BBC's the world
-audio translation-

 

DATE=1/16/04

TYPE=English Feature

NUMBER=7-38245

TITLE=Cambodian Rap

BYLINE=Chris Richard

TELEPHONE=260-1623 (Editor)

DATELINE=North Long Beach, California

EDITOR=Faith Lapidus

CONTENT=

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INTRO: In the 1970s, after the Khmer Rouge launched the massacres that became known as "the killing fields," a flood of refugees fled Cambodia. Many settled in Long Beach, California, and today the Southern California city has the world's largest Cambodian population outside of Phnom Penh.

Now, the city that produced some of the biggest stars in hip-hop has engendered a new music: Cambodian rap that chronicles the violence on Southern California's streets, and ties it directly to the refugees' experience stretching back to the Khmer Rouge. Chris Richard has more.

AUDIO: CUT 1 AMBI INSIDE CAR (hold under and x-fade with Cut 3 after Cut 2)

TEXT: For Prach Ly (PRATCH LEE), the streets of North Long Beach are full of ghosts. Some are from a time before he was born, memories that haunt his parents and his older brothers and sisters, images of the days when the Khmer Rouge declared a new beginning of history, a utopia to be built on a foundation of corpses.

But some of the ghosts are from his own childhood here in California.

AUDIO: CUT 2 LY

"It was drugs and guns and gangs. At one point I was caught in a crossfire. It was just some guy running across with an automatic AK running across and just sprayed the whole apartment up and I was right there in the middle of the crossfire. And it got to the point where we had to accept it because that's where we were at. It was a killing field itself. A different kind of killing field." (:19)

TEXT: Young Cambodians see a parallel between their people's horrific past and their own present in Southern California. They've adapted the rap and hip-hop of the Long Beach streets to their own stories.

AUDIO: CUT 3 RAP (Snk under and hold)

TEXT: Prach Ly has been the leading storyteller. His audience extends from North Long Beach to Phnom Penh, where bootleggers have sold thousands of his CDs and where some call the 24-year-old musician Cambodia's first rap star.

His second album, Dalama, is a cultural blend. He uses traditional instruments, like flutes and drums, and he raps in Khmer on about a quarter of the tracks. The rest of the lyrics are in colloquial English, straight Southern California hip-hop.

AUDIO: CUT 3 RAP (Sweep up, hold through 'aftermath of Pol Pot', under and lose)

"I find myself in Long Beach

The Next Cambodian Mecca

I find myself in Long Beach,

the next Cambodian Mecca.

Beside srox Khmer, whale shrie Angkor Wat,

Some people still struggling,

on the aftermath of Pol Pot....

TEXT: The brutality of the Pol Pot era meant sudden and unpredictable attacks. The rapper finds echoes of that in the crime-ridden neighborhoods of Southern California. Gang members will just materialize around you, he says, and all the sudden, you're in trouble. To Him Chhim, executive director of the Long Beach-based Cambodian Association of America, the parallel makes sense.

AUDIO: CUT 4 CHHIM

"During the killing fields we don't know what kind of mistake anyone had been killed for. Similarity exists in this Long Beach neighborhood is that people got killed at random. For no reason!" (:16)

TEXT: Mr. Chhim also points out that after nearly three decades, the soldiers of the Khmer Rouge have not been brought to justice. Likewise, gang killings often go unsolved. Twenty-year-old Ra Pok suggests a reason why.

AUDIO: CUT 5 POK

"Like, the people who were killed in the Khmer Rouge era, they were farmers, either middle class or way below middle class. And if you look at the people who are affected by gang violence, they are people who are below the poverty line." (:14)

TEXT: The daughter of refugees says there are plenty of reminders of her own powerlessness. She says she doesn't go outside at night, and worries constantly that her two younger brothers could fall victim to the gangs.

Still, as grim as the situation is at the moment, Prach Ly finds reason for hope. He says, when he was a child, most young people had only contempt for their own culture, and Cambodians had little sense of community. Now, that's changing.

AUDIO: CUT 6 LY

"There's Cambodian clubs in schools and there are more resources for us now. The population is growing up here in Long Beach, and we have a strong foundation we can build from." (:10)

TEXT: There may be a growing market for Cambodian rap and his musical career, as well.

AUDIO: CUT 7 SFX SOFT RAP (Under and hold, lose after Cut 9)

AUDIO: CUT 8 ANDERSON

"With rap and hip-hop music, it pretty comes down to exposure." (:04)

TEXT: Kelvin Anderson is the Long Beach record storeowner who discovered best-selling rap artists Warren G. and Snoop Dogg. He's impressed by Prach Ly.

AUDIO: CUT 9 ANDERSON

"He has the talent. So it's going to come down to the exposure. And here in Long Beach, having a very large Cambodian neighborhood and a lot of kids who are really into hip-hop, he has a really good chance of making it."

TEXT: Still, in Long Beach, fortunes can change quickly. Right now, Prach Ly is mourning the death of a friend another rapper who was gunned down recently.

AUDIO: CUT 10 LY

"I know he was gonna succeed. He was gonna make it. Most of his money from the paycheck go to studio time. You know, the other half, he's going to school. And he don't have any gang ties. And look at the outcome. (:14)

TEXT: His friend was 20 years old. Police are still looking for the killers? and a motive. For The World, I'm Chris Richard in North Long Beach, California.