TIBETAN singer Zahi Bing Zo gave a brilliant performance rapping in the Tibetan language at the second season of Sing! China, the Chinese reality talent search show, in 2017.
TIBETAN singer Zahi Bing Zo gave a brilliant performance rapping in the Tibetan language at the second season of Sing! China, the Chinese reality talent search show, in 2017. The performance wowed the judges, one of whom was renowned Chinese pop singer Jay Chou who was mesmerized, and exclaimed that “rapping in Tibetan language is so powerful!”
Between Dreams and Reality
The word “hip-hop” originated in the late 1970s and became very popular in the early 1980s. This music genre is characterized by a rhyming speech that is chanted along melodic beats in sync with the pace of the vocal delivery. It focuses on stress, sentence structures, and flows. The Tibetan language adapts well to rapping due to the way sentences can be modulated in speech and stress in it with shifting tonal inflections.
In the daily life of monks in Tibetan monasteries, the debate on Buddhists’ understanding of religious doctrines looks like freestyle rapping to outsiders. When expressing their own ideas, the monks usually pace back and forth in open spaces or in the shade of trees, clapping hands that have prayer beads intertwined with them, and their speech is rhythmic. The scene is similar in some ways to a rap performance.
Tibetan hip-hop singers write a large proportion of songs on the local people and their folklife. Tibetan rapper Losang Jigme (stage name Mr. Jin) used to study at a college in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province. His song Mama Made Butter Tea was popular among other students from Tibet.
More than a decade has gone by since the birth of Tibetan hip-hop. Like many of his peers, Mr. Jin is influenced by Enimem and 2pac, two legendary American rappers. His songs went viral online recently for their catchy melodies and intelligible lyrics. Mr. Jin said that most of his inspiration comes from his own life as well as the joys and sorrows of other ordinary people.
This story is from the January 2019 edition of China Today (English).
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This story is from the January 2019 edition of China Today (English).
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