Playing Underground:
Hong Kong’s lesser-known independent music scene
Hong Kong rapper Luna is A Bep is cool with not being the typical “cool” girl
Juggling music-making with a desk-bound 9-5 job, the female rapper is embracing gender-based criticisms and a “Just Do It!” mentality.
By Stephanie Ma
Music video by Luna is A Bep performing “#BoyishGirls”. © Luna is A Bep.
Track by Luna is A Bep performing “Everybody’s Sleepy”. © Luna is A Bep.
Nearly two years ago, on her commute to work, Luna Lee took a photo of four tired people who fell asleep on the train, posted the snap to her Instagram, and captioned it with four rhyming sentences.
Distilling her personal narratives on overtime work into the caption - a common problem amongst Hong Kong’s high-function workforce, Ms. Lee expanded the verses, turned it into a two-minute upbeat, groovy, old-school style hip hop song, and released it onto Youtube under the encouragement of her friends.
In her debut track, titled “Everybody’s Sleepy”, she muses:
“Everybody’s Sleepy”
Everybody's sleepy in this sick city
It might be because they worked overtime
Or it might be because they had sex before bed
I have told myself many times to give hip hop a go
But I need to be smart with it
Because this society is all about making money
I love music, I’ve got the rhythm in me since I was small
Writing lyrics makes me happy
No matter how many people make fun of me
I’m doing nothing wrong
No one can stop me from doing what I love
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Translated by Stephanie Ma
“Everybody's sleepy” marked Hong Kong rapper Luna Lee’s, aka Luna is A Bep (a typo, she explained, intending to call herself “Bitch”), early beginnings in the city's fledging hip hop industry.
But what started as a passion project for the 24-year-old, who graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a degree in Chinese Language and now works full-time at a media company, became a side hustle when she dropped “#Boyish Girls”. The funky track taking a satirical aim at social labelling on social media was released - also onto Youtube in 2018.
“I realised I don’t really need to come from a certain background in order to make music, I can just use the Internet or get help from my friends,” she said.
Although Ms. Lee did not learn music theory as a child, she found an instant kinship with lyrical composition. But with a lack of professional training in singing, she said, she decided to foray into rapping instead.
Composing, producing and distributing music from home, Hong Kong female rapper Luna Lee, aka Luna is A Bep is the epitome of a new generation of “bedroom” rappers to slowly emerge from Hong Kong’s male-dominated hip hop scene. Photo courtesy of Luna Lee.
Track by Luna is A Bep performing “Harvest Feat. Lil’ Por aka Chan Kin-por ”. © Luna is A Bep.
Having listened only to Cantonese pop before producing rap songs, she frequents websites that sell hip hop beats and rap instrumentals for the base melody of her songs - or at other times, collaborate with other creators in the scene to produce it.
“On top of that, you just add your own lyrics. Everyone can do it,” she added, attributing the wide variety of hip hop beats available on the Internet for making her musical style “one-of-a-kind”.
“I want to try my hand out at different styles first because I am so already exposed to different genres of hip hop on the Internet,” she continued, “I don’t want to be defined by a certain kind of style."
Ms. Lee’s music gained further traction in 2019 when she released “Harvest Feat. Lil’ Por aka Chan Kin-por”. The song, a funky musical censure, panned pro-establishment lawmaker Chan Kin-por for blaming Hong Kong’s anti-government protesters on destroying social stability and order.
“Harvest Feat. Lil’ Por aka Chan Kin-por”
The worst thing about [the Hong Kong protests] is that it’s my harvest period now
Don’t mess up Hong Kong or my harvest period
I have worked so hard for this harvest period
Even if the heaven and earth fell, the only thing that matters is my harvest period
You stopped caring when you got rich
You faked listening when we raised our grievances
I can’t keep track of the protests I have attended
Hong Kong is in deep water
But you’re treating this as if it’s a game of chess
Stop telling people you’re embracing the Spirit of Lion Rock
Yeah, what an achievement it is for you to escape poverty after living in public housing
In 2019, no matter how hard young people work
They still can’t afford to buy property
How can you still make fun of the situation and stir up dispute?
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Translated by Stephanie Ma
In February this year, she dropped “I want to go away down”, a two-minute eccentric, video game music-esque song depicting life in Hong Kong as the city grippled with a public shortage of surgical masks amidst the global coronavirus pandemic.
Dancing against the backdrop of several Internet memes that were projected onto a giant white canvas to poke fun at local authorities’ handling of the epidemic in a music video, she raps:
“I want to go away down”
I want to get away and forget about the world
I want to get away and forget about the world
I want to get away and forget about the world
I want to get away and forget about the world
I want to get away but I don’t have enough face masks
I want to buy face masks but local pharmacies have made them so expensive
You’re right, we have so much freedom in Hong Kong
So free that it’s allowing some to make profit off the pandemic
(This is so stupid)
Translated by Stephanie Ma
Track by Luna is A Bep performing “I Want To Go Away Down”. © Luna is A Bep.
Music video by Luna is A Bep performing “I Want To Go Away Down”. © Luna is A Bep.
Known for her oddball sense of humour, a retro 90s bubblegum video aesthetic, and goofy yet grounded lyrics expressing the hardships of living in the city, Ms. Lee is the epitome of a new generation of emerging “bedroom” female rappers to slowly rise in Hong Kong’s male-dominated hip hop scene, without the support of a major music record label.
