Burmese Hip Hop - First Generation

First Generation

Until 2000, rock and roll was the dominant music genre in Myanmar. The Burmese hip hop scene started in the late 1980s with the rapper Myo Kyawt Myaing although songs were plain rapping music rather than typical hip hop. In late 1990s, a Yangon-based four-member band named Acid started introducing old school hip hop in night clubs of Yangon, and became popular among Yangon's youth. Acid, widely considered to be the pioneers of Burmese hip-hop, made their debut in 2000 with Sa-Tin-Gyin (Beginning).

Their success attracted other hip-hop artists and groups, now known as the "first generation" of Burmese hip-hop, like Theory (Barbu and Thxa Soe), NS (Kyaw Thu Soe and Lin Lin) and Too Big. Most of the first generation artists used old school hip-hop. Still, hip hop was new to the Burmese and not widely accepted yet by the public at large. To find wider acceptance, some first-generation artists such as Sai Sai Kham Hlaing and Yé Lay mixed hip-hop with pop, and found commercial success.