There are a few things you should know about Wowy.
The first is that he's animated. Though he doesn't come off this way at first, the 28-year-old rapper is all charisma when he wants to be. He manages to hide this well when we meet at District 1's 3A Station, taking a seat on the crumbling stoop outside our office. Between his all-black ensemble and a zen-like calm, you wouldn't peg him as a hip-hop star.
But Wowy, whose latest album, Lao Dai, was released last year, has amassed a steady following not just in Saigon but across the country thanks to his own brand of Vietnamese hip-hop. Fresh from a nationwide tour, the “Do Tao Lam” rapper waits patiently for our photo shoot to begin, studying the graffiti on the wall behind him, tracking the comings and goings of passersby, and occasionally posing for a picture himself when he gets recognized by one of the photo-happy pedestrians milling around the alley.
By the time the camera comes out, however, it's another story. The flash goes off and Wowy travels through a thousand different facial expressions in the span of 20 minutes. First, he's snarling into the lens, just the way you'd expect a rapper to do. Then he's smiling, head cocked to one side, a hand covering his mouth. A second later, he's praying, eyes turned toward the heavens.
But while he's quick to entertain, Wowy never comes off as a ham. As the camera clicks, he chats to us about his day, his upcoming projects and even religion, but he's mostly talking to himself. Whether in front of a camera or in front of a crowd, he's comfortable putting on a show.
This is a helpful personality trait, as Wowy tends to do things big. In 2015, his cross-country Lao Dai tour took him from the heart of Saigon to major metropolises like Hanoi but also out to the odd mountain village, covering 15 locations in total and drawing crowds from a few hundred (in towns where the population was, in fact, also a few hundred) to a few thousand. The journey was eye-opening for the rising star, particularly in some of his more far-flung venues.
“I saw many young people who were stuck in their circumstances,” he tells Saigoneer. “They don't have any guidance. They live in this province or that province, and their access to education is low. Entertainment options are limited: they just go out drinking or sing karaoke or try to find girls...[young people in the provinces] don't have anyone new to talk to or learn from.”
“I went everywhere and met young people, and everyone seemed to be in this situation,” Wowy continues. “My hope is that I can meet more of these young people and share and help them to learn what I have learned.”
Spurred on by this experience, Wowy is now in the process of creating a live show – aptly named LIVE! – which combines hip-hop with dance and other performance arts to bring Saigon audiences a show he claims is “something completely new”. Over the past year, the rapper has called upon his network of musicians and performers to craft a concept for the stage performance, infusing the storyline with a variety of artistic expressions.
“LIVE! means the life of hip-hop,” Wowy explains. “It's about the life of artists and everyone who appreciates art. It's an onstage performance that combines rap with visual and performance art in order to transport the audience to a surreal world.”
“For me, it's about giving life to people who are about to die,” he continues. “I'm not talking about actual death, about physical death. I mean the death of a person's soul. LIVE! will be the fire that reignites those souls.”
While this sounds like a tall order, Wowy remains unfazed by the challenge. Instead, he's focused his efforts on bringing different street artists into the fold, giving credit to some of Saigon's less visible performers. For LIVE!, he's recruited a team of street performers – the fire-breathing, snake-swallowing types you see outside local nhậu joints in the evenings – to join him onstage, along with a few other groups of people you would never expect to see near a hip-hop concert. Monks, for instance.
“[Street performers] don't get any respect,” he explains. “People don't care about them. But when I was in Hue, I saw them and thought: 'Oh, my God. Only in Vietnam is there something like this. Only in Vietnam are such young street performers doing these dangerous tricks'...it's not easy.”
Inspired by their drive, Wowy aims to put these often-faceless performers in front of a wider audience.
“I want them to be on a professional stage in front of 4,000 people,” says Wowy. “I want the audience to understand that it's not easy, but these performers will make everyone see something beautiful.”
He adds: “They see it everyday, but they ignore them so I want to make them see. I want to grab their heads and say 'Look!'”
With the show's concept fully formed, one final obstacle remains: funding. Much like the rest of LIVE!'s efforts, Wowy has set an ambitious budget for the project: VND1 billion (US$44,680).
This he plans to achieve by way of “Một đô la cho LIVE!”, a crowdfunding campaign which raised over VND40 million in its first 10 days alone and has since drawn in contributions from as far as the United States, Japan, Australia and Germany.
“I want everyone to see that there is a community with a lot of strength,” the rapper explains. “We can do everything with the help of the community.”
In addition to connecting Saigon's artists with the public, however, Wowy also has loftier ambitions for the show. It's time, he feels, to let the world know about Vietnamese art.
“I want people around the world to see that in Vietnam we have art, we have hip-hop,” he says. “Many people don't even know about Vietnam...I want to go everywhere and say I'm here. Vietnam is here. We do art, we play music and we are a big community. We protect each other. We unite and we care about each other.”
Over the past month, “Một đô la cho LIVE!” has called upon the star's 105,000-odd Facebook followers and friends to contribute to the show both online and in person and in person. With the campaign now officially closed, Wowy is counting his donations, and judging by his mood, the results are positive. The star plans to announce the total of LIVE!'s crowdfunding efforts in the coming days on his Facebook page.
As for the show's exact storyline, Wowy remains coy: “You have to see it if you want to know more.”