Her music, light-hearted, refreshing tunes with strong electric vibes that is usually recorded at her home/studio in the industrial burb of Kwun Tong , takes a drastically different note from the angsty Cantonese rap songs tackling socio-political issues that helped define the scene since the 1990s.
“I’m not your typical cool girl rapper,” she laughed.
But having emerged in the industry for only two years yet already amassed a host of viral hits under her belt, Ms. Lee said, critics have pointed her standing-out as a female rapper in Hong Kong's male-dominated hip hop scene as the reason for her success.
“One of my friends said people are only listening to my songs because I’m in a female rapping circle that is mostly men,” she recalled.
“He would tease me: “People just think you’re cute. Male rappers won’t generate this much buzz if they had put out the songs that you did”.
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Pioneered in the principally African-American economically-depressed Bronx Borough of New York City in the late 1970s, hip hop has long kept a supermacho narrative underpinned by the concept of black masculinity.
From rap lyrics to music videos, the subgenre usually ditties about cars, bling bling and sex. Critics have pointed out that it depicts unequal gender roles, as women were typically given a binary gendered space - either glorified as the male artist’s “queen” to be respected or degraded as the sexually available “hoe” to be used for pleasure.
Although she was worried about the gender stereotypes in rap lyrics before going into hip hop, as a cultural export from America, Ms. Lee said, Hong Kong’s hip hop scene is more accepting of female rappers.
“The stereotype of misogyny and aggression in American rap does not apply to Hong Kong because we don’t live that lifestyle,” she said. “I only rap about things I have personally experienced”.
With several viral hit songs under her belt within two years of making and releasing music on online platforms, Ms. Lee said critics have pointed her standing-out as a female rapper as the reason for her success. Photo courtesy of Luna Lee.
“I don’t want to be defined by a certain kind of style”.
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Luna Lee, aka Luna is A Bep
Since hip hop music is still considered non-mainstream in Hong Kong’s sappy love song-dominated music market, local rappers don’t really make that much money to live and create music based on that lifestyle, said rapper Tommy Lam, aka “Tommy Grooves”.
“Hong Kong’s hip hop audience also generally gravitate towards songs that are relatable and grounding, because our cultural background is so different from the African-American youths that developed the genre in the first place,” said rapper Future, also known as Genius F the Future, who doesn’t want to reveal his surname for privacy reasons after taking a career reroute in January this year.
Ms. Lee said, as a female rapper, her vocal range imposes limitations on the range of music that she can do.
“I can’t do angsty songs because as a female, my voice is naturally high-pitched and I am not able to show the anger inside through rap. I ended up sounding like a teenage boy”.
Although she has been criticized for purposefully pitching her voice lower in rap songs, rapper and singer Vinnie Chan said the hip hop scene in Hong Kong is generally welcome of female rappers. Photo by Stephanie Ma.
The same goes for female rapper and singer Vinnie Chan, 23, also known as VNY Chan, who said she has to purposefully rap with a deeper voice in order to fit into traditional hip hop aesthetics.
“But people criticize me for being unnatural and pretentious in my songs,” she continued, “And they tell me it’s weird for girls, especially for Asian females, to do hip hop because our voice is naturally high-pitched and soft, so we don’t fit into the fierce yet feminine ideal of successful female rap legends in America like Nicki Minaj and Missy Elliot”.
However, she said, unlike American hip hop’s supermacho overtone, female rappers are typically welcomed in the scene in Hong Kong because they throw in a wow factor to musical lineups.
In Hong Kong, female rappers are able to bring in a wider audience in music events where the musical lineup is usually dominated by male rappers, says rapper Kiki Tam. Photo by Stephanie Ma.
Female rappers create more buzz in Hong Kong’s music events, added rapper Kiki Tam, who joined the scene in 2012 as the first female rapper to be signed by a record label.
“From personal experience, I don’t think there’s any prejudice targeted towards female rappers in Hong Kong,” she said, “Somehow we create more buzz and attract a wider audience because we bring in a refreshing sound to the performance when the lineup is usually dominated by male-rappers”.
Although Ms. Lee admitted that she is still navigating gender-based criticisms, for now, she has decided to embrace standing out as a female rapper in the industry.
“I don’t want to give into gender-based comments because this will mean that I am confessing to myself as well that my audience only listen to my songs just because I am a woman. But I don't consider myself an idol, or a pretty girl at all."
“I look at it from a different perspective now, and I’ll only say that I’m special because my life is so different from people my age”, she laughed and said.
“ I’ll only say that I’m special because my life is so different from people my age”.
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Luna Lee, aka Luna is A Bep
Although Ms. Lee is still deciding on how she should handle gender-based criticisms, but for now, she says she will embrace standing out as a female rapper. Photo courtesy of Luna Lee.
Her audience, Ms. Lee said, is accepting of her goofy music and personality.
“The criticism I receive is mostly targeted on my ability, instead of my gender. I feel like I’m very lucky because the scene, also my family and friends are supportive of what I do”.
Although Ms. Lee said she still has a lot to learn, her message to a new generation of “bedroom” musicians is perhaps already loud and clear, that is:
“just do it”.