Vietnamese Rap causes controversy again

F.Herro - Thailand's top rapper - is the first person to be called for a "hot seat" position in Rap Viet season 4. It is not yet clear whether F.Herro will be a coach, judge or in some other position, but the presence of the male rapper is creating mixed public opinion.

F. Herro has been active in the Thai rap/hip hop scene for more than 20 years. Right now, F.Herro has affirmed his position as an iconic rapper in the land of the Golden Temple. The male rapper has many products with tens of millions of views on YouTube. On the Spotify platform, F.Herro currently has more than 1.3 million listens per month.

The 41-year-old rapper has enough experience and ability to sit in the "hot seat" of Rap Viet. However, the audience is questioning the appearance of F.Herro in Rap Viet season 4, as language will be a barrier for this rapper to join the general rotation. Besides, many viewers wonder when the Vietnamese music market still has many veteran rappers and does Rap Viet necessarily look for a Thai rapper?

F.Herro has collaborated with a number of Vietnamese artists.

F.Herro's problem

In Rap Viet season 3, the language barrier happened with coach Thai VG. Thai VG is a rapper of Vietnamese origin, has lived in the US for many years, so he does not speak fluent Vietnamese when working. Rap Viet Coach Season 3. Thai VG almost only used English to communicate and perform with the contestants. This problem has caused trouble for Thai VG himself, the contestants, and the editing of the game show.

In theory, in the Conquest round, the coaches will first listen to the contestant's performance, then quickly evaluate it based on their senses and experience to decide whether to bring that rapper to their team or not. Rap music is characterized by its heavy content, with a large number of lyrics compared to a simple product of another music genre. When Thai VG does not understand what the contestant is rapping about, what are the criteria for evaluation, especially with special genres such as storytelling?

“With F.Herro, Rap Viet has switched to judging contestants based on flow, rap voice and beat?”, an audience member asked when the game show Rap Viet, which was struggling with the Thai VG problem, now has F.Herro. What must the Thai rapper do to sit in the “hot seat” of Rap Viet in the most comfortable and natural way, similar to the game shows he has participated in in his home country?

The language barrier of a Rap Viet coach will affect the entire journey of the game show. That is the way the coach trains the contestants, giving assessments on the content and lyrics, when in rap products, the words are not only correct in meaning and context, but also need to have rhyming and wordplay elements with Vietnamese language identity. If F. Herro were in the position of judge, the male rapper would still have difficulty understanding the contestants and giving comments.

The entries in Rap Viet sometimes leave an impression with only a part of the lyrics inspired by Vietnamese folk songs, proverbs, or metaphors, comparisons, associated with Vietnamese culture. In Rap Viet season 3, Thai VG was more obscure than the rest, when he delved into the quality of a contestant's lyrics. F.Herro will encounter the same problem if Rap Viet does not have a solution.

Right after Rap Viet announced the invitation of F.Herro, many waves of reactions from the Vietnamese rap community in particular and music audiences in general appeared. The problems that Rap Viet may face when placing its trust in F.Herro have become clear. However, this is a move that opens up two paths for Rap Viet, besides the reaction is the media explosion.

Rap Viet's post about F.Herro attracted huge interactions, followed by a series of consecutive content to heat up the game show before its broadcast date. It is not known what F.Herro will do in the upcoming game, but this rapper will be an important media card for Rap Viet season 4. F.Herro's presence helps Rap Viet first of all expand its influence to Thai rap audiences.

Thai VG had difficulty because of the language barrier.

Why Thai rapper?

The Vietnamese audience's reaction to F.Herro is mainly because he is a Thai rapper. Over the past four seasons of Rap Viet, the game show's crew has been 100% Vietnamese. Last year, an exception appeared when Rap Viet invited Vanda - Cambodia's number 1 rapper - to perform at the final awards ceremony. The presence of F.Herro in the "hot seat" is a huge breakthrough in the key crew of Rap Viet this year.

So Vietnamese music has run out of rappers to invite?

Many viewers pointed out that if we don't count the old coaches and judges in Rap Viet season 3 and SpaceSpeakers, Vietnamese rap still has Den Vau, Hung Cao, Kimmese, Datmaniac and a series of rappers from the generation that pioneered this music genre.

With all the scenarios for the “hot seat” position of Rap Viet season 4, Den Vau is the most anticipated name, with enough elements to create an explosion. However, sources from insiders revealed that Rap Viet has been unable to invite many top rappers, including Den Vau.

The Vietnamese rap market currently has no shortage of veteran rappers with enough expertise and experience to sit in the “hot seat”. However, Rap Viet is not a game show just to find the best rapper in the true rap style. Instead, the nature of a game show takes Rap Viet to many paths beyond the realm of rap. Before carrying out the mission of “promoting” a contestant to become a star, Rap Viet must solve their vital problem, which is how to make the game show influential.

Rap Viet's selection of coaches and judges does not depend entirely on professional factors. The majority of those who have sat in the "hot seat" of Rap Viet for the past 4 seasons have not been truly recognized by the rap world for their expertise, but they have harmony, are of a moderate level of expertise or higher, and meet the criteria of having a certain level of popularity. The combined efforts of famous coaches and judges, and the explosion of social networks, are the most important catalysts for Rap Viet to maintain its position as the hottest game show in the entertainment industry for the past 4 years.

In theory, Rap Viet has many options to choose coaches and judges. However, after filtering many factors, in reality, Rap Viet does not have many options. They still have to rotate old faces and try to find new factors. When they cannot find new factors of sufficient quality in Vietnamese rap, the story of the game show betting on F.Herro is not something too crazy.

Source