Suboi: The Vietnamese Rapper Who Freestyled in Front of Obama

[Suboi: The Vietnamese Rapper Who Freestyled in Front of Obama]

In the spring of 2016, she freestyled in Vietnamese in front of US President Barack Obama in Ho Chi Minh City.

In the spring of 2024, Apple CEO Tim Cook flew to Hanoi to meet her, slipping on a pair of AirPods to listen to her new track.

In December 2025, the US Mission to Vietnam released a music video called "Never Before" — and the artist they picked was her.

Three scenes, nine years, one person.

Her name is Suboi. Born Hàng Lâm Trang Anh in Ho Chi Minh City in 1990, she is the rapper the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, and CNN all call Vietnam's "Queen of Hip-Hop."

▍ Learning Flow from Eminem, Alone in Her Bedroom

Suboi's mother worked at the Australian Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. Her father ran a factory.

She first heard hip-hop at 14 and fell in love instantly. The problem was, there was no hip-hop scene in Vietnam to fall into.

So she did it the hard way. She played Eminem on repeat and recited his lyrics line by line, using him as both an English teacher and a flow teacher. There were no venues, no mentors, no community — just a teenager in her bedroom, copying an American rapper off the radio.

The stage name came from her family. "Su" was the nickname her parents had always used. "Boi" was what her friends tacked on, teasing her tomboy streak. Put them together and you get Suboi.

At 17, her life fell apart. Her father lost his job after an industrial accident, the household income collapsed overnight, a close friend died, and her boyfriend turned violent. Her family wanted nothing to do with her music.

To keep writing, she tutored English during the week and worked weekends as a clown at children's birthday parties. Those years eventually became "Đời" — "Life" in Vietnamese — one of her most personal early tracks.

▍ Twenty Years Old, First Solo Album

Her break came in 2009. Vietnamese pop star Hồ Ngọc Hà invited her to lay down a rap verse on a new single, and for many Vietnamese listeners it was the first time they had ever heard a woman rap on a mainstream chart.

In 2010, at 20, she released her debut album WALK. Two years later she walked away from her label, Music Faces, and set up her own imprint, Suboi Entertainment. Her second album, RUN, followed in 2014.

Between WALK and RUN, her material grew more personal and more political — feminism, social pressure, everyday life — all delivered in a mix of Vietnamese and English. Bilingual rap was close to unheard of in Vietnam at the time.

▍ SXSW, Obama, 88rising

The years that put her on the international map were clustered into a short four-year window.

In 2015, SXSW in Austin, Texas sent her an official invitation, and she became the first Vietnamese artist ever to perform at the festival. She moonlighted as an actress too — starring in the 2014 horror film Hollow by Vietnamese director Ham Tran, then again in his 2016 heist movie Bitcoin Heist, which later landed on Netflix.

In May 2016, President Obama visited Vietnam and held a town hall with young Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh City. Suboi raised her hand. Obama asked if she wanted to rap on the spot, and whether she would do it in English or Vietnamese. She chose Vietnamese.

Her freestyle asked whether rich people in big houses were actually happy, and who gets to decide that rap isn't something women should do. CNN, TIME, and Billboard picked the clip up the same day.

It was probably the most international coverage Vietnamese hip-hop had ever received.

In 2017, she was named to the Forbes Asia "30 Under 30" list in the entertainment and sports category.

A year later, she became the first Vietnamese artist to drop a music video on 88rising's YouTube channel — the track was "N-SAO?". 88rising is the label-slash-platform that pushed Asian acts like Japan's Joji and Indonesia's Rich Brian into Western markets. That same year, she also became the first Vietnamese artist featured on Apple Music's Beats 1 radio.

Three "first Vietnamese artist" milestones in four years, plus that Obama moment, put Vietnamese hip-hop on the world map.

▍ Motherhood, Rap Việt, and a Third Album

In 2020, Suboi released "Đôi Khi" with French-Vietnamese producer Nodey, once again through 88rising. Nodey was born and raised in Paris to Vietnamese parents. He is also Suboi's partner.

That same January, their daughter was born. They called her Nina, after the jazz legend Nina Simone, with the Vietnamese name Đăng Hân.

A few months after becoming a mother, Suboi took a seat on the judging panel of Rap Việt — the Vietnamese rap competition show — as the only woman among four mentors in the debut season. Rap Việt became a ratings phenomenon and pulled Vietnamese hip-hop out of the underground and straight into prime-time television. That Suboi was sitting in a judge's chair was its own kind of symbol: a decade earlier this country had no rap scene at all, and now it had a national talent show built around one.

In 2021, seven years after RUN, she released her third album NO NÊ — the title means "full, satisfied" in Vietnamese. She spent three years writing and producing it with American producers Zach Golden and Pat McCusker. The record was more introspective than anything she'd done before — less collision, more reflection.

In 2024, she returned to Rap Việt as a mentor. That April, Tim Cook flew in and met her in Hanoi, listening to her new material on a pair of Apple earphones.

▍ Nine Years Later, Writing the Theme Song for US–Vietnam Diplomacy

On December 1, 2025, the US Mission to Vietnam released a music video called "Never Before" to mark the 30th anniversary of US–Vietnam diplomatic relations. Credited to Suboi and DJ FELIKS, the track blends modern rap production with traditional Vietnamese instruments. The camera points at young Vietnamese people — not diplomats, not ceremonies.

In the official statement, Suboi said:

"What 'Never Before' tries to deliver is the spirit, energy, and aspiration of today's young Vietnamese generation. I'm honored to represent that generation as part of the 30th anniversary of US–Vietnam relations."

Nine years earlier she had freestyled in front of Obama. Nine years later she scored a bilateral anniversary.

Across that decade, the rapper Vietnam kept turning to when it needed a voice for its youth was still the same one person.

A month after "Never Before", in January 2026, Hanoi rapper Kimmese dropped an EP called For My People. One of its tracks, "Pull Up", brought together three women rappers — Kimmese, Tuimi, and Suboi — from Hanoi, Hai Phong, and Saigon respectively. The beat, reportedly, had been waiting since 2020. It took six years to get all three of them on the same song.

From a 14-year-old reciting Eminem lyrics in her bedroom to a 36-year-old scoring a US–Vietnam diplomatic anniversary, what she's actually done is simple: she started rapping in a country that didn't have rap, and then she never stopped.

▍ Suboi at a Glance

Real name: Hàng Lâm Trang Anh
Stage name: Suboi
Born: January 14, 1990
Hometown: Ho Chi Minh City
Albums: WALK (2010), RUN (2014), NO NÊ (2021)
Notable tracks: Đời, N-SAO?, Đôi Khi, Never Before (2025)
Instagram: @justsuboi

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