How Nostalgia and Cantonese Disco Gave this Rapper a Viral Hit

In this year’s series of hit hip hop reality show Rap of China, quite a few young rappers received public recognition through performing their polished skills or catchy flows on the show. But if you ask who is popular now, a while after the show ended, Gem, an OG from northeastern China, will definitely make most people’s lists.

He made little impact on the show initially, but was voted back by netizens as part of the “resurrection round.” His 2017 vaporwave track “Ye Lang Disco (Wild Wolf Disco)” that he performed didn’t help him get into the Rap of China finale, but has now been played and used on Douyin/Tik Tok 1.38 billion times (as of September 13), and is still among the most-searched songs across all music streaming platforms.

Gem and his high-school friend Ganana started a crew named Zen in 2005, then teamed up with Huan, Nudol, Fly’in Dog as Wu Ren Zu/Quinpal Squad in 2007, and finally built an underground label 吾人文化Quinpal Squad Culture in 2009, dropping their first album in 2011. Since then, however, the label has been through its ups and downs, especially when Gem moved to Chengdu in 2013.

These challenges continued until the summer of 2017, when Gem saw the potential for hip hop music during the first season of Rap of China, as well as the power of social media where his video post imitating 20 rappers attracted tens of thousands of followers. He put all of his life observations from China’s “Rust Belt” as well as his accumulated music experiences into his 2017 EP Your Uncle hoping his music could be heard by a larger audience.

“Ye Lang Disco” was one of the songs on this album. The track has not only gone viral among Tik Tok users, but also has been discussed by fellow rappers and professionals, including music critics and even the Shanghai Conservatory of Music’s official Weibo account.

The track might sound like an out-of-date disco song to the first-time listener, but when digging into the Cantonese hook and detailed description of a club from ‘90s, it’s sparked waves of nostalgia and touches on a bigger socio-economic picture — when Hong Kong pop music was trendiest and the city defined “modernity” for many on the Chinese mainland. Plus, there are also elements of livestreaming in local dialect which is exceptionally popular in northeastern China.

Gem previously worked as a manager in a shopping mall and before this summer wasn’t able to make a living from his music. Now with countless dance/song covers throughout the Chinese internet and obviously a lot more performance opportunities and sponsorship, hopefully he will create more vaporwave tracks featuring aspects of the northeastern Chinese lifestyle that have been long forgotten by many in the country.

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