‘We were locked into interrogation chairs and they kept the hood on us’: the ‘bad boys’ of China’s rap scene banned from the internet
Straight in at number one on the Chinese government’s banned songs chart is IN3, a trio of brash, tattooed rappers who mix the earthy language of Beijing’s streets with classic hip hop beats. And number two. And three. And so on, down to number 17.
They have played packed houses in Beijing for a decade, but all three were detained after China's culture ministry published the list of 120 songs barred from the internet for “trumpeting obscenity, violence, crime and harming social morality”.
The hard knocks came as China's ruling Communist Party tightens regulation of culture under President Xi Jinping, who has called on artists to “serve socialism”.
We don't want just to criticise society, we want society to progress
IN3 always had a confident swagger, but avoided strictly banned topics such as condemning the Communist Party leadership, preferring to namecheck Nike trainers and PlayStations.
But now they may never be able to perform in their home city again following the online ban.
Their best-known song, Beijing Evening News, third on the government’s list, chronicles the capital’s night life, touching on drunken driving, chasing women and brawls with bar owners.
It also contains broadsides against high medicine costs and school fees, heavy traffic and even poorly soundproofed apartment blocks, topics generally acceptable to state censors.
