Since the start of his music career in 2009, Taiwanese hip-hop artist Soft Lipa has gained a strong following with his smooth, jazzy hip-hop tracks. Songs like “Re Shui Zao” or “Cai Jiao Ta Che” bring out his enjoyment of daily life, or his song “Guan Yu Xiao Xiong”, which narrates the relationship of two lovers through a toy bear. Soft Lipa has adapted the hip-hop genre to fit a personal style that’s all about, in his words, “comfort.”
台湾嘻哈音乐人蛋堡，自2009年开始音乐生涯以来，已经通过他恬淡优雅的爵士嘻哈曲目赢得众多粉丝。 《热水澡》《 踩脚踏车》等作品描述的是他日常生活中的愉悦，《关于小熊》则是讲述两个恋人通过一只玩具小熊维系感情的故事。蛋堡认为，一切最重要的就是“舒服”，更是将这种个人风格渗入嘻哈音乐，让自己的作品独具一格。
Soft Lipa Choice Tracks:
蛋堡作品节选:
Neocha: When you were back in high school in Tainan, what did you think then about hip-hop music and rap as a form of expression?
Soft Lipa: I first got exposed to hip-hop when I joined a club at school, the hip-hop dance group. Because of that group, I started to listening to hip-hop music. I heard MC Hotdog’s music during my last year of high school, and I thought about how Chinese rap could sound. That’s when I first tried writing my own music.
Back then, I thought of hip-hop as a music form that could give me a feeling of release. Since Taiwan’s school system is pretty intense, as well as in most of East Asia, I felt like hip-hop gave me a path outside of that.
Neocha: 你在台南一中读高中的时候，你当时对写饶舌歌曲和说唱作为一种音乐风格和表达形式有什么样的感觉？
蛋堡: 我一开始接触到嘻哈是通过参加学校的一个社团，就是热舞社，开始跳街舞。因为加入那个社团，我开始听一些像hip-hop风格这样的音乐。到了高三的时候，听到热狗（MC Hotdog）的音乐，我当时就觉得中文的饶舌也可以这样唱，可以这样写饶舌。所以我就开始自己尝试写写看。
那时候我觉得hip-hop是可以给我一个解放的感觉的音乐形式。因为像台湾的升学制度，会比较压迫一点，可能东方都是这样吧。所以当时hip-hop 这种音乐对我来说是一个出口，可以在里面得到解放。
Neocha: Most of your songs have a laid-back feel to them, or what you call “soft rap”. Does writing songs that are smooth and laid-back help you feel relaxed?
Soft Lipa: I tend to like things that I find comfortable. Not just hip-hop, also other kinds of music that feel comfortable to me. For me, it means letting myself relax. I always want to listen to music when I’m by myself working on something.
In terms of making music, I feel that music should be smooth and natural, which is how my music ends up sounding. Even with jazz, it’s all in a style that I like.
Another aspect is that hip-hop originated in the U.S., and East Asia is not like the U.S. As someone from the East, I find that people are more introverted here, which could make hip-hop less suitable. If you were to take it directly and move it over here, or copy it over here, it wouldn’t really work.
Neocha: 你大部分的歌曲一听就会有一种轻松的感觉，也是你所谓的轻饶舌风格。创作这样的歌曲会让你自己安静下来吗？
蛋堡: 我比较喜欢自己觉得舒服的东西。不一定是hip-hop，可能是音乐，我就是喜欢舒服的东西。它对我的意义就是，让我放松，而我需要放空，做我自己的事情的时候我想听音乐。
说到创作的话，因为我觉得原本音乐对我来说是要舒服和自然，所以我的创作也是自然而然的感觉，就是一些让自己舒服的音乐。也包括一些爵士感觉的元素，都是我喜欢的风格。
另一方面， hip-hop这个东西源自于美国， 我觉得东方不像美国，以东方人的角度来说，可能比较内敛一点，hip-hop不见得那么适合。如果你要直接把它移植、复制过来的话，其实没那么适合。
Neocha: There are only a few songs of yours that have Taiwanese in the lyrics. What is the difference between using Taiwanese versus Mandarin in your music?
Soft Lipa: The tonality of Taiwanese is different, since Taiwanese has eight tones. Because of this, when it comes to singing, Taiwanese has a greater degree of freedom. Mandarin is the official language, so it already has certain limitations to it, while Taiwanese has a lot of slang, and it has a very local feel to it. For writing songs, though, I still tend to use everyday Mandarin in my lyrics.
Neocha: 你的歌曲里面比较少有台语歌词的，对你来说用台语来说唱跟用国语来说唱有什么不一样的感觉？
蛋堡: 台语的音调上面不一样，台语有八个音。所以唱起来，台语的自由度会比较高。国语是官话，那它其中就是已经有某些限制。台语有很多俚语，是一种有local（当地）味道的东西。但我还是会想用那种生活化的国语的方式去表现。
Neocha: Hip-hop music is obviously not native to Taiwan, with its origins in New York in the 1980s. How do you view hip-hop culture? Do you try to produce entirely your own style of hip-hop music, or do you strive more to build upon traditional hip-hop?
Soft Lipa: Right now I have been adding more of my own ideas, my own feelings, into my music, so the creative frame is even looser. Whether something is hip-hop or not is more of a feeling or a vibe for me. All these years, hip-hop has become internal to me. It’s my main key that plays in the background. Whatever I do from here won’t stray from it.
Neocha: 因为嘻哈本身是一种外来的文化，源自于美国纽约的80年代。你对这种文化的态度是什么：你想做原汁原味的嘻哈音乐，还是在传统嘻哈音乐上做改良？
蛋堡: 到现在我会越来越多地加进自己的想法、自己的感觉，框架会比较开放一点。hip-hop还是不hip-hop，这其实是一种感觉，一种氛围。这么多年，hip-hop对我来说，某部分已经内化了，是我的一个基调，一个底蕴。所以，我再怎么做，我应该不会偏离太多了。
Facebook: facebook.com/softlipa
Instagram: @softlipapa
Weibo: weibo.com/kaosoftlipa
Contributor: Ross Donovan
Photographers: Crown Wang, Leon Yan
Facebook: facebook.com/softlipa
Instagram: @softlipapa
微博: weibo.com/kaosoftlipa
拱稿人: Ross Donovan
摄影师: Crown Wang, Leon Yan
