HONG KONG—How do you get all the cool kids excited about the 100th birthday of China’s Communist Party?

Somebody’s idea was squeezing 100 Chinese rap and hip-hop groups onto a 15-minute track, which, naturally, celebrates China’s achievements and disses its haters.

Sound check

Sound check

“We got money in the bank, our brothers are the most lit,” goes one line that segues into an English-language chorus, “China rising.”

Yet even among the party loyal, it sank. The heavily autotuned number vanished in a cloud of disdain days before Thursday’s centennial. “I can only suffer once,” one listener posted on social media.

Beijing has in recent years kept a close watch on rap, wary of the music’s potential to inspire insurrectionary inclinations. In 2018, at least two Chinese hip-hop artists were cut from TV shows in an industrywide cleanup targeting content seen at odds with Communist Party values.

China has also tried to co-opt the art form into nurturing affection between young people and the ruling party.

“Monkey King to the West, legendary dragon to the sky, y’all know it’s time for Chinese miracle,” goes one rap video aired by state media during the 2019 annual meeting of China’s National People’s Congress. For two years running, Chinese state media outlets have produced rap songs to pump up legislative meetings.

Performers dressed in military uniforms during a performance in Beijing this week celebrating the 100th anniversary of China’s Communist Party.

Performers dressed in military uniforms during a performance in Beijing this week celebrating the 100th anniversary of China’s Communist Party.

Photo: noel celis/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Even Karl Marx has gotten the rap treatment. In 2016, Chinese state media promoted a tune titled “Marx Was A Post-’90’s Kid,” a way to connect hip Chinese millennials to the 19th-century German philosopher.

For the Communist Party’s big birthday bash, an entertainment company called Hip Hop Fusion, based in the southern city of Shenzhen, rounded up 100 of China’s most patriotic rap groups to record the song titled “100%.”

With the tape rolling, the rappers hit all the right political notes, name-checking the “Chinese Dream” slogan favored by China’s leader Xi Jinping, as well as Mr. Xi’s signature trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative. Foreign adversaries, chief among them the Group of Seven leading economies, are singled out for their perceived hostility.

Beleaguered Ant Group’s mobile payment platform also gets a turn in the spotlight. “The pride of Alipay is already leading the world, everywhere,” raps one outfit on “100%.”

CD Rev, nationalist hip-hoppers from southwestern China, shot to prominence five years ago when it released its 2016 single, “This is China,” a song promoted by the Communist Youth League. It acknowledges food-safety scandals and corrupt politicians with a live-and-learn optimism: “Although the country does have these terrible things to deal with/We’ve made progress and we are trying to prevent these from happening again.”

CD Rev on “100%,” proclaims in English, “I say China No. 1.”

A 2016 photo of CD Rev, the Sichuan-based rap group.

A 2016 photo of CD Rev, the Sichuan-based rap group.

Photo: handout/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

But rather than hit No. 1 on the charts, it disappeared before the anniversary it was supposed to celebrate. Hip Hop Fusion declined to comment.

The official program celebrating the founding in July 1921 of China’s Communist Party featured fireworks and speeches, including one by Mr. Xi, the Communist Party general secretary, in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

TV broadcasters lined up historical dramas, operas and a head-to-head contest among students testing their knowledge of party lore.

In the coastal city of Qingdao, famed for its German-style beers, officials staged a mass June wedding between 50 men and women, highlighting their fealty to the party. The newlyweds got a better reception than “100%” did.

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After the song’s June 20 release on NetEase Music, the Chinese streaming service, online comments praised its noble intentions while savaging the idea of cramming in 100 rap groups.

“The meaning of the song is good but it really sounds strange,” read one post. “It’s very tiring to listen to,” said another reviewer.

A day later, Hip Hop Fusion founder Li Haiqin apologized to listeners on social media. He said the project had its genesis two years ago, when he tried to get 70 rappers together for a song celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

When he couldn’t finish the song in time, he decided to add 30 more for the Communist Party’s 100th birthday. Then he hit back at critics who accused him of selling out to score points with the government.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping appearing on a large screen at a performance in Beijing to mark the 100th anniversary of China’s Communist Party.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping appearing on a large screen at a performance in Beijing to mark the 100th anniversary of China’s Communist Party.

Photo: noel celis/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

“Since when is it shameful for rappers to love their country? Or a type of ‘suck-up’ behavior?” Mr. Li wrote on China’s Twitter -like Weibo platform. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.

“100%” was a dud even in the niche world of nationalist Chinese rap music. It was no “Red,” according to fans, the 2019 song by rap group Kindergarten Killer that praised the return of Hong Kong to Beijing rule in 1997. For some, “Red” set the standard for catchy, pro-party rhymes.

Most of China’s biggest rap stars didn’t join in the recording of “100%,” which may have overplayed its messaging. Chinese internet users “usually make fun of these too obvious nationalist songs,” said Nathanel Amar, director of the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China in Taipei.

Many of the rappers who joined the “100%” project kept mum about it.

At the Chinese Communist Party’s centennial celebration, President Xi Jinping called for defiance against foreign pressure. As China challenges the U.S.’s leadership – from AI to defense – WSJ’s Jonathan Cheng looks at what’s next for the country. Photo: Wang Zhao/AFP The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition

A few days before the song’s release, Li Hanrong, stage name Lil Rong, said she had offered her verses so long ago that she couldn’t remember them. Another artist, Wei Ran, claimed to have forgotten he performed on the tune.

Neither rapper responded to requests for comment.

In a social-media post, the 29-year-old Mr. Wei, who goes by Ice Paper, dismissed news of the 100-person rap as “totally fabricated!” before posting a correction that confirmed both the project and his role.

He later deleted both posts.

Write to Eva Xiao at eva.xiao@wsj.com