Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Rapper Gai, Style And Hegemony In China: Examining A Transformation From Jianghu Liu To Xinhua Liu, Zhaoxi Liu

Communication Faculty Research

Unlike several studies on rap musicians and the lyrics of their songs, this study examines both obvious and obtuse meaning embedded in the styles of Chinese Rapper, GAI, and their implications for hegemony in his country. Following state censorship, GAI changed his style from that of a gangster to a patriot. On the surface, the style change indicates sustaining the hegemony upheld by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). However, this study argues that the state crackdown on hip hop culture, its styles included, engenders a paradox for hegemony in China.