Rapper Majin's performance in "Big Hip Hop Age 2" attracted everyone's attention, and now we look back at her past life experience with her, what nourishment does life bring her? How does she use it in music?
"What is normal, whose body does the standard come from, so that everyone lives exactly the same, is it a victory?"
Majin debuted, with a wild explosive head, with the rhythm of the music, under the combination of strong beat and heavy bass, Majin's first lyrics on the stage of "Big Hip Hop Age 2" are connected with her life experience, and in the process of wandering and stumbling around, she speaks out in a high profile, low-key resistance, and lives as she is today in search of love and meaning.
Image | Majin Instagram
True happiness is when you feel true freedom
Majin, a Taiwanese-German mixed-race hip-hop girl whose real name is Jo-Ann Ruff, lived in Indonesia, Germany, Taiwan and other places as a child, and was raised in different cultures, languages, and ethnic environments.
Being exposed to different places and moving frequently has allowed her to grow up with the ability to find and retain herself in complex cultural environments, but what exactly shaped Majin? Almost even she herself has no standard answer, but along the way, between good and rebellious, standard and out, music is always together, and only in music is she complete enough.
"I found out early on that there seemed to be nothing more suitable for me than music," Majin said, not at all like an ordinary 20th generation girl, but no different from the ordinary, "After leaving Germany in high school, I already had a very clear goal to make music."
At the age of 12, he began to try his hand at performing on stage in a bar run by his father, and at the age of 15, he became a resident DJ in Lombok, Indonesia. Majin laughs and says, to put it bluntly, he doesn't like to read, and he does other things for three minutes at most, but for music, it always seems to have endless energy, concentration and enthusiasm.
In 2018, Majin began to release music works through online communities, with a stable and low voice, smooth Flow and a charming and unique voice, which made her begin to attract the attention of many fans; At the end of 2022, Majin tried her voice for the first time in "Big Hip Hop Age 2", and under the pure version of YouTube's sound source, a large number of netizens poured in, and in her lazy but penetrating voice, she felt that hip-hop can also find her exclusive power between lightness and collision.
"In the past, I really wrote songs just to express my emotions; I always wonder, since other people's songs can bring me so much resonance, can what I write help me more?" Starting from self-healing, Majin's music and lyrics, close to life and the growth experience of the new generation, can also resonate with a wide range of groups.
Image | Majin Instagram
No one can take away your inner self-confidence
Majin said that she has understood what it is like to be "different" since she was a child, and before she went to the Indonesian International School, as the only mixed-race child in the Taiwanese class, it was quite difficult to be fully accepted, "Even at that time, some classmates told me: Huh, you can't be in the same group as us because you are a foreigner."
For Taiwanese, Majin is not beautiful enough; For the Germans, she is another "Asian" who is not white enough. In her teenage years, in addition to having to face racial problems of varying intensity in various countries, Majin fell into the abyss in terms of self-identity and Asian limitations in external aesthetics, "Everyone will think that you must be beautiful if you are a half-breed, but I gained 80 kilograms for a while."
Majin said while picking up his mobile phone and ridiculing himself: "I can show you the photos when I was 80 kilograms, it's really exaggerated", if you want to say what marks her appearance and body anxiety have left on Majin, in her bright eyes, you can still see the determination and perseverance that tries to tear off the label hard, perhaps only by liberating yourself with a stronger mind, those labels from "mixed race", "Asian", "fat girl" can be taken off forcefully.
"Until now, is Taiwan's aesthetic still unwilling to accept fat girls wearing shorts and fat girls showing their stomachs? Even if I know that there are many places like Indonesia and Germany that are not like this, should I conform to these aesthetics?"
Majin said that in the end, I am actually very grateful that I can be influenced by various cultures and environments, so that I have the opportunity to look back at myself through different perspectives and values, "I found that there may be 90% of people in places who don't care about your body and how you dress, Asians don't care, Europeans don't necessarily care, Taiwanese don't care, Indonesians don't necessarily care." So I began to develop a kind of self-confidence that 'I don't care what they think', and my inferiority complex about my figure and appearance became weaker and weaker."
Image | Majin Instagram
Once a person begins to have self-confidence, he will accumulate a charm from the inside out.
Living in so many different language families and environments, which place has had the most positive impact on Majin? Majin replied without thinking, it must be Indonesia.
When she came to Indonesia as a child, she felt for the first time what it was like to "belong" in an international school, "I went to a place where all students are mixed-race, and suddenly I felt so at ease, I felt a "your place", plus the atmosphere of the international school is very free, there is no ranking, no tutoring, and there is really no culture shock."
The soul of freedom, cultivated in the environment and power to give freedom, in the primary school surrounded by the mountains and the sea, aside from the pressure of schoolwork, pure embrace of childhood, is unimaginable for many Asian children living in a high-pressure education environment, Majin mentioned that he has loved nature since he was a child, likes to run out, Indonesian international schools are close to the sea, often go out is the sea, in the evening everyone will sit against the sea, raise campfires, play guitar.
