President Obama beat boxed for a Vietnamese rapper during a town hall held in Ho Chi Minh this week.
The commander in chief engaged in a brief performance with Suboi, a woman considered the Queen of Hip Hop in Vietnam. During the town hall, she asked the President a question about the importance of a nation supporting his artists. He replied by asking her to spit a verse for him and offered to beat box while she was rhyming. “Why don’t you give me a little rap…Do you need a beat,” he asked. Subai followed by dropping a verse in her native Vietnamese language. She later explained what she was talking about in the rap. “I was just talking about people having a lot of money. Having big houses. But actually are they really happy? So, a lot of things that people look at us and see different things, they assume or a lot of stereotypes. Like me, an Asian rapper.. For Vietnamese people it’s different. They think rapping is not for women,” she said.
The President discussed sexism in the U.S. and stressed the importance of the arts later on in the event. “But that’ s true in the United States,” he said. “I just mean that there’s always been sort of sexism and gender stereotypes in the music industry like every other part of life. But to answer your question, the arts are important. Artistic expression is important..Those are the things that inspire people.” The brief performance was filmed and released by TIME Raw. The President also gave a speech in Hanoi on human rights while visiting Vietnam this week and stressed the importance of “fully normalizing” America’s relationship with Vietnam. He let the country know that human rights “is not a threat to stability” but reinforces it.
Source: hiphopdx.com
