Vava (rapper)

Mao Yanqi was raised in a single parent household[5] after the death of her father.[6] While her mother worked far away from home,[1] her grandmother helped to care for her. At the age of 16 she chose to leave school and focus on developing her talents as a performer.[2] She traveled around performing in local bars near her home in Chengdu.[4] Later, she began to travel around China performing.[4] She met hip-hop producer Double G in Shenzhen city, and joined his team based in Shanghai.[2]

Vava rose to fame from her performance on the first season of the iQiyi television show The Rap of China. This show helped to bring underground rappers into the spotlight.[7] During the season she rapped in both Mandarin and Sichuan dialects.[2] In the second round, she performed “Life’s a Struggle” but changed the lyrics to match her own childhood experiences.[1] She was the only female to reach the top four.[2]

She released her first album “21” on October 6, 2017. One song from the album, "My New Swag" (我的新衣) was featured in the 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians.[8] Vava was also featured in "New World" by Krewella.[9][10] She had a modeling contract with American designer Alexander Wang[6] and the sportswear brand Kappa.[1]

In 2018, the Chinese government blocked hip-hop culture and actors with tattoos from appearing television.[11][12] As a result, VaVa was removed from a television show named Happy Camp.[13] She said being off TV gave her time to focus on making music.[4]

Her second album, "毛衍七", was released on November 6, 2019.[14] VaVa signed with Warner Music China in August, 2019.[3][15]

While Vava was influenced by Rihanna (from Barbados) and Little Simz (From England), her biggest musical influence as a child was Jay Chou.[4] VaVa is a strong advocate for incorporating more Chinese influences in Chinese hip-hop and rap.[4] In her popular song “My New Swag” she used several traditional Chinese instruments: pipa (琵琶), erhu (二胡), suona (唢呐), ban lei (Chinese clave), and gongs.[5] She also incorporated a short piece from a Peking opera, Selling Water, during the bridge,[16] sung by opera singer Wang Qianqian.[17]

Along with other Mainland pop culture figures, VaVa has spoken against pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, stating on her social media pages that she feels that Hong Kong will always be a part of China.[6]