GaSouht and praCh as Told by Master Kong Nay

In “GaSouht,” praCh raps and poet U Sam Ouer chants in traditional style about the hardships of the Khmer Rouge time. It begins with praCh rapping about the Khmer Rouge entering Phnom Penh in April 1975, then U Sam Oeur chants his poetry about the heart-rending evacuation from the city, and praCh finishes off by rapping about the horrors of the labor camps.

In “praCh as told by Master Kong Nay,” chapey master Kong Nay sings the story of praCh’s life, beginning with his birth in the refugee camps after the war, to coming to America and losing friends to violence in the ghetto, to recording his first album in his parents’ garage and first performing his rap at the Khmer New Year, to how his music made its way to Cambodia and brought him to bootlegged fame, to praCh’s own return to Cambodia when the two sat down together and Master Kong Nai came to sing the story of praCh.

Photo: Sharon May, “Kong Nay, Recording for praCh, Phnom Penh, Cambodia” (2006)

In “GaSouht,” praCh raps and poet U Sam Ouer chants in traditional style about the hardships of the Khmer Rouge time. It begins with praCh rapping about the Khmer Rouge entering Phnom Penh in April 1975, then U Sam Oeur chants his poetry about the heart-rending evacuation from the city, and praCh finishes off by rapping about the horrors of the labor camps.

In “praCh as told by Master Kong Nay,” chapey master Kong Nay sings the story of praCh’s life, beginning with his birth in the refugee camps after the war, to coming to America and losing friends to violence in the ghetto, to recording his first album in his parents’ garage and first performing his rap at the Khmer New Year, to how his music made its way to Cambodia and brought him to bootlegged fame, to praCh’s own return to Cambodia when the two sat down together and Master Kong Nai came to sing the story of praCh.