Tuesday, April 25, 2006

FROM POL POT TO HIP-HOP

Continuing our series of posts about unlikely rappers: Did the founders of hip-hop music in the '70s ever imagine that one day their music would teach the Cambodian people their horrifying history? Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash et. al. would have been open-mouthed in shock if they heard that a bootleg of a rap album recorded by a Cambodian-American youngster in his parents' garage would do just that. Much to praCh's amazement, his debut album, little known beyond Long Beach, CA's Cambodian community, became the number one album in the land of his birth. It served the dual purpose of schooling Cambodians in American-style hip-hop, and telling some grim truths about dictator Pol Pot's murderous regime.

praCh: "The Great Escape" - A gripping account of his family's escape from Cambodia
praCh: "Ah-Yei (Khmer Rap)" - performed entirely in the Khmer language

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