Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Original Cambodian Rap?

I was digging through an old box of videos and found the recording of a Cambodia Rap I performed for Khmer New Year in Long Beach in 1996. I believe this was the first public performance of a Khmer Rap to be broadcast on the Cambodian Cable station, and certainly the first by a White-and-Nerdy boy like me. The Cable station played this over-and-over for about a month after the New Year Peformance, and copies even made it over to Cambodia. During that time, I couldn't go anywhere in Long Beach without Cambodians stopping me on the street going, "Hey! You're that Cambodian Rapper guy!" Even old ladies in the Cambodian Markets would walk by me repeating lines from the Rap and giggling.

My performance was meant just to be funny skit. It's been fun to watch Khmer Rap become a serious medium.

The video and sound quality is horrible. Unfortunatly, the only copy I had was on a damaged video tape, so this was the best capture I could get. If anyone has a better copy of this, please let me know!

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