Chengdu is the spiritual home for Chinese Hip Hop in China. Much like Brooklyn in the 80s or Atlanta since 2000, the fast-growing city became home to many aspiring rappers as they wished to get signed to CDC Rap House, the record label that single-handedly put China’s Hip Hop scene.

CDC Rap House reinvented itself under the name Chengdu Corp and has released several best-selling albums plus videos where everyone from the label gathers for a massive cypher. These cyphers are very much like the World Cup for the Chinese Hip Hop community where every high-profile rapper gathers and bounces rhymes off each other. The cyphers were released every four years in 2012, 2016, and 2020, so no one was expecting that a new one would drop this year. But this past February, a picture of all the rappers together leaked to the Internet and caused a lot of buzz.

On March 4, the Chengdu Corp Cypher 2022 went live. Separated into two parts, Higher Brother’s Ma Si Wei, KnowKnow, and Psy.P, Ty, Melo, AnsrJ, Wang YiTai, Li ErXin, Mengtzu, DDG, SleepyCat, and BossX谢帝 took turns giving their best shots as they rap over a Trap beats produced by Pablo &DuHu. The first eight minutes of the cypher were so hot that a second part with the beat from Mobb Deep’s Shook Ones was also released.

There is no stage set-up or crazy lighting or special effects. Instead, it’s just a gang of MCs who love Hip Hop doing what they love to do. Given their busy schedules, it is invigorating to see the 12 renowned rappers be in the same room while dropping bars on bars on bars.

Check out Chengdu Corp Cypher 2022 parts one and two below.