An Interview With the Viral Hong Kong Rapper Fotan Laiki
The year 2017 saw the first time a Hong Kong hip-hop song went viral. Titled “Fotan Laiki” after its featuring artist Fotan Laiki, it amassed over 3 million views and though in retrospect the numbers seem small, it was a huge deal for Hong Kong’s music scene.
Photography by @kiukayee
The region has a rich culture and complex history, and though it’s ranked as one of the most developed and densely populated cities, its underground youth community is relatively compact. But, in this pre-COVID era, the music video going viral meant a lot to its fans and artists riding the same wave. Behind this was the rapper and DJ Fotan Laiki [@fotanlaiki], in collaboration with local rappers Takeem [@yungtakeem] and YoungQueenz [@youngqueenz]. This was an extremely similar phenomenon to the uproar of the viral Korean-Japanese rap song It G Ma in 2015, just different in scale, but just as meaningful to the East Asian scene.
sabukaru had the rare opportunity to connect with Fotan Laiki. Though it seems like she’s another one-hit-wonder from afar, it’s thanks to her perseverance and courage to stand out that led to many changes in this subgenre. Being a woman in the heavily male-dominated Hong Kong hip-hop scene, she had to push back feelings of alienation and be her biggest advocate.
Photography by @freedomgum
Rap culture is fairly new to the region, though heavily consumed by the younger generation. However, themes of rebellion, criticism against political systems, drug usage, and a hedonistic lifestyle are extremely frowned upon, if not entirely illegal. The chances of making it as a rapper are slim, and end up at zero if one doesn’t expand to the mainland, where hip-hop is seen in a better light, thanks to reality TV shows and celebrities. Laiki took a huge risk when jumping into this genre, where she could be harshly punished by censorship laws.
Photography by @oscarchik
Coincidentally, the song “Fotan Laiki” was the first song ever made by her. The artist opened up about how she never considered a career on this path until it came about naturally, like an inevitable snowballing effect. But thanks to this, Laiki is today a well-respected artist in Hong Kong. Her newest release is an EP titled TEARMISU, which denotes her artistic progression towards a more vulnerable perspective, making a point to change up her ways and also weave new webs in the Hong Kong music scene.
Courtesy of @fotanlaiki
Please introduce yourself to the sabukaru network.
I’m Kiki! People know me as Fotan Laiki. I’m from Hong Kong and I’ve been working on music for 5 years.
Were you always interested in making music?
Not really. I listened to hip-hop and stuff because that was the time when Yung Lean was putting out his first songs, like Kyoto, and even earlier songs. Then I was like, “Oh shit, that sounds so sick” because I wasn’t a big hip-hop fan back then, but I liked new wave hip-hop and rappers, like Yung Lean and stuff. Then I got into trap for a little bit and I liked how they were expressing themselves, and I found that I can get their vibe, more than other kinds of music, like bands.
Photography by @mmeiyeung
I used to listen to bands all the time in high school but I didn’t really think about doing music and stuff. Growing up, it was always in the background, just listening to a lot of stuff, and before going to parties, I would go to band shows all the time. I loved to explore music.
How did your first-ever song and biggest hit, “Fotan Laiki”, come about?
[In 2017], my friend YoungQueenz had to go to a festival to perform and he came up to me like, “Maybe we can do a song together and you can come on the stage with me and just hype the whole set”. That was the original idea, and we worked it out. That song is with Takeem, YoungQueenz, and I. Basically, it was only for the festival, so I wasn’t thinking about the future, and at that point like, I don’t even think we had the music video yet. The time the song came out, it was at the festival. Then after that, it seemed like people really liked, it so we planned a lot more, like doing a video and posting a lot more. It went crazy at that point! I didn’t really have an idea of what I wanted to be.
When you posted your first song “Fotan Laiki” in 2017, you received a lot of attention from the media. That year must’ve been huge for you.
Yes, yes, yes! Because suddenly, one day, everybody recognized me and was really interested in me. At that point, I met a lot of people, doing different interviews and stuff. It was fun.
It was kind of [a big change] because I was 22 years old, and the whole thing has changed so much for me, like suddenly meeting so many people, everybody talking to you, and honestly, I felt very overwhelmed, I was like a little bit stressed.
The Hong Kong hip-hop scene is pretty small. I think also, as a woman, you stand out.
Yep. I mean, the Hong Kong hip-hop scene is so small, especially for girls. It’s a little bit tough being a girl and doing all this stuff because the rap circle can get pretty [focused on] “boy stuff”, but it’s cool, it’s fun because I have some really good friends, like Takeem, and we’re always having fun together.
Your newest drop is your EP TEARMISU. Your style really evolved from trap to a more cyber-sentimental style. Can you tell us more about it?
Yes! [It sounds different] because I wasn’t releasing my own solo stuff, and, as I said, hip-hop started as something really random for me. I love it, I listen to a lot of trap, but I still like listening to different stuff to get inspired, so this EP is more personal. I know people love me doing all this trap stuff and I really enjoy it, but I wanted to try some other stuff too.
