4C
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2016
PARTING SHOT
FROM EDWARD STRATTON
A weekly snapshot from The Daily Astorian and Chinook Observer photographers
Drivers on the Youngs Bay Bridge were entertained by a kite surfer Sunday.
ODDITY
Express yourself
Obama uses
rap to tout
free speech
in Vietnam
Associated Press
H
O CHI MINH CITY,
Vietnam — President
Barack Obama’s part-
ing shot before leaving com-
munist Vietnam: let people
express themselves.
He may have been refer-
ring to rap but the subtle mes-
sage was aimed at his hosts
who have been criticized for
muzzling dissent.
During his three-day
visit, Obama had spoken out
strongly for human rights
and free speech. On Wednes-
day, he brought it up again
during a light moment after
providing a supporting beat
to a female rapper who asked
him a question at a town hall
meeting with hundreds of
young Vietnamese.
“Before I answer your
question, why don’t you give
me a little rap, let’s see what
you got,” Obama — his sky-
blue shirt sleeves rolled up
— told the rapper known as
Suboi. “Come on. Do you
need like a little beat?” And
he went on to show off his
oral beat-producing skills on
the microphone.
“Vietnamese or English?”
asked Suboi, Vietnam’s
queen of hip-hop. “In Viet-
namese, of course,” the pres-
ident responded. “I won’t
know what it means, but ...
just a short version, because
I’ve got to get going. Go
ahead.”
After a few seconds of
Suboi’s catchy hip-hop, in
which the rest of the crowd
joined by providing an
applause beat, Obama told
her: “That was good. See
there? That was pretty good.”
He requested the meaning
of the verse and got a les-
son in materialism from the
26-year-old woman.
“I was just talking about
some people having a lot of
money, having big houses.
But actually, are they really
happy?” she said. Then she
went on to talk about ste-
reotypes: how people make
assumptions when they see
women rappers (cute girls).
That was Obama’s cue.
“Well that’s true in the
United States too ... there’s
always been, sort of, sex-
ism and gender stereotypes
in the music industry, like
every other part of life,” he
said.
He pointed out that rap,
which started as an expres-
sion of poor African-Amer-
icans, is now a global phe-
nomenon, the art form of
young people around the
world.
“And imagine if at the
time that rap was starting
off that the government had
said ‘no because some of the
things you say are offensive
or some of the lyrics are rude
or you’re cursing too much.”’
“That connection that
we’ve seen now in hip-hop
culture around the world
wouldn’t exist. So you’ve got
to let people express them-
selves. That’s part of what a
modern 21st-century culture
is all about,” he said.
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
President Barack Obama
turns to listen to a ques-
tion from the audience as
he speaks to Vietnamese
young people during the
Young Southeast Asian
Leaders Initiative town hall-
style event at the GEM Cen-
ter in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet-
nam, on Wednesday.
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