Ink teardrops etched into the corner of one eye belie the tenderness when he glances up at his young charges, which today is seldom. The story of KK, real name Tuy Sobil, has already been told. Like so many of the Cambodian diaspora who escaped the Khmer Rouge only to fall foul of the system in countries of so-called refuge, his homecoming was forced. But it was here in 2005 that he turned fate on its head.
Fate wasn’t the only thing turned on its head. Here, in vast cavernous rooms with artful graffiti adorning the walls, kids of sex workers, drug addicts, the violent and parents otherwise unable to cope come to immerse themselves in the head-spinng, beat-boying culture that was the first wave of hip hop. Kids who – with the help of a few grown-ups – have just released a new album of all-original material, A Na Koot.
“I guess they wanted to learn bad because they kept coming back and with KK you only have to come back a couple of times because his heart is just going to melt, so he’s like ‘Alright, I’m gonna teach y’all.’” Shorrt is a fellow mentor here at Tiny Toones’ headquarters deep in a bustling alleyway in Chba Ampov on the far side of Monivong Bridge. “Word spread – the kids went and told everybody else that KK was giving free dance lessons – and it became a boys’ dance club. It ended up being 50, 60, 70 kids at his house. They danced so bad you should see the floor! It actually started cracking the floor. I told KK at the time ‘Man, if the landlord ever sees that… How are you gonna pay for it?!’”
Shhort served as a big brother of sorts, making sure no one was fighting because they came from different neighbourhoods. “That was the first unique thing that KK brought: unity among kids from different parts of Cambodia who would beef with each other if they saw each other on the street. But in his house they had to lose that Bong Thom aspect: you’re going to be friends and you’re all going to dance together or you’re not allowed in. That was the main thing I saw that I’d never seen happening in Cambodia before.”
Sitting alongside Shhort, whose arms bear almost as much ink as KK’s, are three of Tiny Toones’ rising rap stars who feature on the album, not one of them older than 15. “The major change is how I feel,” says one boy clad in a Manchester United football shirt. “I’m more happy than I was before I came to Tiny Toones.” “My favourite is the singing and dancing,” volunteers another. “It has opened my eyes to different aspects of art, especially coming from foreign places. I understand more now.” One boy giggles. “I never believed I could be a superstar.”
“I was born in 1980 so I grew up listening to the first rappers back in the day.” Shhort, who first met KK in 2005, is here as chaperone. “To me, rap was a movement. That’s why I fell in love with rap music. It was people living in the ghettoes speaking their minds. People were uniting through hip hop back in the day, with Queen Latifah and all those people. There wasn’t no gangster rap back then. Back then it was the b-boy, unity, love approach. With this album we’re trying to bring back that original love and unity aspect.”
Annihilating such beliefs is a central theme in the 15-track album, which touches on everything from domestic violence to lofty career aspirations. Over a year, with more than one late night, the kids worked to write, perform and record A Na Koot. The producer, barely a few years their senior, grins apologetically. “If I didn’t get the chance to produce music, I wouldn’t be able to sit still. My thing is to make beats. My mind keeps hearing them.”
Playful melodies dance above those beats, simple-yet-spacey electronica a gleeful nod to the glory days of hip hop – main rival in Cambodia to the ubiquitous K-Pop. Tracks are in the universal language of teenagers: I Love My Style; I Wanna Be A Superstar; Hope And Love. “The biggest change I’ve seen in the kids is their confidence and self-esteem,” says Shhort. “Within a couple of months they’re in the dance room, showing off. Kids I’ve seen being made fun of because of their weight or size, they become best friends with everybody. It works so well because the kids have ownership: it’s their skill, their talent. You’re giving people the option to express themselves. They have natural talent. We just give them the opportunity to show it. The parents are shocked at the potential their kids have.”
WHO: Tiny Toones
WHAT: A Na Koot album (price TBC)
WHERE: Autographed and delivered: email dave@nulltinytoones.org or call 017 394879
WHEN: Now!
WHY: Why in hip hop not?