Burma's dangerous hip-hop scene

1. Evil Pundit
   May 22nd, 2008 at 8:45 pm

   Poor Burmese.

   As if an evil Communist dictatorship wasn't bad enough -- now they have to suffer hip-hop too!

2. Adam Stanhope
   May 22nd, 2008 at 8:49 pm

   They are evil and they are a dictatorship, but they aren't Communists.

3. Tubesteak
   May 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 pm

   Hip Hop permeates everything in our world. And I think that's a good thing:

   http://decentcommunity.org/2008/05/09/the-most-decent-brands-of-all-ti me/

4. bean
   May 23rd, 2008 at 6:51 am

   Adam -

   The Myanmar junta is supported by Communist China.

5. gl3nk
   May 23rd, 2008 at 7:14 am

   EVERY hip-hop scene is dangerous. Hip-hoppers are the epitome of stupidity.

6. Retrokatze
   May 23rd, 2008 at 7:33 am

   @ bean:

   Adam is right, Myanmar is under a military dictatorship; the Communist Party of Burma has been of no relevance since 1989.
   And getting "support" by Communist China doesn't mean the nation itself is Communist. Especially since China couldn't care less about ideology right now - building military bases in Myanmar to better monitor India and building streets to give China access to the Indian Ocean is the point of all this financial and military aid.

7. Feste
   May 23rd, 2008 at 7:58 am

   It's a nice little video.

   I was always partial to Russian rap myself.

8. NeonCat
   May 23rd, 2008 at 8:11 am

   Gosh, I knew before I clicked on the comments that there would be n numbers of "hip-hop is the suck" comments.

   I sincerely wish the human race would grow the hell up and realize that just because *you* don't enjoy something doesn't mean it has no merit at all for anyone.

   Now go listen to your Foghat 8-tracks, gramps. I promise to stay off your lawn.

9. matt
   May 23rd, 2008 at 10:53 am

   funny... i always thought uninformed, blanket assertions were the epitome of stupidity. guess i was wrong.

10. Jennifer
    May 23rd, 2008 at 11:26 am

    What exactly about hip hop is good? The gangbangers across the street from me love this crappy genre. They blare it from their car stereos while beating their pitbulls to toughen them up for dog fights.

11. Jake D.
    May 23rd, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    I don't see how neighbors who are bad people make up the entire genre. I don't care for much hip-hop, and I can see definite scary aspects of the culture. But assuming every fan of hip hop is dangerous, or not at all good, is unfair. There are a lot of rappers with messages, and there are a lot of mindless rap songs too. But that's the same in every genre. Shall we compare "Like a Rolling Stone" to "She's My Cherry Pie"?

    Also, some comments posted seem to miss the point that video is saying hip-hop is dangerous because of the risk of being arrested by the not-so-secret police. Or being tortured by the military. Based on this video hip-hop is VERY positive in Burma. Watch the video! Jeez.

12. matt
    May 23rd, 2008 at 12:59 pm

    Jennifer - i'd suggest this quick sampling of the following videos. they contrast the more dominant bad rap (pardon the awful pun) the music genre gets.

    Public Enemy suggests the youth of america need to quit shooting each other and quit wasting their brain cells on 40 oz malt liquor bottles:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp2dokgYdDQ

    Talib Kweli pleads pretty much doing the same thing:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77zxCAfVeD8

    Mos Def raps about how inner city kids need to start believing they are worth something because of things like familial love, not because of bling bling:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLKTbSNkdLI

    the list goes on and on, but this is the subset of hip hop that gets largely unnoticed by most of middle class america.

13. Christophe
    May 23rd, 2008 at 2:39 pm

    "We make FOX News look fair and balanced" LOL

    About Myanmar : the military rulers were communists (Burma Socialist Programme Party) up to 1988, when they got overthrown by other military rulers ; they switched 'Burma' to 'Myanmar', abandonned the path to socialism, and are now nowhere between corruption, drug traffic, human rights abuses, and, oh yes, a few rice crops...

    A nice country indeed. but not Communist anymore.

14. CheeseDuck
    May 23rd, 2008 at 6:04 pm

    What's so bad about Communism? I doubt any of you even know Communist philosophies.

15. Jennifer
    May 23rd, 2008 at 6:25 pm

    @ Matt

    Thanks for the suggestions! They have been enlightening.

16. ted
    May 23rd, 2008 at 6:30 pm

    I assume that the "subset of hip-hop that goes largely unnoticed" is about as popular as Christian Heavy Metal.

17. wonder_al
    May 23rd, 2008 at 8:01 pm

    I recommend watching
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v10nfUUqD48
    It's by The Coup, a Marxist hip-hop group.

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