As a composer, rapper, and beat-maker with practical experience in both contemporary art music (CAM) and rap music (RM), a question has long puzzled me: How can one transfer the aesthetic preferences, creative techniques, and habits from one field of music to another? Instead of stressing on the opposition between art music (highbrow) and popular music (lowbrow), I initiated an artistic research project aims to find intersections and to explore the understanding of “rap” and “composition” that challenges the established norms in both music scenes. What are the distinctions and commonalities in artistic practices across these scenes? Where do aesthetic preferences, tools, techniques, and habits originate? How do they influence artistic practice? Guided by these initial research questions, I first conducted historical research to trace the development of Chinese contemporary art music and Chinese hip-hop, engaging in a process of identity exploration. Following this, I carried out several case studies focusing on compositional processes, improvisation, and co-composing. Through artistic practices, participatory observation, music analysis, and auto-ethnographic writing, I gradually realized that a dynamic process of “mutual permeation” is continually shaping the aesthetic decisions, techniques and habits.
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