Acid (often written ACID; my, အက်စစ်, ) is a

Burmese Burmese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia * Burmese people * Burmese language * Burmese alphabet * Burmese cuisine * Burmese culture Animals * Burmese cat * Burmese chicken * Burmese (horse), a ...

hip hop group often credited with releasing Burma's first hip hop album, ''Beginning'', in 2000. Two of the group's founders were later imprisoned for the group's allegedly pro-democracy lyrics.

Beginning

Acid was founded by

Zayar Thaw Zayar Thaw ( , also called U Phyo Zayar Thaw or Zeya Thaw; 26 March 1981 – 23 July 2022) was a Burmese politician and hip-hop artist who was detained for the perceived anti-government messages of his lyrics. Amnesty International named him ...

(26 March 1981 – 23 July 2022), Annaga (Born 19 May 1979), Hein Zaw (12 June 1981 – 10 April 2006) And

Yan Yan Chan Yan Yan Chan ( my, ရန်ရန်ချမ်း, ; born 5 December 1979) is a Burmese hip hop singer, pioneer of Burmese hip hop, and pro-democracy activist. He is a founding member of Acid, Burma's first hip hop group. He is also one of t ...

(Born 5 December 1979). In 2000, Acid released Burma's first hip-hop album, ''Beginning''. Despite predictions of failure by many in the Burmese music industry, ''Beginning'' remained on the number-one position of the Burmese charts for more than two months. A

Democratic Voice of Burma The Democratic Voice of Burma ( my, ဒီမိုကရေတစ်မြန်မာ့အသံ, abbreviated DVB) is one of Myanmar's largest independent media organisations. DVB was founded as a non-profit media organization based in Osl ...

reporter described the group's music as blending a "combative, angry style with indigenous poeticism". The band's repertoire has been said to contain many "thinly veiled attacks" on Burma's military government, the

State Peace and Development Council The State Peace and Development Council ( my, နိုင်ငံတော် အေးချမ်းသာယာရေး နှင့် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေး ကောင်စီ ; abbreviated SPDC or , ) was the offi ...

. ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'' stated that while the band "focused on the mundane, their lyrics inevitably touched on the hardships of life in Burma, drawing them into dangerous territory."

Arrests of Acid members

On 12 March 2008, Zayar Thaw was arrested at a Yangon restaurant with friends on charges relating to his involvement in the youth pro-democracy movement

Generation Wave Generation Wave ( my, မျိုးဆက်သစ်လူငယ်များ အစည်းအရုံး) is a Burmese pro-democracy youth movement founded by Min Yan Naing @ Win Htut, Moe Thwe, hip-hop star Zayar Thaw, and Aung Zay Phyo ...

. In April,

was also arrested. Although it was widely reported in English pro-democracy papers that he was arrested in relation to democracy activities, the military junta claims that he was actually arrested on drug charges. Zayar Thaw was allegedly beaten during his interrogation. On 20 November 2008, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for breaking State Law and Order Restoration Council Law No. 6/88, "illegal organizing under the Unlawful Association Act". Amnesty International described this statute as "a vaguely worded law whose sweeping provisions can be interpreted as making it illegal to set up any kind of organization". He was given an additional year's imprisonment for possession of foreign currency, as he had been carrying approximately $20 USD in Thai

baht The baht (; th, บาท, ; sign: ฿; code: THB) is the official currency of Thailand. It is divided into 100 ''satang'' (, ). The issuance of currency is the responsibility of the Bank of Thailand. SWIFT ranked the Thai baht as the 10th-most ...

Singapore dollar The Singapore dollar (currency sign, sign: S$; ISO 4217, code: SGD) is the official currency of the Republic of Singapore. It is divided into 100 cent (currency), cents. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or S$ to distinguish ...

s, and Malaysian

ringgit The Malaysian ringgit (; plural: ringgit; symbol: RM; currency code: MYR; Malay name: ''Ringgit Malaysia''; formerly the Malaysian dollar) is the currency of Malaysia. It is divided into 100 ''sen'' (formerly ''cents''). The ringgit is issue ...

at the time of his arrest. He served his sentence at

Kawthaung Kawthaung ( mnw, ကော့ပိ, , ; th, เกาะสอง; , ; ms, Pulodua, ڤولودوا) is a town located in the southernmost part of Myanmar, in the Tanintharyi Region. During British rule in Burma between 1824 and 1948, it was kn ...

prison. Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience and called for his immediate release. After nearly a year's detention, Yan Yan Chan was released without charges on 7 January 2009. Zayar Thaw was pardoned and released on 17 May 2011. In November 2021, Zayar Thaw was arrested by the Myanmar military junta and charged with planning attacks on junta targets under the Counterterrorism Law and the Public Property Protection Act. He was sentenced to death in January 2022, and executed alongside three other democracy activists on 23 July 2022.

References

{{Authority control Burmese musical groups