Hong Kong hip-hop has been raging since the late ’90s, a middle finger to the glossy Cantopop industry, featuring reportage from the casualties of vast wealth inequality. The massive LMF crew exploded with hard beats, hard rhymes and rock riffs on songs that were gritty, uncompromising, profanity-filled and self-penned. In the mid-2000s, gifted freestyler MC Jin became the first solo Asian MC to break in America, working with Kanye West and Wyclef Jean—but he ultimately found a new home as a Hong Kong star, deftly rapping in Cantonese over minimalist beats. Rappers like Kwokkin, MastaMic and Ghost Style keep the righteous indignation of LMF alive by tackling the topics of poverty and the notoriously crowded housing estates in their lyrics, while stars like Dough-Boy are also making moves with modern rap’s moody flash.