The Rap that Shaped Wang Yitai

“As a hip-hop creator in the strictest sense, what I should be thinking about isn’t who I want to be but how I want to present myself to the world,” Yitai Wang tells Apple Music. That search for the authentic self through hip-hop permeates the 27-year-old Sichuanese rapper’s origin story. A member of the legendary crew CDC (Chengdu Rap House), Wang shot to headliner status with appearances on the hit TV show Rap of China and the popularity of his track “目不轉睛” (“Can’t Take My Eyes off You”). While Wang welcomed mainstream success, he’s clear on where the breakthroughs occur, whether they be in art or personal growth. “Every successful hip-hop artist ever has been alternative,” Wang says. Like many Chinese rappers, Wang’s earliest memories of hip-hop came from Jay Chou on tracks like “半島鐡盒” (“Peninsula Ironbox”). But his first foray into the greater rap realm was at a local record store, where Wang found an Eminem album. “He was wearing a durag and I was like, ‘Wha? I’ve never seen that look before,’ so I bought it and listened to it.” Things just kept rolling from there. “I listened to Eminem’s old group D12, and then I heard Dr. Dre, then 2Pac, Snoop Dogg, Biggie, Nas, Jay-Z and just kept listening.” Along the way, Wang discovered they all shared a common trait. “It’s not just about having so-called musicality or whatever. It’s about constantly translating what you see and hear from all you live and learn.” Wang was in grade school when he first heard Kanye West in music class and immediately identified with his authenticity. “I think he’s very unique and knows what he wants to do—and who he is.” Through West he learned that creativity hinges on more than just technique. “If you have seen his Sunday Service Choir or his concerts, you’ll find that vocals are not his strength. But he uses Auto-Tune to express his ideas and creativity.” West’s versatility motivated Wang to keep going. “Lots of people will say, ‘Wow, you’re tone-deaf, don’t bother singing.’ Many parents tell their kids, “You don’t have an ear for music so don’t learn it,” Wang says. “But what I got from Kanye is kind of ‘even if I’m tone-deaf, I have my own understanding of this thing and want to express it.’ That courage is also something that I’ve taken with me for a long, long time.” Entering the 2010s, Wang found more mentors in New York rappers Joey Bada$$ and Capital Steez, as well as titans of melodic rap like Drake and Post Malone. “Actually, many of their lyrics tell how they oppose the way the mainstream works and how they stuck with rap, which gave me confidence.” Before long, Wang was writing his own verses and had a high school crew. It was around this time he found Kendrick Lamar, who he credits for demonstrating how hip-hop wields the power to change social consciousness. “Of course, I try to emulate Kendrick and observe the world’s issues as much as possible and expose their true nature for all to see,” Wang says. “This can help a lot of people.” While attending university in the US, Wang discovered Odd Future, where artists such as Tyler, The Creator, Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatshirt united under a new alt hop-hop banner that exposed the more vulnerable sides of teenage life in America. “[Odd Future] represented some very niche ideas, but like I said, a successful hip-hop artist should be alternative.” For Wang, Odd Future set the bar to which all hip-hop crews are measured, including his own—Chengdu Corp. “When everyone in Chengdu Corp is more cohesive in expressing a unified idea, [one that’s] more alternative and differs from things going on abroad, we’ll inspire our audience and those who want to get into this business. It’s not just about being a bunch of cool kids. It’s about creating something richer.” However, Wang feels the “bold and fearless temperament” of American hip-hop doesn’t translate universally. “It’s often unacceptable to Chinese or unacceptable to Asians in general,” he says. He found that missing link in the lo-fi hip-hop of Japanese beatmaker Nujabes, which inspired him to craft his own Eastern aesthetic. “It made me realise I’m also able to do it. This thing is not just an import but a matter of how ‘environment shapes ideas’.” Wang said this also rang true with rappers closer to home like MC Hotdog and Soft Lipa. “I realised that hip-hop has different angles and I found that it has different expressions,” Wang says about Soft Lipa. “So, I realised that hip-hop is not an inherent thing.” Sure-footed in his creative process, Wang took on thought-provoking and abstract subjects such as the passage of time on AIR collab “別怕變老” (“Don’t Be Afraid to Get Old”). “Although that song didn’t hit like ‘阿司匹林’ (‘Aspirin’) and ‘Can’t Take My Eyes off You’, I read a lot of comments saying, ‘This will be my wedding song’ and stuff. This makes me happier. It just makes me feel like I’ve really touched people,” he says. But mainstream success forced him to reexamine his creative ethos. “There’s definitely that pull but it’s more about your inner struggles and compromises. You need to make compromises. After all, artists are just regular people. I need to support my family, right? So, this is an inner struggle, not like, oh, I’m mainstream, I’m a star, I’ve been on a TV show or two so I’m not hip-hop.” As hip-hop’s ascendance in China continues, more pop artists are jumping on the bandwagon. But Wang welcomes the new influx. “Time will filter out those who really love hip-hop and grow it into a sturdy tree,” he says, singling out singer-songwriter-producer LAY among those “injecting a different kind of energy and vitality into hip-hop.” Just as in his own personal journey, these changes are part of hip-hop’s natural evolution. “All of us are just kids growing up with hip-hop—we just have to grow with it and embrace its manifestations just like all the OGs did with the young blood,” Wang says. “It’s like when Snoop said on Facebook that Kendrick Lamar is the ‘new king of the West Coast’. You need this spirit of passing the torch and openness.”