On March 4, the legendary Sichuan rap crew Chengdu Corp (CDC) released the group’s 2022 ‘cypher,’ a hip hop term referring to a gathering of rappers making music together (for those not in the know).
The two-part, 16-minute-long cypher features high-profile rappers such as members of Higher Brothers, the controversial rapper Boss X, aka Xiedi, and Wang Yitai, who made a name for himself by competing on the hit show Rap of China.
Image via Chengdu Corp’s official Weibo account
Similar to CDC’s 2020 cypher, Higher Brothers frontman Masiwei led the track, showing his pride for the Sichuan rap collective by spitting fiery lyrical bombs like: “CDC led the game. All the enemies RIP.”
Despite an absence from the 2020 cypher, Boss X returns this year and is the last to rap in the first part of the sequence.
Perhaps as an intended twist, Boss X and Masiwei reverse roles in the second part of the cypher (which features an instrumental version of Mobb Deep’s iconic “Shook Ones, Pt. II”), as the former opens the second track and Masiwei takes the final verse.
CDC’s new release was trending on Weibo, and its related hashtag had accumulated more than 240 million views at the time of writing.
Fans on Weibo wrote to show their support for the cypher, with one comment reading, “I got goosebumps when KnowKnow started to rap.”
Similarly, under CDC’s official Weibo, another commented, “This is what a cypher should look like!”
Cover image: screengrab via YouTube
