U.S. duo releases rap video filmed in North Korea

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― What’s likely the first rap video ever made in North Korea went online Tuesday to the delight of the young and ambitious Washington hip-hop duo that created it.

Pacman and Peso posted “Escape to North Korea” on their YouTube site on the eve of the 31st birthday of the communist state’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un.

“We shot a great music video and did something nobody has done so I feel great about it,” said Pacman through his manager.

Following in the footsteps of basketball star Dennis Rodman, who’s in Pyongyang this week, Anthony Bobb (Pacman) and Dontray Ennis (Peso) traveled halfway around the world in November to shoot their video on the street of the North Korea capital.

By doing so, with financial help from Kickstarter contributors and a New York hedge fund manager, the dreadlocked rappers hoped to set themselves apart in Washington’s homegrown hip hop scene.

Their trip coincided with North Korea’s month-long detention of 85-year-old Korean War veteran Merrill Newman, but Pacman, 19, and Peso, 20, said they personally experienced no problems.

“We learned about their leaders and why they have problems with America,” Peso said. “All the Koreans we met were cool. ... It was all love over there. It wasn’t how what people was saying it would be.”

The U.S. government does not prohibit Americans from visiting North Korea despite Pyongyang’s human rights record and a nuclear program widely seen as a threat to East Asian regional security.

See the video at www.youtube.com/user/FHTMG?feature=watch