Looks can be deceptive: singer-songwriter Tyson Yoshi speaks to Tatler about fame and fighting to be understood
"Can you hear me?” echoes a British-accented voice over Zoom. With a tap, Tyson Yoshi appears onscreen. Dressed in a white Stüssy T-shirt, he calls Tatler from the steps of Blue Bottle Coffee in Central, unfazed by the bustling midweek scene around him.
“Fame is quite annoying, if I’m being honest,” he says, incognito thanks to a baseball cap hiding his distinctive mane, which, in mid-July, is bleach- blond—a more subdued shade than his usual silver, pink or purple crop. “I try to maintain my normal life: I still take the MTR and bus. I’ll never let fame get to my head because I know it might be gone one day,” he says.
Yoshi’s fame would appear to be more than just a flash in the pan. His songs have amassed more than 46 million views on YouTube; he has 247,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, with streams from more than 100 countries; and he has toured internationally, a feat for any Hong Kong musician, let alone an independent hip-hop artist from the city. Yoshi, whose real name is Ben Cheng Tsun-yin (and whose stage name is derived from the Japanese fast food chain, Yoshinoya, and Tyson from the initials of his Chinese name), is refreshingly down-to-earth despite being one of the city’s best-known artists. That said, between wall-to-wall rehearsals, commercial commitments and an army of handlers, Yoshi is a tricky man to pin down.
When we speak, the 28-year-old is gearing up for a four-day run of concerts, My New World Order, his first solo show and his biggest in Hong Kong, in early August at Kitec’s Star Hall, where he performed slick two-hour concerts to a total of 14,400 fans. His style melds hip-hop with trap, pop and R&B in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. He released his debut album 1st in 2019: a collection of 12 simultaneously bold and vulnerable songs, featuring lead single To My Queen.
Read more: Hong Kong Rapper and Singer-Songwriter Tyson Yoshi on His Creative Journey Off the Beaten Track
Since his emergence into the public eye, he has been frustrated by misconceptions of his character, and this has become a common theme in his music. One exasperated line from I Don’t Smoke & I Don’t Drink, a melodic tune about stereotypes he is trying to defy as an artist, goes: “They be looking at me like they haven’t seen this type of guy.” Part of that assumption is based on his appearance. In Hong Kong, where unnatural hair colours and lots of body art are still somewhat frowned upon, Yoshi stands out: he has more than ten tattoos across his upper body; on one arm, a butterfly and a pistol sit side-by-side. “People [have this impression that] I’m rude. Every time I’m on set for a video or a TV commercial and I say ‘thank you’ or ‘please’, the crew is shocked. They think I smoke, drink and do drugs, which is the standard rapper thing ... and they think I’ve got loads of girlfriends,” he says, laughing.
But seeking to be understood is a key inspiration for his music. “I just want [people] to feel my music and get to know me. People can judge me, but they should get to know me first,” he says. Each song on 1st is a window into his personal life, and he has been praised for his honesty and vulnerability on topics such as love, jealousy, work stress and death. “There’s no such thing as a disconnect [between my public and private persona]. I’m just human and I have different layers. I’m sure even when the toughest and baddest rock stars are alone, they listen to Justin Bieber,” he says, with a laugh.
“Sometimes I’m angry, sometimes I’m stressed, and you can tell in my music. It’s my diary.”
A self-professed mischievous child, Yoshi was sent to Sedbergh School, a co-educational boarding school in northwest England, by his parents, who wanted him to be educated in a regimented environment while learning English. Not having Chinese-speaking friends around him for the first time forced him to pick up the language quickly. Immersed in his new environment, with English-language music, TV shows and films downloaded onto a hard drive, Yoshi became fluent within two months.