F*ck the Police
Hip hop has always been a force speaking truth to power, and so I was more than eager to get a chance to to talk to the Burmese rapper 882021 about the role that music is playing in the resistance movement. Anywhere it is made, rap is deeply embedded in cultural and linguistic meaning. On the one hand this makes the art form all the more potent for the listener, but at the same time it also does form a kind of barrier for those outside the community to properly understand and appreciate the deeper sentiments being expressed. So in the excerpt that follows, we are treated to hearing 882021 dissect the underlying meaning of his lyrics. And if you find the following of interest, consider checking out the full interview.
“Who do we call when the police are the ones giving us the trouble? Who are just giving us hell on earth? There’s no one to depend on but ourselves.”
“So my song ‘Lee Coup’ is basically about the coup. ‘Lee’ in Burmese is basically "d*ck" but like if you combine it with another word, it's like it kind of means F*ck, so like, ‘Fu*ck the coup,’ or ‘Lee coup.’ So it reflects my thoughts on what's happening with the coup, and basically just me expressing like, ‘Oh, I can't believe this is happening!’ And me expressing my views towards the coup and my anger towards the coup as well.
Ok, now there is 199. This is the number you use here to call the police. It's not 911 like in the US, but in Myanmar it is 199. So before we used to depend on the police to help us get out of trouble. But who do we call right now when the police are the ones giving us the trouble? Who are just giving us hell on earth? There's no one to depend on but ourselves.
I was upset about the coup happening. And look, I took a lot of key moments from the coup and then tried to think about imagery and lyrics that will match it. For example, I saw this one video about a fake monk who had a crowbar or some sort of stick, and he was going around cracking car windows. This was set up by the military and I addressed this by rapping about these fake prophets who were planning hate, and then the military is calling it religion!
This was my anger towards the military using religion as kind of like a tool of control, and to then try to say to the people, ‘What we're doing is right!’”