Music release
Dalama: The End'n Is Just the Beginn'n
Dalama: The End'n Is Just the Beginn'n is the first album by the Khmer American rapper praCh, a Khmer and English telling of the Khmer Rouge years.[1][2]
About the release
The album sets hip-hop lyrics in Khmer and English over traditional Cambodian instruments.[2][3] Its songs retell the history of Cambodia's killing fields from 1975 to 1979, and the lyrics give the number killed under the Khmer Rouge as an estimated 1.7 million people.[1][4] Some lyrics are written from the point of view of praCh's father, telling what he lived through and how he survived.[5] praCh called the album a "hip-hop memoir."[3] The song "Resurrec" is performed in both Khmer and English.[6]
History
praCh made the album in his parents' garage in Long Beach, California, recording it in a week on their karaoke machine.[1][3] He recorded it in 2000; UConn Today dates the writing and production to 1999.[3][5] He made it for himself and his family, not for fame, and record companies showed little interest.[5][4]
A deejay carried a copy to Phnom Penh, where the album became very popular with young people and was widely played across the country.[4][1] Hundreds of bootleg copies circulated, and word of mouth made it the top-selling album in Cambodia in 2000 and 2001.[4][1][2] praCh at first did not know the album had reached number one there.[1] It made him Cambodia's top-selling hip-hop artist.[7] The Cambodian government banned the songs from radio as too controversial, but people bought the album and played it at home and in clubs.[2]
Impact
The album has been credited with bringing hip-hop to Cambodia and with teaching a younger generation about the country's genocidal past.[1][2] praCh has said that students who heard it began asking their teachers about the killing fields and the U.S. bombings, and that schools then took up those subjects.[1] He has also said that a teacher wrote to tell him she had begun teaching history without leaving material out.[1]
Cathy Schlund-Vials, a professor of Asian American studies, called the album quintessentially Cambodian American in its lyrics and music, and said it memorializes the Cambodian American experience.[5] She also said it met a pent-up need among Cambodia's young people.[3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Asia Society, praCh: Spinnin' Memory, Rappin' Justice (April 6, 2015)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Asia Society, Interview: 'Spinnin' Memory,' Khmer American Rapper Teaches a Traumatic History (May 26, 2017)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Asia Society, Young Artist's Rap Tries To Heal Cambodia's Painful Past
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 UCLA International Institute, Prach Ly: Round 2 (March 5, 2004)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 UConn Today, Asian American Studies Professor Earns National Honor (April 24, 2013)
- ↑ PBS Frontline/World, Cambodia: Pol Pot's Shadow, Prach Ly, The Rapper
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, Cambodian Music Festival salutes tradition, new artists paving the way (July 26, 2014)