a label that features Asian hip-hop artists, Phoenix has tapped Higher Brothers and Vava, some of the biggest names in Chinese rap. The label subsequently announced a $60,000 donation to support the Fund Against Racial Inequality.
Phoenix’s criticism caused a rift with Higher Brothers that has not yet healed. The group told Bohan that he should have contacted Bohan personally instead of writing about it online.They also said they did not understand the situation in the United States.
Phoenix, who returned to the United States during the pandemic, donated money and marched in the streets. He also moderated a panel discussion on Asian American support for Black Lives Matter. “Everything felt really urgent,” he said at the time.
Politics and racism rear their heads again as anti-Asian hate crimes spike in the U.S., with highly visible attacks on older Asian Americans in major cities like New York and San Francisco. Ta.
Phoenix said she immediately thought of her mother and feared she would be attacked in New York. He released the song “but I still love you” as part of the campaign #HateIsAVirus, which features people of different ethnicities dancing and singing together. Again, he spoke about Black and Asian solidarity and seeing everyone as human beings first.
“I know I’m not like you, but I still hope you love me,” the crowd sings in the song’s chorus.
Phoenix clearly understands why he does what he does.
“But what I need from music isn’t money or fast cars. When I don’t have anything, music gives me confidence and joy,” he raps on “Love For You.” are doing.
For now, Phoenix is focused on her work in China, in part because she wants to spend time with her grandfather. He still splits his time between the United States and China, and is one of the few artists to perform and captivate audiences in both countries. He seems as confident in Harem as he is in Chengdu.
This spring, Phoenix will be participating in the next season of Rap of China, the popular hip-hop competition show that pushed rap into the mainstream.
For him, China represents possibility.
“For me, in America I’m so confident in my music, but being in China…I always wondered what it would be like to be in New York when hip-hop was just starting,” he said. “For me, that’s what China feels like. It feels like the wild, wild West.”
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