Slathered in silky harmonics and cavernous reverb, “No Wifi,” a gorgeous new single released by JIHU (吉胡) on July 29, seems to plant the up-and-coming singer-songwriter firmly in the contemporary R&B world.

With a voice that wouldn’t be out of place on a K-Pop record, JIHU’s penchant for cinematic risers and deft penmanship, combined with tasteful production by producer duo Derrick Sepnio and Fergus Chow (the team behind such names as Sandy Lam, Karen Mok, Khalil Fong, and A-Lin) already puts his single “NO WIFI” in a class above most contemporary pop in China.

And yet, what truly sets JIHU apart from others in his field is his wide-reaching musical aesthetic: his work often includes select spoken word and even the tribal singing of his cultural heritage, the Yi people of Liangshan, Sichuan province. Indeed, his widely-acclaimed first feature length album Part of JIHU (《彝部分》) released in May of 2020, is a cinematic ode that stretches and fuses together styles and worlds beyond the scope of what popular music would normally allow. Part of JIHU is a treat for the ears that both sparkles and teases with its playful melodies and interspersed casual conversation, while still packing a sonic punch with liberal use of the 808 electronic drum kits most often found in trap music.

“With Part of JIHU we were very much obsessed with the idea of fusing the natural and the popular," JIHU writes in an email to TWOC, explaining that "natural" refers to the environment and "popular" refers to music. "Whether urban R&B, folk, hip-hop or even cinematic film scores, we would try to integrate those ideas with the Yi minority culture and the sounds of nature.”