Meet “Big Chen,” College’s Best Worst Musician

SteveHolt10 years ago

There may not be a more devoted musician in this universe than rapper/singer “Big Chen.”

Chen is a student at the University of Texas–or he is at least a member of the official university Facebook group. I know this because I have friends in that Facebook group who have become avid Big Chen supporters.

For the last year, Chen has been uploading his music video covers to various university pages. At first, responses ranged from severely negative to general confusion. They have slowly grown more positive. Now, people look forward to Big Chen’s musical releases.

Chen’s operation is small. His studio appears to be his family’s home office. His signature outfit is typically a tight, pastel, collared shirt or something with a Texas Longhorns logo on it.

Here are a couple examples of the videos that he has posted since he first started sharing them last fall.

Passenger, “Let Her Go”

Lana Del Rey, “West Coast” (He experiments heavily with basic video special effects.)

Jay-Z ft. Justin Timberlake, “Holy Grail”

At some point this summer, he started dabbling in the contemporary Christian genre. He released a cover of “Oceans” in early June, perhaps after a religious sabbatical of sorts.

He also makes his own music–he released a number of “Big Chen Freestyles.” The themes in these raps center around fried chicken and fried chicken puns.

Chen might not be the most musically gifted artist, but his passion for rapping, singing, and lip-syncing has not been ignored by the student body. He has developed a cult-like following for his music videos and Instagram posts.  Of course, the long-standing question that exists around Big Chen is obvious: is he joking?

After one year, I can emphatically say that nobody has any idea if he is serious or not. That’s the beauty of Big Chen. His satire might be so subtle that nobody gets it but him.

Regardless, he is definitely better than Drake.