How Hainan is using hip-hop to rebrand luxury in China – with help from Kanye West, Travis Scott and maybe Cardi B

Nov 5 , 2025

Kanye West and Travis Scott are just two artists who are rebranding Hainan in China. Photos: Getty Images

‘The Chinese Hawaii’ just hosted Scott – and it’s a sign that China is embracing music it once scorned for larger consumerist ambitions

When Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour injected an estimated US$5 billion into the US economy, it showed how music can move markets – and China took note. Now the country’s tropical island of Hainan is testing its own version of the “Swift effect”.

Over the past year, Hainan has quietly evolved from a laid-back beach retreat into a stage for hip-hop’s global elite. It began with Kanye West (aka Ye)’s headline-making performance last September, which was followed by Travis Scott’s explosive show this month. This fuelled rumours that Cardi B could be next, following a public invitation from the island’s government.

But why would China court artists in a genre it once banned for its “vulgar lyrics” and “bad influence”? The answer lies in a new experiment: how concert tourism can merge spectacle with spending, particularly in the luxury market.

Back in June 2020, the government announced a plan to transform Hainan, often called the “Chinese Hawaii”, into a globally influential Free Trade Port. Since then, provincial authorities have been promoting high-end retail, art fairs and luxury events to lure domestic travellers who might otherwise spend abroad. Adding international concerts into that mix was the next logical step – and it appears to be working.

While the numbers for Travis Scott’s performance aren’t in yet, Ye’s 2024 concert was attended by almost 40,000 people, driving hotel occupancy in Haikou to 83 per cent, up over 40 per cent from the previous year. And during the weekend of the event – which was also right before 2024’s Mid-Autumn Festival – the port city of Haikou recorded 748 million yuan (US$106 million) in revenue.

About 96 per cent of Ye’s US$96 tickets were bought by people from outside Hainan, mainly from Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Beijing and Chengdu, according to the Hainan Daily newspaper. And with hotels like Rosewood, Raffles, JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, InterContinental, Hilton, Mandarin Oriental and Shangri-La, among many others, there was no shortage of luxury properties for visitors to stay at.

Beyond the economic boost, these concerts hint at something deeper too: the cultural alignment between hip-hop’s aspirational image and the island’s growing luxury identity. For Sowmya Krishnamurthy, music journalist and author of Fashion Killa: How Hip-Hop Revolutionized High Fashion (2023), the genre has carried luxury aspirations from the start.

“Hip-hop has been a soundtrack to luxury since the mid-90s,” she says. “Many fans learned about brands through artists like the Notorious B.I.G., Kanye West and A$AP Rocky. Some of us even learned how to pronounce names like Versace because of rap lyrics.”

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How Hainan is using hip-hop to rebrand luxury in China – with help from Kanye West, Travis Scott and maybe Cardi B

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}‘The Chinese Hawaii’ just hosted Scott – and it’s a sign that China is embracing music it once scorned for larger consumerist ambitions

‘The Chinese Hawaii’ just hosted Scott – and it’s a sign that China is embracing music it once scorned for larger consumerist ambitions