Despite his elimination from Rap Of China, Shigga Shay stills sees it as a win

Home-grown rapper Shigga Shay is the 14th guest in this music channel.

Synopsis (headphones recommended): Each month, The Straits Times invites music acts to its podcast studio.

In the 14th episode of Music Lab, ST’s music correspondent Eddino Abdul Hadi hosts Singaporean rapper Shigga Shay.

The 31-year-old hip-hop artist speaks at length about his experience as the first Singaporean to take part in The Rap Of China 2024, the popular Chinese reality show (2017 to present) that looks for the country’s next rap star.

He was among the 72 contestants out of 600 who passed the first round, and reached the 41st spot before being eliminated in the third round.

It is still a win, he says, because his time on the show gave him a platform to reach out to a whole new fanbase in China.

He still makes regular trips to China to work with his counterparts there on his upcoming release, a mixtape titled Hanyu Pinyin.

Featuring verses in Mandarin, English and Hokkien, this new batch of songs reflect his identity as a multilingual rapper from Singapore who is ready to take on the global stage.

Shigga also discusses how hip-hop helped him overcome his shyness, and how his late father gave him his stage name.

In the episode, he also performs a rendition of his latest single, Overachieve, which will also be included in his upcoming release Hanyu Pinyin.

Highlights (click/tap above):

1:54 On being the first Singaporean to take part in The Rap Of China

14:24 How his multilingual songs tells his story as a rapper from Singapore

18:15 On how he has been rapping for half is life

26:17 Why he calls himself Shigga Shay

30:20 He started making music videos in school

34:47 On running his own music company

Listen to Shigga Shay’s live performance of Overachieve here: https://str.sg/GRrZ

Discover home-grown artiste Shigga Shay at:

YouTube: https://str.sg/bnA6