Cambodian MC Kea Sokun was arrested on September 15, 2020, when two of his tracks went viral on YouTube. He was then convicted of incitement and sentenced to a year in jail. In September 2022, Kea was released for good behavior and pledged to start making songs again.
Kea delivered on that promise as he released ‘Worker’s Blood’ on January 3, which was a commemoration of the ninth anniversary of a crackdown of a 2014 protest at Phnom Penh’s Veng Sreng Boulevard. There, four people were killed and many people were injured protesting Cambodia’s minimum wage.
“For the past nine years, they have been left with pain and sorrow and sadness by gestures full of blood,” Kea said in ‘Worker’s Blood.’ The video for the song, produced in part by human rights organization Licadho, showed the bloodbath as well as tuk-tuks used as ambulances trying to help people who were shot by government forces.
