#michael nhat

[asianamsmakingmusic]

(TINGO TONGO TAPES)

[bonding-tapes]

From the forth-coming album Eating Flesh Off Bones Release Date 7/17/2018 Cassette / Digital on Bonding Tapes bondingtapes.bandcamp.com/

[asianamsmakingmusic]

(Ten-Headed Skeleton)

[bonding-tapes]

Artist: Igor Amokian Track: Ten [f. Ten Headed Skeleton and Bizzart] From the forth coming album Bentronicles on Bonding Tapes. Release date 4/18/2017.

[asianamsmakingmusic]

OUT OF THE MARGINS :: Michael Nhat

Sometimes you can be Vietnamese and still not be Vietnamese enough. But, in truth, the diaspora yields many stories, many formulations of heritage and parentage--not all of which lead back to traceable roots, or the recognizably sorrowful sentiment often associated with separation from family or cultural loss. This extra November post for Out of the Margins makes space for one of those voices. Michael Nhat is a rapper and poet, a voice rendered from a genuine periphery, a displaced of the displaced. And he speaks/sings boldly from this indeterminate diasporic space.

“I Am To Us What Blacks Are To Africa” by Michael Nhat

As (f)ar as I’m concerned, I’m a prototype for us in the future cause I don’t write or know my own culture kind of like Africa is to black Americans yeah they laugh at ya If you go back to the – motherland I didn’t plan an upbringing with a white man I understand my mom didn’t want me Women starting families don’t give away their babies so maybe; I’m mixed (and my) Mom got raped by Americans; with No intent to raise me or save me I was fucking found by a river like crazy So if you hate me – because I wasn’t taught what you was Guess what it don’t matter cause your oppressors Are mine too, I don’t receive lesser racism than you – They see a gook No matter what I speak or do or consume or eat cause I’m an immigrant And a refugee from the war you never hear us when stories of struggle are brought up in Hollywood They focus on slavery and Latinos cause they could not feel sympathy cause they don’t know we suffer They bury that with accents and yellow fever lovers You motherfuckers don’t give us respect So when I turn to my own they look at me like heck he ain’t really Asian, much less Vietnamese How do you think that makes me feel? Alone really I’m building something for us because I care about us too bad you don’t feel the same I’m an asset to the game

–

There was a war in Vietnam four decades ago. Hundreds of villages were bombed, leaving innocent people without homes, jobs, or food for themselves – let alone their children. Thousands of these children, many of whom were born as the result of rape by or prostitution to soldiers from the invading army, were taken in by families in other countries.

Michael Nhat is one of them. Found abandoned in a basket near the Soc Trang Aka Khanh Hung delta, he was adopted by an Iowan couple and has grown into a powerhouse of a rapper with primal, vivacious beats to accompany his raspy, world-weary voice. He’s on a warpath to put hip hop on a different bearing.

This post is part of diaCRITICS’ Vietnamese American Literary Series, OUT OF THE MARGINS, launched in 2015-16. The series curates literary work from poets, writers and artists of Vietnamese-American and Vietnamese diasporic experience. Our mission is to create an inclusive, diverse, provocative, ongoing space for voices and visions from this community, thus bringing them out of the margins. Dao Strom is the series editor and curator.

[asianamsmakingmusic]

michael nhat - blah blah blah (we're not 15 anymore)   

Michael Nhat performs on Demolisten, KXLU 88.9 FM Los Angeles, broadcasting live from Timewarp Records, 8/14/15.

[launderground]

MICHAEL NHAT : THE RACISM I GO THROUGH

[launderground]

Fuck, this dude is a total hip-hop star! He was about to start the show when he realized that he'd left his beats outside, so there was this five minute stretch of time where everyone in the hallway was chanting “Michael Nhat! Michael Nhat!” Kyle from Narwhal Party hyped the crowd while we waited, asking us about our drug preferences (“Do you like shrooms?!” “YEAH!!!” “Do you like to shoot heroin?!” “YEAH!!!”), and eventually Nhat got there with his jams and started bumping them.

We just came across this review from a show we co-sponsored at The Vermont House back in 2009 by Geoff Geiss (The New Motherfuckers, Pizza!, So Many Wizards, etc.) The review and the comments are a good window to this part of the scene six years ago. The Vermont House was friendly, a bit dirty, and we're pretty sure we lost 1/6 of our hearing in there watching some pretty terrific bands. As an ode to The Vermont here are a few horribly shot videos of Michael Nhat, Narwhal Party, and ReDeMeR (from Chicago who disbanded last October) from the above show that we have never posted publicly (and we just watched for the first time). Voice on Tape, Blue Tape Red Tape, Halloween Swim Team, and Luna Is Honey also played that night.