Music release
Dalama: The Lost Chapter
Dalama: The Lost Chapter is the second album by the Long Beach rapper praCh Ly, a hip-hop record about Cambodia's history and the Khmer Rouge genocide.[1][2] Its songs move between the genocide, the refugee years and Cambodian American life, set over beats that carry traditional Cambodian court music.[1][3]
About the release
praCh Ly wrote and produced the album and released it on his own label, Mujestic Records, in Long Beach, California.[4][2] Sources give two years for the release: 2002 in the book War, Genocide, and Justice, and 2003 in UCLA's review and in the Music of Asian America Research Center's notes.[4][1][3] It was a do-it-yourself production, recorded in a garage studio.[1]
Traditional Cambodian court music, pin peat, played by Ho C. Chan, runs through most of the tracks.[1] Chan is credited with much of the music on the album.[5] Lee Ballinger of Rock & Rap Confidential wrote that, for all its barebones garage studio, its "bass-heavy sound is pulse-quickening and persuasive."[5] Xenia Shin, reviewing it for UCLA in 2004, judged it stronger than the first album and found it very listenable despite its hard subject.[1]
Songs
The lyrics deal with bloodshed, cultural trauma and the forgetting of history.[1][4] The songs include "Power, Territory, and Rice," "s.i.c.," "STORIES," "Art of FaCt" and "The Great Escape."[1][4][6] "The Great Escape" echoes the painful history of praCh Ly and the people of Cambodia.[6]
In "Art of FaCt," praCh Ly tells of his own background as a refugee. He also tells of the struggles many in his Long Beach community still face in the United States.[3] The lyrics look at the genocide a quarter of a century later, at war, refugees and cultural trauma.[1] On the original recording, the backing track opens with a digitally altered Cambodian flute (khloy). It then turns into a blend of R&B and pin peat.[3] Lyrics from "STORIES" and "Art of FaCt" are reproduced in chapter 4 of the 2012 book War, Genocide, and Justice: Cambodian American Memory Work.[4]
The Dalama trilogy
The Lost Chapter is the second part of praCh Ly's Dalama trilogy. It follows Dalama: The End'n Is Just the Beginn'n and comes before Dalama: Memoirs of the Invisible War. The three albums tell the history of Cambodia's genocide over hip-hop beats, and all three came out on Mujestic Records.[2][1]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 UCLA International Institute, Prach Ly: Round 2 (March 5, 2004)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 International Examiner, Ayai to Rap: Prach Ly tells the story of Cambodia (January 19, 2019)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 The Music of Asian America Research Center, National Council for Public History Presentation (March 19, 2020)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 War, Genocide, and Justice: Cambodian American Memory Work (2012)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Mike the Poet, PraCh Ly & CORRUPTION (June 17, 2011)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Patch, Long Beach Rapper Highlights Cultural Heritage with Film Festival (September 12, 2013)