Originally from New York, the genre of hip hop music expanded beyond America's frontiers and became popular in faraway regions like East Asia. What was special about hip hop’s rise to fame in China, Japan and South Korea was the nationalization of the genre. Hip hop, traditionally an Africa American music, was reshaped to fit each country’s culture and language. Unfortunately, government censorship of rap songs due to their profanity and reference to taboo subjects has threatened the genre’s future development in East Asia. One of the most important founding ideals of hip hop is the right to exercise freedom of speech, and the Japanese, Chinese and Korean government should preserve, not neglect, this value.
The East-Asianization of Hip Hop Music
This op-ed was particularly challenging to write because there were not many available information on hip hop and its popularity in East Asia. As someone who listens to a lot of Asian hip hop music, I knew the genre was popular in the region but I did not know how to support my claims. It is understandable for my readers to question the credibility of my sources since they are not in English. Despite the relative lack of information, I tried my best to back up my arguments using videos, music chart rankings and other op-eds.