Aristophanes

**Pan Wei Ju** (Mandarin: **潘韋儒**; born 1990), known professionally as **Aristophanes** or **潘PAN**, is a Taiwanese rapper.

## Biography

Aristophanes was born and raised in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Growing up in a home without a television or music, she read books and initially wanted to become a novelist. She explained: "My mother doesn't like music so I knew nothing about Taiwanese or Chinese pop singers. I didn't grow up in an environment where I can be into music so I heard nothing before the first time I heard the Mandarin rap song" at the age of 20. After listening to tracks from rapper Soft Lipa, she decided to start making her own music. Other rappers she enjoys include Dan Bao and Jean Grae, and she cited the latter as an inspiration for her style of flow. She says that her stage name Aristophanes, taken from the Ancient Greek playwright, appeared to her in a dream.

## Artistry

Aristophanes raps in Mandarin. Critics have noted her "rapid fire" delivery and her vocals, which are often described as simulatenously cute and creepy. Her songs tackle topics such as love, sex, and relationships, but also feminism, the decay of civilisation, and critiques of capitalism. Her lyrics often take influence from literature and philosophy. Her music was described as a "soundscape of sinister, spaced-out beats, hazy synths and sickly-sweet melodies". Despite the language barrier, she has gained an audience outside of Taiwan. She believes that "music itself is a language" and that "you can tell the emotion from the breath and the beat". Aristophanes, much like Grimes, has described her difficulties evolving in a male-dominated industry. She has criticised the way the music industry fails to give credit to female producers and praised women who work on the technical side of music, which she feels is "good for the whole community, not just women but everyone".

## Connection to Grimes

    Grimes became aware of Aristophanes after finding her music on SoundCloud and later reached out to the rapper to ask her if she wanted to collaborate on a project. At the time, Aristophanes did not know who Grimes was, but she accepted to work with her after researching her online. She said of Grimes's music that "it blew my mind". Their work resulted in the song "SCREAM", which was released on Grimes's fourth studio album *Art Angels* (2015). Aristophanes appeared in a YouTube mini-documentary from *The Fader* about *Art Angels*, doing a Skype call with Grimes. In 2017, Grimes produced the song "人為機器 (Humans Become Machines)" from Aristophanes's debut album of the same name. The two musicians collaborated again on the song "Darkseid" from Grimes's fifth studio album *Miss Anthropocene* (2020).

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 https://theculturetrip.com/asia/taiwan/articles/taiwanese-rapper-aristophanes-wants-to-empower-women/
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 https://www.vice.com/en\_us/article/3de93b/watch-a-disturbingly-cute-video-from-aristophanes-the-taiwanese-rapper-grimes-found-on-soundcloud
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 https://vmagazine.com/article/meet-aristophanes-subversive-taiwanese-rapper-co-signed-grimes/
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 https://international.thenewslens.com/article/88319
5. ↑ https://www.thefader.com/2015/07/29/meet-aristophanes-grimes
6. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi2N5KHgO80
7. ↑ https://www.tinymixtapes.com/chocolate-grinder/listen-aristophanes-li-mao-humans-become-machines-prod-grimes