Burma's dangerous hip-hop scene


Who would have thought that Burma (aka Myanmar) has a hip-hop scene? I guess that little surprises me anymore. Hip-hop lends itself well to the voice of the discontent underclass almost regardless of where it rears its precious little head. It pleases me to hear that hip-hop is playing a role in the anti-Junta, pro-freedom discontent that is simmering just beneath the surface in the wake of the recent cyclone fallout. Video courtesy of Scott Bateman and Salon.com.

@ 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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"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.
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