Vietnamese Rapper Stands Up To Statism


Instead of rapping about parties or drugs like usual, Nah has made a song that is in stark contrast with the rest of what he makes. This time he raps about ending the communist regime in his home country, Vietnam, with lyrics about killing the corrupt politicians and overthrowing the government. According to Global Post:

One of Vietnam’s most subversive new rap songs isn’t about partying, sex or even drugs. It’s simply called “F*ck Communism.” (We added the asterisk.) It’s a six-minute revenge fantasy targeting dirty cops, crooked bureaucrats and the so-called “professional thieves” who run the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Here are a few choice verses:

“All embezzlers will die without burial.”

“The traffic cops will be executed first.”

“I’ll never accept being a slave. F*ck communism.”

This song is dangerously rebellious in Vietnam, an authoritarian state that attempts to crush anti-government dissent. It’s also growing really popular. Since its release in January, the track has racked up 875,000 views on YouTube — and in a country with fewer than 40 million internet users, that’s a huge hit song.

Going public with a song titled “F*ck Communism” in Vietnam is practically begging to get arrested. It was composed by a well-known rapper named Nah, a self-described “middle-class kid” from Ho Chi Minh City who makes no effort to conceal his real name: Nguyen Vu Son.

“I knew this was risky,” Nah tells GlobalPost. “I’ve thought of the consequences. Going to jail. Getting my family framed for crimes they didn’t do. They might even try to kidnap me or arrange an accident.”

Nah, 24, is currently in the US where he’s studying entrepreneurship at Oklahoma State University. His student visa expires in the summer of 2016. That’s when he intends to return despite potential charges of creating “propaganda against the state,” a crime used to imprison hundreds of dissidents in the past decade.

“All of that is definitely going to happen,” he says. His new neck tattoo — which reads “F*ck Communism” — is unlikely to endear him to the Vietnamese authorities.

“But if I go to jail,” he says, “it’ll show the young people not to be afraid.”

If “F*ck Communism” has an American counterpart, it might be NWA’s pioneering gangsta rap song “F*ck Tha Police,” says Trinh Nguyen of Viet Tan, a US-based organization advocating for democracy for Vietnam.

“It’s this generation’s version of ‘F*ck Tha Police’ because it clearly identifies the problems people are seeing and directly spells them out,” Trinh says. “It’s also really provocative so, of course, it caught on really quickly.”

The track is not about communism as an ideology, but rather the failings of Vietnam’s all-powerful Communist Party and those too meek to condemn it. Vietnam’s corruption score, as determined by Transparency International, ranks 119th out of 175 countries — worse than fellow communist state China.

“F*ck Communism” is the song’s English-language title. That’s a translation from the actual title — “Địt Mẹ Cộng Sản” — and it doesn’t fully capture the intensity of the original. “The actual curse word he uses is so heavy,” Trinh says. “Try to think of the worst curse word you could ever say.”

Nah is very brave for going forward with this song – hopefully it can inspire the people in Vietnam to overcome the totalitarian government they have. Watch the video below:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=46&v=xnWxFIH4_dE

Source: Global Post 

Photo: YouTube



Share

2 Comments

Leave a Reply

Pin It on Pinterest