Rappers Are Using Music To Fight the Myanmar Military

When 42-year-old Osho woke up in his home in Yangon, Myanmar, on the morning of Feb. 1, 2021, he found that his telephone line and internet access had been cut. Television broadcasts were suspended. Domestic and international flights canceled. The Myanmar parliament was scheduled to endorse the results of the national election held the previous November that morning. But the Tatmadaw, the country’s military, seized power in a coup d’état first.

It was both confusing and all too familiar for Osho. He grew up under the junta that trumped the democratic uprising in Myanmar in 1988. “There was a lot of trauma revisited,” he told VICE. “Osho” is an alias that the long-time musician has adopted to protect his identity from the military.

He saw for himself how the 1988 junta violently ended what some call a stillborn revolution and became one of the longest-running military dictatorships in the world. Osho would not have that happen again. He wanted resistance against the oppressive regime, and justice and peace in his country. 

Osho had a network of what he called “conscious musicians” long before the 2021 coup. This group, he said, had always sought to bring people together through music and push the limits of freedom of expression. When the military seized power that morning in February, these musicians were eager to fight back. 

“We started going out in the streets [along with other protesters] with the sound system we had, with all the equipment we had, and we started organizing these street concerts and joining the protests with music,” Osho said. “Out of chaos, Rap Against Junta was born.” 

Rap Against Junta comprised trusted members of Osho’s network. Some of them are famous rappers in Myanmar. The group’s mission was to use hip-hop as a “platform for creative resistance against oppressive regimes.”

Hip-hop musicians, especially rappers, have wielded the genre to express dissent against systemic injustice and police violence all over the world. Iconic tracks like “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five detail the difficulty of life in poor black communities in the United States, where the genre originated. In “FUCKTHEPOPO/屌狗,” JB, a hip-hop artist from Hong Kong, criticizes the Hong Kong police’s liberal use of tear gas and rubber bullets along with other abuses of power. In Thailand, a country that has been trapped in a cycle of its own coups, a group called Rap Against Dictatorship has been credited for mobilizing citizens and gaining political leverage against a corrupt government.

The same rang true in Myanmar. Local hip-hop legend Phyo Zeya Thaw rose to fame along with his group ACID in 2000. Their first album, SaTin Gyin resonated with the frustrated youth living under then-military dictator Than Shwe. Phyo Zeya Thaw went on to become a pro-democracy activist and lawmaker with the National League for Democracy, Myanmar’s democratic party. 

Osho said that many young musicians in Myanmar remained excited about hip-hop. There was also more room to create hip-hop music with big producers. Rappers in particular are skilled with words, able to express their emotions through written and freestyle verses. All that made hip-hop and rap make sense as the sound of the revolution, according to Osho. 

Rap Against Junta’s first real event, outside of joining protests with microphones and speakers, happened a few weeks after the military staged the coup. It was a badly-organized show in downtown Yangon, on the sidewalk next to a police station. “Right in front of our concert was a police truck,” Osho said.

There were four, maybe five, performers on the lineup. They performed for an hour or two. The group could not yet plan the show like a proper concert, so it simply told its network that it would be on the streets at a certain time. The chaos in the streets made it difficult to tell exactly how many people were there for the show.

Its second show, in March 2021, was bigger and better organized. Rap Against Junta worked with a large shopping mall in Yangon to stage the performances. But the power was cut off in the middle of the concert. Still, the group felt good about what it had pulled off.

The next day, the military started shooting protesters. 

The United Nations reports that the Tatmadaw and those working with it have killed at least 2,890 people, noting that this is almost certainly an underestimation. Approximately 1.2 million people have been internally displaced and over 70,000 have left the country. Osho included. 

Thousands of civilian structures, including homes, clinics, schools, and places of worship, have been burned over the past two years. The country’s economy has also collapsed. Nearly half of the population now lives below the poverty line. Police and soldiers have shot demonstrators in the head, raided homes, and arrested anyone suspected of supporting democracy. 

Rap Against Junta laid low amidst these threats. But it continued to make music. The group released tracks on its YouTube channel, with artists concealing their faces and using code names. Osho said that nobody should be scared of expressing their dissent against the military, but using their real identities and platforms online would make the artists easy targets for arrest. In order for the group to stand a chance against the junta, it had to be smart.

Among the group’s releases is the track “Dictators Must Die.” It features artists from Indonesia, Taiwan, and other countries battling oppressive regimes. There’s also “Blood,” which has artists from different Myanmar ethnic groups rapping in their own languages—a show of unity across the country. 

The beats of these tracks are punchy and aggressive. The lyrics are by no means subtle. The chorus of “Blood” begins with the lines “This is our blood, our blood / Never gonna be under the military regime / And will fight till the end.”

Osho explained that Rap Against Junta got away with these forms of protest because the military prioritized arresting prominent political figures over artists.

But in November 2021, the military arrested Phyo Zeya Thaw, the hip-hop legend who later became a pro-democracy activist, for his participation in what they described as terrorist attacks. In July last year, the military hanged him. It was the first use of capital punishment in the country in decades. 

“We never believed that they would actually hang him, but now he’s gone, for doing the right thing,” Osho said.

Recently, Rap Against Junta said it has reason to believe that its members are next on the military’s list of arrests. This has prompted the group to be even more low-key. It can’t force artists still in Myanmar to get behind a mic in times like these, said Osho. He is even more careful after the execution of Phyo Zeya Thaw, not wanting to lose anyone else. But he’s not silent. 

Osho and Sai Hlyan, a Myanmar DJ also not currently in the country, have taken to producing a podcast. It aims to spread the word on the current situation in the country and serve as a form of community and mental health support for young musicians. 

“The revolution has been going on for quite a long time,” said Osho. “The situation in Myanmar is extremely hard. It’s tremendously challenging. They can’t even live peacefully. Every day is a big struggle for safety, for shelter, for food. The space for creativity is shrinking, every moment, minute by minute, day by day.” 

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