Photography by @meiemeiemei
This EP is more talking about my personal feelings because the traps songs [I made] are more about hanging out, turning up, friends, all this stuff, but this one was during the Covid-19 time, not knowing what to do because we couldn’t go perform, and it just made me feel stuck in the moment. At that point, my mental [state] wasn’t too good, so I would get into really shit situations, making myself feel really bad. I was working on music to make myself a little bit better, and that’s why this EP came out and sounded so sentimental.
Photography by @meiemeiemei
During the Covid-19 time, nobody could go outside. Covid-19 just started and people were really afraid and just locked themselves at home. Even I was not going out though I’m a person who’s very outgoing, and I also was moving into an industrial building with not many windows around, so it was depressing.
Your EP is titled TEARMISU, which sounds like “tiramisu”, and I’ve also heard you like baking. What are your inspirations?
Yes! That’s my hobby. TEARMISU is like tiramisu, so, yes, that was my inspiration.
I was influenced by the Berlin scene because all my friends like doing different, experimental stuff. I like Shygirl, she's so good, Charlie XCX, and more underground SoundCloud singers or rappers. I like something catchy.
Where do you feel your style is going?
Now, I'm partying less because, in Hong Kong, there's nowhere to party. It’s not a big thing to me anymore because back then I took so many references from the club. Recently, I've been working on projects that are more chill, with 90s sounds, and like, softer. Personally, I was thinking I want to do an album, but I want every side of me and find a good balance with the album. I think rap is still one of the biggest things of my identity so I will definitely be putting it inside the album, but I will be exploring other sounds too, like Tohji’s stuff. I like artists [like Tohji], they are rapping but using more interesting samples to do the music.
Photography by @mmeiyeung
You’re putting Hong Kong on the map of international music. What do you think is so unique about the Hong Kong hip-hop scene, and do you think it clashes with its culture?
Hong Kong is such a small city compared to mainland China. You can recognize some local artists who are known at an international level. I feel so lucky to have some way to get connected to people outside, but most of the people who are working in music in Hong Kong are in the local circle. Sometimes, Hong Kong hip-hop sounds a little bit strange to me because Hong Kong Cantonese is a very hard language to do songs with. There are too many tones so it's not as easy compared to Mandarin or English.
Photography by @freedomgum
We have some real popstars too, that’s why I feel like hip-hop in Hong Kong is still an underground thing, even if many young people listen to it. It’s not like in China: you can see rappers from China in some entertainment shows, and right now, hip-hop is a big thing in China because they are putting it into the mainstream.
Yes, it clashes with the culture, but I still see people doing it their way. The hip-hop and trap culture of Hong Kong is not so matched with Hong Kong’s culture, so it feels like most people just don't really like hip-hop; Hong Kong is too small so there's only a group of people who listen to us but it's not big enough. For example, YoungQueenz and even I have so many fans from the mainland but we’re at a very weird place because we’re trapped in the middle of the West and China, like in the middle of these two cultures.
Do you like Hong Kong?
Yes! When I was young I didn’t really like it. I was born in Hong Kong, but I lived in Shenzhen. I kept on moving around so at first I didn’t really like Hong Kong. It feels like it raised me on a lot of stuff, like its culture made me who I am, so I think I have to give credit to Hong Kong. But at the same time, the scenes, the people, the city, and also whatever happening now [makes me wonder] if it's a good place for me because sometimes it feels like mainland Chinese people or Western people really appreciate what I’m doing more than people in Hong Kong. That’s the one thing I don’t like: it’s not diverse. When you're doing something really new, they don't appreciate and they don't get it. So I love and hate Hong Kong [laughs].
Apart from yourself, who do you make music for?
For trap music, we always make it for ourselves: we just wanna make music that we love because in Hong Kong we don't have [music] we like. It's mostly for young people because what my friends and I say in the lyrics, I feel like they can share the feelings of, like, smoking and doing drugs and having a good time.
Photography by @oscarchik
Loving and hating Hong Kong, where else would you go?
That's a hard question. My mom is always asking me to go, but after COVID I just can’t really tell. I might want to go to New York for a little bit and maybe to Berlin because I’ve only stayed in Asian countries so I want to explore the West, but not for the rest of my life because I just want to experience here and there.
Photography by @freedomgum
Outside of making music, what does your life look like?
Actually, I do quite a lot of sporty stuff, I try to do it every 3 days. I listen to music when I'm cooking and baking, that’s the perfect time for me to listen to stuff and now I don't really like sitting at the computer all the time, looking at the screen and just clicking. Now I listen to some radio stuff, like NTS, and there’s Hong Kong Community Radio [@hkcronline]. They are nice people, and they’re doing the best thing for the culture of Hong Kong by getting more people to know more music. Mostly, I’m living a really wholesome life. Recently I moved to an island by the sea and I’m so peaceful. I like to spend more time with myself and spend more time with my family. I need some privacy now.
Photography by @oscarchik
What’s your best piece of advice?
Explore more of yourself. Then, you can express yourself more too. Stop giving a shit about other people's opinions, they don't know you because you know yourself best, even if sometimes you can get confused, like “What the fuck am I doing right now?” But no, people can't tell you what to do, you should be the one who knows yourself more than anybody. Anything could be possible, do more interesting stuff and do more with yourself.
Thank you!
About the Author:
Mizuki Khoury
Born in Montreal, based in Tokyo. Sabukaru’s senior writer and works as an artist under Exit Number Five.
