Draft:Haysen Cheng

Haysen Cheng
Cheng King Hei (born February 22, 2000), better known as  Haysen Cheng, is a Chinese Hip-Hop artist, songwriter, model, businessman, and former basketball player for Canarias Basketball Academy of LEB Plata. On July 30, 2021 he released his first official single “ICED OUT HEART”with Warner Music China’s new JUUICE Drops imprint.

Early Life
Cheng King Hei was born on February 22, 2000, in Hong Kong to parents of Chaozhou and Shanghainese descent. Cheng began playing the cello at age 5, learning how to play J.S Bach and Mozart compositions both individually and as part of the school orchestra. At age 9, Cheng moved to Shanghai with his mother and younger brother after his parents' separation, where he lived for 6 years and developed a major extracurricular pursuit in basketball. Although classical music was a primary musical influence, Cheng developed an interest in Hip-Hop during his upbringing in Shanghai. At 16, Cheng accepted an offer to play for the Canarias Basketball Academy located in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and moved to Spain alone in 2016 to pursue a basketball career at the European level which resulted in various offers to play NCAA Division III college basketball and also an NCAA Division II walk-on offer at Bentley University. At 18, Cheng returned to Hong Kong to support his family financially and began to create and release music independently.

2018-2020: Durags & Chopsticks
Cheng released his debut mixtape "Durags & Chopsticks" in October 2019. Shortly after release, standout track "MACHETES" gained regional attention after it picked up a co-sign from Trouble, with the accompanying music video earning a repost from FirePanda, one of Mainland China's most influential Hip-Hop blogs which led to Hong Kong label b2 Music adding the track to their VIBE Presents: URBAN ASIA Volume 3 compilation album, with previous volumes featuring Jackson Wang and Higher Brothers.

"WEIGHT LIFT" from the same project followed with a music video in June 2020 and attracted the attention of American Hip-Hop legend Lil B, which resulted in the two creating an unreleased track set to debut in 2021.

2021: North Point Demos, Vol.1 and Escape From Hong Kong
Between June and July 2021, Haysen Cheng began releasing short songs with accompanying music videos that became known as “North Point Demos”. The 6-song series attracted the attention of Believe Digital and signed Haysen Cheng to an exclusive distribution deal for this project. Later that month Cheng also released his first official single with Warner Music China’s new JUUICE DROPS imprint, which was a new initiative exclusively for Chinese Hip-Hop. Encouraged by the Hip-Hop industry that was blowing up in Mainland China, Haysen Cheng entered the Mainland market through a move into Shanghai in August 2021.