"There, everyone is not rich, but everyone is happy. The most important value I learned in Indonesia is that I know what kind of life makes people happy, definitely not in terms of money, but when you feel truly free."
When it comes to the pursuit of life, everyone has their own time zone
Germany is not a place for Majin.
"After leaving Indonesia and arriving in Germany, I began to feel a strong culture shock," Majin said, Germans are quite self-disciplined, emphasizing processes and rules, "but I definitely don't, I want life to be wonderful every day, to explore every day, to have new excitement, Germany is a super boring place for me."
Norms and collectives are undoubtedly a kidnapping of freedom for hip-hop creators, Majin laughs that his personality is a little more artistic, and even a little self-acting, Germany's big cities are relatively unable to give such flexibility, "I was in Munich, Germany, a place where racial discrimination was very serious, I was the only Asian in the school, everyone else was white, you can imagine what kind of situation you will face."
From Taiwan, Indonesia to Germany, in the melting pot of cultures, Majin's sensitivity begins with the realization of his "difference". She is generous and direct, not hiding at all, the sexual head has the characteristics of Generation Z who are eager to collide and have the courage to speak out, and at the same time she does not like the framework, does not like to be called "young people", no one should be limited by the framework, how about being young, how about being older?
"The more you have something 'inside', the more confident you will be in yourself, even if we lose something 'on the outside' today, suddenly become fat and get older, it will not take away your inner confidence."
Growing up brings Majin the essence of daring to take risks, in those traumatic experiences that can be said to be abhorrent, she replaces despair with collisions, and excavates from the heart instead of external pursuits, "I don't like to define success, but if today we want to get closer to the custom 'success', we have to keep doing what others dare not do, live life safely, you will only be 'the same' with others, we only have this 'life' in our lives, don't waste it."
The thought of waking up every morning and having a creative companion to "at least write songs," accompanied Majin through most of her childhood and adolescence, "I think that's what motivates me to live, I always feel like I live to complete these works." To put it more intensely, since sometimes I can't think about it, then I have to leave these things in the world, it's a bit like living to die, really living for what I can leave behind."
Image | Majin Instagram
Rebellion is not an act of confrontation
2022 can be said to be a harvest year for Majin, signing in the hip-hop brand Qi Er Cultural Creative managed by the well-known music producer Starr Chen, becoming the junior sister of Asiaboy Anti-drug King & Lizi Chestnut, Teochew Tudog, E1and, Wumu and other well-known singers, looking back on this journey, Majin laughed and said that he didn't want to be kidnapped by the definition of "success", "Many people are pursuing what kind of things should be done at what time, which is called "success", but it's not like this, Everyone's time is different, what's wrong with success at 20? Can you guarantee an ideal life at 40?"
Face what you already have, do not covet; In the face of what is not yet and not forced, Majin's philosophy of life seems to be able to be summarized by the word "brave", for music, with big ambitions, do not underestimate, do not exalt themselves, "I only have one idea, I want to speak for those little girls who dare not speak out now, I want them to stand up like me and get the respect of others."
In the body of the 20th generation, there is an 80-year-old soul, Majin is very relieved to accept such ridicule, she laughs and says, "Yes, it's really an 80-year-old soul." But the old soul has ambition, his eyes are still looking into the distance, and he always thinks about what to practice: "I think there are too few female rappers in Taiwan now, Taiwan should have them, since there is no one now, I will come back, I will do this."
The essence of hip-hop lies in rebellion, and rebellion is not an empty confrontational action, but a self-healing in the experience of trauma, but also healing others, those about confrontation, collision, and the will to change, through the way of music, can be regarded as a display of influence.
Majin said that her songs are relatively free of fishy, violent, rich and other stereotypes, she believes: "Hip-hop is a gift, it is all the pain and difficulties so far that have made me who I am today, hip-hop is not like singing, it really comes from the heart, with an 'altruistic' attitude, through the music I am good at to speak."
Image | Majin Instagram
As an Asian who used to be "weak" in the definition: an Asian studying in Europe, not beautiful enough, not thin enough, "When I talk on stage, I often say that I often feel that I am neither an Asian, nor a German, nor a mixed race, but I now know that I am a musician, and these labels are just my identity, not others can define."
In the face of the label, choose to see the structure and power behind it, but never give in, just like Majin's music, always looking for the power of the true self in the smooth flow, and firmly dialogue with the audience again and again, she sings not pure resistance, but in the rebellion to explore the true self, and is happy about it, never gives up, and shouts to the world: "I put my label on myself, no one can define me."
That is Taiwan's new generation rap, belonging to Majin's hip-hop attitude that will not change in this life.
Text | Louise