Phong Lê - Lấy Tiền Cho Gái (Money for Girls)

 

Phong Le - Lay Tien Cho Gai

Phong Le

I don't know if you knew, but we have three girls from Vietnam here at the house. To celebrate the new Chinese year (Tết), I took them to Target to spend some of their lì xì money. Lì xì is money you get in red envelopes from your elders. So the girls have never bought and paid for anything, so getting them to buy something was painful. And the checkout event ? Well it was pretty much uneventful, despite me making them do all the calculation for the 6% tax on their purchases.

Well, at home, we have been enjoying watching this video by Phong Lê lately called "Lấy Tiền Cho Gái". This is a pretty funny song about asking for money from God, so he can get some lovin'. The song consists of, what I believe was taken from traditional Vietnamese opera called Cải lương (about the man who climbed a ladder to ask "ông trời" for money), combined with some humorous and original rap.

Since many of you probably won't understand the song, I'll break it down for you:

The first date: The singer "accidentally" runs into some girl he thought he knew. He invites her on a date for lunch. The situation worsens when she another bowl of phở when she disapproved of her first phở đặc biệt - and he only has $20 (not enough to cover tip).

The second date: This part cleverly plays off màu (blood) and cháo (soup rice), as her two bloodsucker ugly girlfriends comes along on the date. They eat up a storm and, once again, drains his wallet.

The third date: We basically see our hero taking out his savings and Li Xi money to take her out one more time... and the punchline is that she has a boyfriend.

I suppose it would be really funny if you understood Vietnamese.

PhongLe - Lay Tien Cho Gai (vietrap video)

Well if you're curious about Phong Le, he seems to be part of a crew called 1o2 with fellow Vietnamese rappers and singers Khanh Nho, Tan Phuc, and Minh Duong, out of the Portland, Oregon, area. He also posts videos on his youtube account.

 01/27/2009 10:03:06 ♥ vu () ♥ myspace.com/102vietrap ♥ youtube.com/user/phongleee