Episode #67: Fight the Power
There are several images that will forever be seared into the mind of the Burmese hip hop artist known as 882021; pictures and videos that he will never be able to unsee. Soldiers charging at protesters. Thugs dressed in monks’ robes cracking car windows with crowbars. Police cheering when a fellow officer’s bullet found its human target.
882021 has gone on to reference these grim scenes not only in his music, but also to creatively render the images into artwork that appear in his music videos. He is one of many dynamic artists now using their creative gifts to resist the military coup in Myanmar, while boosting the morale of the people.
By choosing to be so bold in his lyrics in spite of the risks, he has come to fear for his safety, so he made a break from his prior artistic career to quite literally make a new name for himself—in his case, not a name, but a number. The six digits he now identifies himself as are filled with meaning. First, they represent the dates of the 1988 revolution and the current resistance movement. Second, the digits also make up the hexadecimal number for the web color “dried blood”, a color that he rarely noticed in real life before the coup, but now sees everywhere he looks.
Meditation has also played a role in 882021’s life. He learned the Mahasi technique during his days as a monk. But as valuable as he finds the Buddha’s teachings in life today, particularly the lessons on karma and the role of cause and effect, he prioritizes freedom of expression in a traditional, conservative society where religious mores often guide artistic output. “I feel everything should be able to be criticized,” he says. “And that includes a religion as well. Personally, I'm a Buddhist myself, but I don't believe in taking extreme measures censoring art.”
882021 is firmly in the tradition of political rap and hip hop that speaks truth to power. His early influences include American artists like Eminem, Kanye West, and Kendrick Lamar. He also mentions rappers who appeared at the start of the Burmese hip hop movement in the early 2000s, such as Sai Sai and J-Me. He notes how their tracks included a mixture of translated covers of American songs along with original recordings that subtly layer criticism of the ruling military in between the lines. During the growing freedom of the 2010s, Burmese rappers took advantage of the country’s increasing freedoms by becoming more outspoken in their songs. And since the coup, many artists have written new tracks speaking specifically against the military’s illegal seizure of power. While most Burmese artists rap in their native language, 882021 chooses English as his medium, to speak to an international audience.
Under his new moniker, 882021 has produced two songs with accompanying videos. The first is “Lee Coup,” and the second, “Lee 199.” His work is part of the larger collective “Rap Against Junta,” which also features a diaspora of Asian artists rapping on a track called “Dictators Must Die.” In his opinion, rap is the perfect medium for expressing this resistance. As he says, “Hip hop has always had a political history. And in my opinion, it is the best type of music to express these struggles that we're having with oppression.”
At this moment especially, he believes that the role of the Burmese artist is to inspire, to motivate, and to improve the morale, and towards these ends, he is working on his third track now. “It's really important to keep the people’s spirit high.”
Learn about the poem, The Burden of Being Bamar."