PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Gangster rappers rock Papua New Guinea jails and charts

The United States may be the home of gangster rap, but in this crime-ridden South Pacific city, the gangsters really are rocking the jails and music charts. Music is a huge industry in Papua New Guinea and Daddigii is one of the up-and-coming stars. In a country of 800 tribal languages, musicians have a unique South Pacific style, singing in English, and their native tribal languages. Their music is also a blend of rhyming rap, reggae, traditional Papua New Guinea sounds, gospel and pop. Some of Papua New Guinea's biggest selling music stars have had their careers interrupted with a stint behind bars for bank robbery, armed hold-ups and theft. Willie Tropu, a former bank robber who carries scars one his right leg from a police shotgun, tops the charts with traditional ballads. Ironically Tropu now works as head of security for a bank in downtown Port Moresby when he is not recording his latest album. He openly admits that without music he would now be dead. "If I didn't find music I would be dead a long time ago. When the police chased me and shot me in the leg, I decided to leave all those criminals activities behind," Tropu said. Crime is an accepted way of life in Papua New Guinea for many people struggling to survive in a country where 80 percent of the 5.4 million people eke out subsistence lives in villages, the life expectancy is 55.3 years and GDP per capita is 2,619 in U.S. dollars. So far this year in Port Moresby alone there have been 114 murders, 151 rapes, 577 robberies, 671 car thefts, 377 break-ins, 317 assaults and 28 abductions, according to police statistics. Chin H Meen (CHM), one of Papua New Guinea's major electrical importers and retailers, dominates the music industry. For the past 25 years, CHM has been building a mini-music empire, recording 3,000 albums, and is now set to launch some of its biggest artist onto the international scene. CHM chairman Raymond Chin says many artists come from the streets and often from a life of crime. "So a lot of my artists have committed crimes, but once they found success in their music that is where they get respect from the community and from everyone, and then they change their life. They become a good citizen and they start taking their music professionally and making money from it," said Chin. Many artists' chart-busting songs tell of a life of crime, often in Port Moresby where "raskol" or criminal gangs rule the city. Rapper K. Dumen, even recorded a music video when serving time in jail for armed robbery. Clinging to a prison fence he sings about his lost freedom in "Freedom Bilong Me". Warders allowed the video if they were filmed locking Dumen in his cell. One of Papua New Guinea's most popular singers is American O'shen, the son of missionaries, who was brought up in Finschhafen on the country's east coast. And even he has had a checkered past, serving time for armed robbery in Washington D.C. O'shen, who sings in Pidgin and English, lives in Hawaii and regularly visits Papua New Guinea for concerts and recording. His most recent album "Kanaka Pasifika" is sung in many different Papua New Guinean dialects. He credits himself for pioneering rapping in pidgin. "People in PNG, especially in a country that is 98 percent indigenous - me being a non-indigenous resident of Papua New Guinea, they were really shocked to see that this white boy was rapping and rhyming which had never been done before. So, basically without realising it, I paved a new path and started something new and that was PNG rap and rhyming," O'shen said. With its rich musical culture and CHM's eye on expansion, other South Pacific nations may soon be rocking to the sounds of Papua New Guinea.

ITN Source | November 17, 2005

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