The Rap of China
The Rap of China, formerly known as, is a Chinese rap competition show produced by iQiyi. The show was carried out in the form of three groups of producers Kris Wu, Will Pan, MC HotDog and Chang Chen-yue judging the performance of the participating students, and received great attention. In the end, after fierce competition among players and difficult choices of producers, China's hip-hop first season produced two annual championships, GAI and PG ONE.
On April 9, 2018, the official Weibo of "The Rap of China 2" was launched. On May 17, the instructor of the second season confirmed that in addition to the original Kris Wu, Will Pan, MC HotDog and Chang Chen-yue in the first season, there would also be the newly added G.E.M., which was broadcast on July 14, 2018.
Episodes
Series overview
Season 1 (2017)
The first episode of season one of The Rap of China aired on 24 June 2017. The producers were Canadian rapper Kris Wu, Taiwanese-American singer Will Pan, Taiwanese rapper MC HotDog and Taiwanese rock musician Chang Chen-yue. Notable rappers such as HipHopMan, Tizzy T, PG One, BrAnTB, Jony J, After Journey, VAVA, GAI, Bridge, Ty. and others participated in this season. The finals were competed between the top three contestants PG One, GAI and After Journey as well as Jony J, who was resurrected from his earlier elimination. PG One and GAI were announced joint winners after the final round of voting ended up in a draw.Rounds
Round One : Open auditions were held in Beijing. Rappers would rap without music and if the producers liked it, they would hand the rapper a chain that indicates that they move on to the next round.Round Two : Contestants that passed would be given 60 seconds each to present their prepared rap to the producers. They only need one producer to pass for them to move on; however, if all the producers fail them, they would be eliminated.
Round Three : Contestants draw a name from a hat to pick their temporary team. Each team takes a turn to freestyle to a beat on a topic that their producer chose. If they don’t get the microphone in the time permitted or their rap is deemed not good enough, they are chosen for elimination.
Round Four : Based on their assessment in the previous round, the contestants chose an opponent to battle against. They choose a beat and create a song together that is performed. When they battle, producers vote on who was better and the loser is eliminated. The 20 contestants who were eliminated in the 1 vs 1 battles return and each producer team chooses one rapper to return.
Round Five : Each producer team performs in front of the contestants and an audience who votes for their favorite. From the votes, the judges earn chances to select rappers to form teams. The producers sit on one side of the doors and contestants enter from the opposite room. If both the producer and contestant stand at the door, the contestant makes it into that producer's team. If not, they will still have a chance at being chosen later on. Each team can have up to 5 members.
Round Six : Each team has a short amount of time after selection to create a team song to a chosen beat. They perform in front of an audience that votes for the member that they think did the worst. That member is then eliminated.
Round Seven : Once again, each team creates a team song; however, they perform for just the producers this time around. The producer of each team chooses a member to eliminate from their team.
Round Eight : A mainstream artist is invited on the show and assesses a member from each team. Both separately perform a prepared song. Representatives from media companies vote on their performances. If the contestant wins, they immediately advance to the top 6. The producers and their teams create a song together and perform it for the audience. The team with the most votes can save a member while the second team is up for elimination. The last team is forced to immediately eliminate one member.
Round Nine : The top 6 are drawn against one another to each perform a song. Renowned music producers then vote on which contestant was better in each battle. The 3 losing contestants battle against each other and 2 are eliminated.
Round Ten : The 4 contestants team up with a guest singer for a performance. The 2 rappers with the lowest votes compete against each other and one is eliminated.
Round Eleven : The remaining 3 rappers as well as one resurrected rapper perform to a live audience. Votes decides who moves on until there are only 2 rappers left. The final 2 contestants each perform a song and the winner is decided by a combination of votes from invited peers and the producers.
| Rapper | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 | Round 7 | Round 8 | Round 9 | Round 10 | Finale |
| PG One | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | CO-WINNER |
| GAI | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | CO-WINNER |
| After Journey | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | ELIMINATED |
| Jony J | PASS | PASS | PASS | ELIMINATED | REVIVED | ELIMINATED | |||||
| VAVA | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | ELIMINATED | |
| Tizzy T | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | ELIMINATED | ||
| Huang Xu | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | ELIMINATED | - | |
| BrAnTB | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | ELIMINATED | - | - | |
| Bridge | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | ELIMINATED | |||
| HipHopMan | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | ELIMINATED | ||||
| Gui Bian | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | ELIMINATED | ||||
| OBi & M03 | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | ELIMINATED | |||||
| Sun Bayi | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | ELIMINATED | |||||
| BCW | PASS | PASS | PASS | PASS | ELIMINATED | - | |||||
| Ty. | PASS | ELIMINATED |
| Producer Team | Rapper |
| Team Kris Wu | PG One |
| Team Kris Wu | Tizzy T |
| Team Kris Wu | BrAntB |
| Team Kris Wu | HipHopMan |
| Team Kris Wu | OB03 |
| Team Will Pan | VAVA |
| Team Will Pan | Bridge |
| Team Will Pan | Li Daben |
| Team Will Pan | Gui Bian |
| Team Will Pan | Hu Xu |
| Team MC HotDog & Chang Chen-yue | GAI |
| Team MC HotDog & Chang Chen-yue | After Journey |
| Team MC HotDog & Chang Chen-yue | Huang Xu |
| Team MC HotDog & Chang Chen-yue | Sena |
| Team MC HotDog & Chang Chen-yue | Sun Bayi |
Annual Ranking
- GAI and PG ONE tied for the championship.
- Jony J entered the finals as a non-card and won the third runner-up in the year
- VAVA is the top four player of the year produced by the main game system, but unfortunately, she lost to Jony J in the wild card game.
Promotion
Season 2 (2018)
The first episode of season two of The Rap of China aired on 14 July 2018. The producers were Canadian rapper Kris Wu, Taiwanese-American singer Will Pan, Hong Kong singer G.E.M., Taiwanese rapper MC HotDog and Taiwanese rock musician Chang Chen-yue. Open auditions were held outside of mainland China for the first time in Los Angeles, Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur. Notable rappers such as Manshuke, Wang Yitai, KungFu-Pen, Lexie Liu, Vinida, Nick Chou, Li Jialong, Al Rocco, Nawukere, ICE and others participated in this season. The finals were competed between the top three contestants Nawukere, ICE and Lexie Liu as well as Aire, who was resurrected from his earlier elimination. Aire defeated Nawukere in the final round of voting and was named champion.| Producer Team | Rapper |
| Team Kris Wu | Nawukere |
| Team Kris Wu | Wang Yitai |
| Team Kris Wu | Blow Fever |
| Team Kris Wu | Al Rocco |
| Team Kris Wu | Manshuke |
| Team Will Pan & G.E.M. | Aire |
| Team Will Pan & G.E.M. | ICE |
| Team Will Pan & G.E.M. | Nick Chou |
| Team Will Pan & G.E.M. | Wang Qiming |
| Team Will Pan & G.E.M. | Yang Hesu |
| Team MC HotDog & Chang Chen-yue | Lexie Liu |
| Team MC HotDog & Chang Chen-yue | KungFu-Pen |
| Team MC HotDog & Chang Chen-yue | PACT |
| Team MC HotDog & Chang Chen-yue | Ma Jun |
| Team MC HotDog & Chang Chen-yue | Jason |