Cambodian-Canadian rapper shares unreleased lyrics inspired by his family's hardships
Savan Muth, a.k.a. Jeah, wrote lyrics inspired by his family's incarceration in refugee camps in Cambodia
It's tough for any rising hip-hop artist to establish themselves in the music game. For Savan Muth, a Cambodian-Canadian rapper from Saskatoon, he typically sticks to what sells.
Muth, better known as Jeah, often raps about things commonly heard in hip-hop — drinking, partying, money, women.
But once you scratch underneath the surface, you'll discover much more about who he is. Tucked away somewhere safe, Jeah has hard drives full of lyrics that are deeply personal, and rooted in his family's history.
It's a story that includes his parents being forced into refugee camps during the Cambodian genocide, where they barely escaped with their lives, before immigrating to Canada in the early 1990s. At the time, Jeah was just four years old.
'She had to witness her own sister starve to death'
As a teenager, Jeah asked his parents about their time in those camps. He says although they were difficult conversations to have, his mom opened up to him, and shared her most traumatizing memory.
"She had to witness her own sister starve to death. Her sister was looking out for her, giving her food, and not having anything to eat," he recalled.
After hearing stories like this, he immediately felt the need to write down his thoughts. But once he started putting pen to paper, those words quickly became lyrics.
It was his quiet way of preserving his family's memories. Years later, Jeah's still not quite ready to turn those words into actual music.
"I always wrote them for myself, first. It's something for me to remind myself, let me never forget that my parents went through this," he said.
But during an interview with Now or Never, he was willing to share some of those unreleased lyrics.
Have a listen:
Preserving the memories
The Cambodian genocide took place from 1975-1979. Under the rule of communist leader Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge forced people out of cities and placed them into refugee camps to work on farms in the countryside.
By the time Vietnamese troops overthrew the government, scores of people had died from starvation, overwork and executions.
Whenever conversations come up about his parents' past, he's reminded of how grateful he is for the sacrifices they've made.
"They're heroes. I have so much respect for them, and the things they had to go through, things they had to do to survive. And on top of that, they came all the way to Canada, not knowing English, not knowing what to expect."
Now, Jeah is figuring out how to best honour his family's history through music. He admits that the thought of releasing these lyrics makes him feel vulnerable.
"It's not like, I'll not release these. I think the fear of the message coming across wrong — I just want to make sure that it's gonna come through clear," he said.
This originally aired in October, 2018.