Khanh Nho & Phong Le - Vườn Hoa Hồng Đỏ (Garden of Roses)

Folks...you are looking a piece of Vietnamese rap history. This is the first ever Viet rap video. It dates back to the year 2000 (I think). This is Khanh Nho and Phong Le collaborating together in Vườn Hoa Hồng Đỏ (meaning "Garden of Roses" in English) which refers to the nickname of the city of Portland for its many rose gardens. The song can be classified as a Vietnamese gangsta rap song or a rap song about rebellious Vietnamese youth. The video for Vườn Hoa Hồng Đỏ was shot in Portland, Oregon. The video production is pretty corny and ghetto, but it pretty much captures the essence of daily life for Vietnamese youth over in Portland back in 2000. You gotta give both Khanh Nho and Phong Le props and respect for paving the way for Vietnamese rappers.

So.... yeah I've been wondering... what happened to Khanh Nho lately? I did some google sleuthing and I found this statement written by Phong Le on April 29, 2009 in the VietRapper forum about what Khanh Nho is up to now:

Khanh Nho Move to NC for a year now... He come to to Portland Oregon some time to visit 102vietrap boy....He is stop doing anything illegal or whatever he used to say in his old song.....He been working really hard... bought him self a brand new Lexus... help his family paying bills and shit....No more thug life....

He decided not to rap anymore.....become famous is not his goal anymore....That is why he is not in my "lay tien cho gai 2" album

To me, when Khanh Nho stop writing song is a big Lost for the vietrap world.....He is my biggest influence in most of my song.... he is my mentor for the last 6 years....

It used to be Khanh Nho and Phong Le trying make a name for our self.... but now it is only Me....

That is what happen to Khanh Nho

source: http://forums.vietrapper.com/world-news/10697-what-happen-khanh-nho.html

Wow... so I guess that's that huh. Khanh Nho isn't rapping anymore. But hey, you gotta give props to Khanh Nho for making a change and trying to do something positive in his life. If you wanna hear another classic track by Khanh Nho with Thai Ngo, check out Vietnamese Gang. That song is an Asian rap classic.

Funny Asian Rap - Vietnamese Gang

Every now and then, we all need some comic relief...

Just the other day, of my friends sent a me a link over IM of this video on YouTube. To my surprise it was a music video parody of Thai Ngo and Khanh Ngo's Vietnamese Gang by some white guys. I laughed really hard when I first saw it because it was absolutely hilarious!! Never in my life I would never imagine white guys making a music video of Vietnamese Gang and secondly, I would never imagine them throwing in random things in the music video such as a guy eating a sandwich, necklace chains of shoes and teddy bears, and bananas. Heck, you even got to give these guys mad props for even lip-syncing the Vietnamese part by Khanh Nho. This is an extremely funny video hahaha. If you don't find this video funny, something is seriously wrong with you...



I caught up with the guys at Turtle Neck Visual and they gave me a short interview about their music video:

ROYAL: What's up Turtle Neck Visual?

SCORPION: Hey whats up! Thanks for posting our video and interviewing us.

ROYAL: Tell us how did you get the name Turtle Neck Visual. What's the story behind it?

SCORPION: Actually that name is based off of our alter ego characters. You'll have to wait for that music video to be posted in November. It's our first original song... It should explain the name.

ROYAL: Where you guys from?

SCORPION: Liu here is actually from Spain despite his Asian appearance. I, Scorpion, am from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

ROYAL: How did you first hear about Vietnamese Gang?

SCORPION: Shout out to Barney and Tre, some of our Asian friends, for exposing us to some awesome Asian rap artists about 6 years ago such as Thai, Khanh Nho, and Jinusean and we've been hooked since.

ROYAL: Tell us why did you decide to make a music video of Vietnamese Gang?

SCORPION: We wanted to practice our video making skills with some of our favorite music. This song in particular has a dark, heavy sound. The comedic touch was a good contrast to the dark sound. We also realized how impressed our friends were as we recited the Vietnamese lyrics, however poor the pronunciation... Really we just love music and making people laugh.

ROYAL: LOL why is one of the guys eating a sandwich in the video?

SCORPION: Haha, a classic scene! Gangstas cannot neglect the importance of nutrition... We actually don't know why. It started as a pre-shoot snack but was then incorporated into the scene. Turned out to be a hilarious addition to a hardcore rap video.

ROYAL: You also feature bananas in your video and slapped some guy with it. What's with the bananas in the video?

SCORPION: Bananas... that fellow we slapped represents intolerance to comedy, to music, to new ideas. Anybody thats too close-minded needs to be banana-slapped so that they see how ridiculous they are. And a banana robbery is kind of a protest to all the senseless violence and greed. lol, maybe we just wanted to be funny and we really weren't thinking that deeply.

ROYAL: Also, tell us about what other video you have in the works from your video production company?

SCORPION: We have some original songs soon to be released. Also some collaborations with local comedians and hip hop artists. And of course more fan-videos to songs that already exist. Definitely more asian songs will become videos.

ROYAL: Where can we find more of your videos?

SCORPION: Right now the only place is on youtube.com/turtleneckvisual. Hopefully our website will be up and running soon. In the meantime check out our Mortal Kombat video and patiently wait for more!

ROYAL: Anything else you want to say to the audience reading this from Asian Rap Worldwide?

SCORPION: Thanks for your time and we appreciate anyone who gives our videos a chance. We're just here trying to spread the love of music and comedy through the power of video making.

ROYAL: Thank you, your video was a blast. We wish you guys all the best.

Thai Ngo & Khanh Nho - Vietnamese Gang

Vietnamese Gang is classic Vietnamese rap song released in the year 2000 in Thai's debut EP Portland Love. It features both English lyrics by Thai Ngo and Vietnamese lyrics by Khanh Nho. Thai Ngo later released two LPs: Together We Rize in 2003 and My Life and Rhymes in 2007.