Gen Z Rapper Lows0n: “I Started Learning Music in the Womb”

From humble origins, as pirated American hip hop arrived on dakou CDs in the late ’90s, through the DIY, Iron Mic and battle-rap-heavy days of the mid-to-late 2000s, Chinese hip hop has bloomed into a gold rush in recent years. 

Today, groups like the Higher Brothers sell out international tours, backed by an increasingly viable commercial industry. Following the explosive popularity of the first two seasons of iQIYI series The Rap of China, and the proliferating effect of social media, terms such as “rap,” “freestyle,” and “skr” have effectively been cemented into the lexicon of modern Chinese youth.

Now whenever you look up, there seems to be an ever-expanding field of rappers, no longer limited by age or proximity to first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Many among the “Post-95” (95后) generation of artists — those born in or after 1995 — share the genre-agnostic approach of their predecessors, but unlike the generation which preceded them, hail from lesser-known third- and fourth-tier cities. The 95后 class has grown up with a variety of global influences fueled by the rapid development of social media.

The result has been a generation that came of age during a cultural zeitgeist defined by rap.

At first listen, Xiamen-based Lows0n sounds like if a J-Pop artist jumped into the Chinese rap game — not super technically sound, but playful, inventive and highly collaborative. She’s an example of a new wave of artists not limiting their craft to sound, but rather tying together a unique range of influences (for Lows0n: prenatal music, supermarkets, and shaved eyebrows).

RADII: To start, how did you come up with the name Lows0n?

Lows0n: This is a Sino-Japanese-English compound word that Chinese people, Japanese people, and English-speaking people all can’t understand. It was originally a pronunciation, as my Chinese name is Lu, and in Japanese is Low-san, which has the same meaning as “Young Lu.” Afterwards, I wanted to use a full English name, so I changed the pronunciation of “low-san” to lowson. The Chinese-English translation has the meaning of “low son” — in Chinese it literally means a “low” son. Later , as I gradually established my personal musical style, I changed the O in son to -, and now it’s changed form again to lows0n, with the “0” meaning no low frequency.

You’re from Fujian province, right? How did you start getting interested in music?

I’m from Fujian. I started learning music in the womb. Listening to music has a natural groove, it’s probably genetic….

Your music sounds at times like children’s music, vaporwave, trap, and rap. How would you describe your sound? What inspires your sound the most?

“No frequency” is my signature sound, zhengtai* without too much of the feminine. The inspiration for my sound comes from my genes — sound’s natural attributes are just this way.

*(Note: Zhengtai 正太 = a young, cute boy).

You’ve called yourself “Neon Genesis Child Evangelion,” in reference to the Japanese anime, and you stand out as much for your visual style as your music. You wore all green for a year, have shaved eyebrows, and often use PhotoShop to create your own multimedia animations. Tell me about what the concept of “geek” means to you, and your relationship between multimedia art and your overall artistic practice.

My understanding of “geek” is that there’s no way to treat it ordinarily. It’s not necessarily advanced or low-level, but is often another kind of existence. Such groups of people [as geeks] can give life creative motion. Vision is the most intuitive form of communication — my appearance is a way of communicating my spirit. My creations come from my life, my life has created me, and I’ve created my life’s work. Visual presentation is the most effective, most direct, and most complete transmission for human work.

To check out the full interview with Lows0n, hit "Read more" at the bottom of this message.

Cover photo courtesy TeaHaus.

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