Being a Female Rapper in Vietnam
Suboi, is a well known rapper in Vietnam where she has honed her skill by listening to Eminem. She has become extremely famous in a country where half the population is under the age 25. Having a huge fan-base in a country that is still strict in its way, has become a challenge for many artist.
“She is known as Vietnam‘s queen of hip-hop, an outspoken artist who raps via coded lyrics about family, love, social pressures and illegal substances in a country where artists regularly worry about being visited by the authorities.
But Suboi, 23, is defiant. As the first female rapper to make it big in the Communist country of 92 million, she said that censorship – and how to get around it – is always on her mind.
“It’s a big thing here if you say anything bad about [the government], because maybe you’ll just ‘disappear’,” the tiny artist said over noodles in a downtown Ho Chi Minh City cafe. “Obviously you can’t say it straight – we’re still too worried to talk openly about the government and politics – so you pretend to write a love song but you have to read between the lines. Otherwise they’ll ban you.”
Source (Kate Hodal): Continue Reading @ theguardian.com