Kenyo Gyi has been a favorite of mine for a number of years, and I was able to find this cassette in Mandalay this past year. I don’t have the song titles translated yet, but in the meantime, enjoy 2 great tracks from the cassette.
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I don’t know much about rap/hip-hop, but one of the primary focusses in my musical search in Burma was to find urban youth-oriented music, how it’s made, distributed, performed, etc… and how something like a Hip-Hop scene might exist in a city like Yangon or Mandalay. The first rapper everyone pointed me to, both inside and outside the country, is J-Me. A member of the “Myanmar Hip-Hop association”, which supports now over a dozen musicians through their distribution of annual compilations, and functioning for all intents and purposes as a collective and record label.
J-ME SONG 2 MP3
Other members of the MHA include Cyclone, K-Ca$h, Kaung Chit Soe, OnTrack, Bigg-Y and others. Many produce their own music, make their own beats and write their own lyrics, and occasionally some of the artists work with big name DJs such as Thxa Soe and DJ Jay for remixes or new releases. In the spirit of copy songs, I thought it would be appropriate to breath a little life into the idea, and pass along the DJ Thxa Soe and MHA Wu-Tang copyWU INTERNET MIX MP3 (Wu-Tang copy song)
It’s more common for rappers to release single songs than full albums, making compilations the primary marketing device to introduce rappers to the public. This 2005-dated compilation features 2 songs each by 6 rappers.
I am hoping to throw a compilation together featuring a number of interesting songs from the Yangon underground electronic/hip-hop scene. Please contact me if you are interested in this project.
A few songs that didn’t end up making it onto the album for various reasons, but which I wanted to share.
CHILDREN MALE DUET
SHAKIRA COPY SONG
MALE COUNTRY SONG
BURMA CLASSIC ROCK
COMMERCIALThese were recorded March-April 2007 in Yangon, Myanmar. Visit the MUSIC section for links to purchase the disc from Sublime Frequencies.
Believe it or not, Myanmar has its own “Myanmar Hip-Hop Association”; it has its own guitar gods, country music icons, trip-hop and trance underground scenes. Don’t let its international image obscure the vibrancy and creativity of its youth. The problem, obviously, is finding out about that stuff in the first place. I will focus on Burmese hip-hop and guitar music at another time, but I wanted to ease into some of those extremes with the one of the biggest bands in Burma — Emperor.
First of all, who listens to all this stuff? What would Burmese kids recommend? Well, hear them for yourself (My friends in Mandalay on what the kids like in Burma)
I found this Emperor cassette (entitled “New Place”) in the same Mae Sot shop I found the hand-drawn Karen cassette below. Emperor formed in the late 80s, led by vocalist Zaw Win Htut, and my sources tell me this album dates back to the early 90s.
“NEW PLACE” MP3
PURPLE HAZE COVER MP3info and translation from Naw Laung
I found this cassette of an ethnic Karen rock group in the back room of an old cassette shop in Mae Sot, Thailand, along the Burmese border. The cassette art is hand-drawn. Sorry I am unable to translate the song titles.
