I had almost forgotten about this guy Namewee who spawned some controversy with his home-cooked rap version of our national anthem uploaded to You Tube on July 15 2007. This video was a runaway hit, grabbing over 100, 000 views in a short time- sparked some uproar with the Malaysian public and authorities; and had several MCA personalities defending Wee. I still remember catching over the news Namewee with Chua Soi Lek in the latter's office over this issue. Chua was the Health Minister then, whom ironically in the later part of 2007 had his blackmail-video thingy hitting the JB streets and You Tube as well. I never did really catch Namewee's video, subject matter of the controversy, until he appeared again in The Star on the same issue again. I thought the police was over-reacting- this time around he's being investigated under the Sedition Act, prompting me to check out his Negarakuku video. Look at this no-brainer interview here:
The Negarakuku postings in You Tube also sparked off ugly racist comments - I found one video posting accompanied by 25,000 ugly comments traded between You Tube fans. The video does have intentional racist and blesphemous undertones, but the rap is a refreshing departure from the serious pre-1992 Wah Idris-reengineered version of Negaraku. The review is here, in this wiki. I came across versions of 'Mamula Moon' (Felix Mendelssohn and his Hawaiian Serenaders) and 'Terang Bulan', the local cover version, which the Negaraku is based on. Read the 'Terang Bulan' story here. My favorite 'Terang Bulan' (Rudy Van Dalm) version is here, dedicated to all bloggers fighting for a true and just cause. Strangely, the lyrics to this song, if you catch them, does reflect our political scene.
The Negarakuku postings in You Tube also sparked off ugly racist comments - I found one video posting accompanied by 25,000 ugly comments traded between You Tube fans. The video does have intentional racist and blesphemous undertones, but the rap is a refreshing departure from the serious pre-1992 Wah Idris-reengineered version of Negaraku. The review is here, in this wiki. I came across versions of 'Mamula Moon' (Felix Mendelssohn and his Hawaiian Serenaders) and 'Terang Bulan', the local cover version, which the Negaraku is based on. Read the 'Terang Bulan' story here. My favorite 'Terang Bulan' (Rudy Van Dalm) version is here, dedicated to all bloggers fighting for a true and just cause. Strangely, the lyrics to this song, if you catch them, does reflect our political scene.
No comments:
Post a Comment