(hip hop music)
- All right, we are so excited, really beyond excited.
One of your top requested artists week over week,
is sir Lay Zhang, (claps) thanks for coming by, man.
- Yeah, very excited.
- It's really important to note,
if you're a fan watching this that doesn't know,
Lay co-wrote and co-produced every single song on LIT,
the new album, both part one and part two.
Why was that so important to you Lay, as an artist?
- I'm a producer too.
I like to keep working on my craft.
I have a story to tell.
I want you to make sure it is told right.
- Yeah, and Lay there's a lot going on on this album,
with the co-writing, the co-producing.
But also if you take a step back and listen to it,
you're really bridging two cultures
and two sounds on this project.
What was that like, and is that challenging at all?
- The challenging (laughs).
You have to decide what you put in and what you keep out.
I want you to make sure you hear
enough of both cultures and sounds,
it is important that Chinese instruments can be heard.
It is a good challenge. - Now Lay, you worked with
two specific producers on this project.
I wanna start with Scott Storch,
who's just an absolute legend in the music game.
What was it like working with Scott?
- Working with Scott was great.
I learned a lot from him.
I showed him the traditional Chinese instrument.
I was playing my Chinese flute and we were experimenting.
It was fun for me.
He is the legendary.
- You also work with Murda Beatz.
How did you and Murda first link up?
- I know Murda did a lot of hip hop.
He worked with people like the Migos, Cardi B, Travis Scott.
I heard his beats and I really liked them.
They are hard and cool.
- Yeah it came out great, sounds fantastic.
Can you explain the meaning behind LIT?
Because people might think it's just a word,
and stateside we'll think you're getting lit,
or something on this album.
But it has a deep meaning and it's really cool.
Can you explain it?
- The Chinese name of the sound is lian.
Which means lotus in English.
Lian sound a lot like LIT.
So that's why I called it LIT.
You guys know the lotus gross out from the mud?
It comes from nothing and it becomes something beautiful.
That is what I want to say about my career.
I started from nothing to where I am now.
It is reminding people including myself
to chase your dream, just focus on yourself and your goals.
Try to be as best that you can.
- Now Lay, there's a great responsibility
I feel like on your shoulders,
because you're such an icon in your home country of China,
you really take your music
and you share it all around the globe.
How does it feel to pave the way
for other Chinese musicians?
- I just want everybody to know
that China has great artists too.
That we are about peace, love and respecting other cultures.
- Absolutely, so here we go,
social questions from Instagram and Twitter.
We're gonna kick it to Instagram first with @genia910,
who says Lay, "Do you have plans
"for a world tour when pandemic ends?
"We would love to see you in Europe."
- I really hope I can have a world tour.
My goal is always to meet all my fans around the world.
I also would love to see Europe
and see what the music is like there.
- All right, let's go over Twitter now.
This comes from @88xings,
I believe is how you say the username.
"What was the inspiration behind LIT?
"And what are your goals for this album?
"And how do you rest between such tough schedules?"
- LIT is an album that talks about my life.
A lot of these songs come from life experience
and feelings that I have had.
I want to share Chinese culture with the world.
Let people know more about
the Chinese artists and Chinese music.
Yes, my schedules is busy, but I rest when I can.
I'm glad that I can do it.
- Yeah, all right, one more Lay.
@zyxarchive is asking Lay,
"has been experimenting a lot with his music.
"Each release has a different style.
"Where does he take inspiration from,
"and which singers from anywhere in the world,
"would he like to collaborate with?"
- I get inspiration from small things in life.
I like looking around in my environment
and something will give me an idea.
Once I have the idea,
I try to make a beat as quickly as possible.
I would love to collaboration with
any R&B, Hip Hop, or Latin artist, yeah.
- Very cool.
Really, one of the top requested videos
each and every week on the show, which is yours LIT.
Can you give us any sort of behind the scenes stories
or anything that happened on the set
or how the video came to be?
- So for me, I think this was very hard to do
and very amazing music video.
I worked with a lot of good directors.
We chose of famous place where a lot of the
Chinese historical dramas are filmed.
They were over 100 extras that had to do Oriental arts move,
which was very new to me, but it was cool.
We filmed the music video in December.
So it was really cold,
but every one on set worked really hard.
Without them we cannot make this happen.
- It looks like a movie, like a feature film.
It's a beautiful, beautiful clip.
Of course the new album LIT is available everywhere.
Hopefully you're streaming that, Lay thank you again.
- Thank you guys, promotion my new song.
Thank you Kevin.