<i>Prathet Ku Mee</i> is no slapped-together concert song. It wasn't made, so much as crafted. The accusatory lyrics are set against the shameful, hovering background of the 1976 dictators' massacre at Thammasat University. The rap song's finale brings the background image of the hanged, beaten student to the front of the picture, before fading out to the hopeful message, "All people unite".
The production is credited to the guitar player, "Lady Thanom" and is brilliant. It even includes an English translation, via closed captions.
Ten rappers are credited. Of course you're familiar with them all: Gentle Prapas, HomeBoy Scout, Kitti Lamar Wuttoe, Kra-Ting Clan, G Saiyud, Samak Da Kreator, Snoop Dusit, Thanin Scott, Sa-lang Shady and Sa-ngad Shady.
To put it another way, not a single singer, writer, producer, studio mixer, camera person... No one used their real name. Four of the rappers masked themselves to try to avoid being asked for a cup of coffee by new spokesman Buddhipongse Punnakanta or whoever is currently in charge of Government House intimidation and really, really hates this song.
Once it hit YouTube, however, one co-producer emerged. Pratchayaa Surakamchonrot told KhaosodEnglish.com it took six months of sweat to write, script, film and get the song to the people.
The song is just 750 words in 85 lines. It repeats 21 times its refrain, "This is what my country's got."
To put it another way, it has 75 separate, one-line charges against government, the judiciary, the military and most especially the current regime. The mandatory rap "mother**cker" occurs twice, both describing today's junta. Ditto the single use of "a**holes".
This is Thailand's first truly bandwagon political song since Carabao mocked the elite and hi-so with Made In Thailand in 1984. Intended or not, Yuenyong "Aed Carabao" Opakul's cruel lyrics against the snooty had a massive effect. People started buying products "Made In Thailand" and bragged about them. Including jeans mis-labelled as "made in Japan" and immortalised, yes literally immortalised, by Carabao's signature song.
Whether the far more visceral, rude and crude Prathet Ku Mee will have real-world effect isn't predictable. That's because youth isn't. But far more importantly, neither is Thai politics.
Almost certainly by complete coincidence, on the same day Prathet Ku Mee hit the internet, the exact targets of the rappers' mean music announced casually that there may be a slight hitch with holding a Feb 24 election. The establishment completely forgot to notify everyone that it's also the date for university entrance exams.
Think for a few minutes -- no time limit, really -- and come up with a different way to prevent the largest possible number of young people from legally and secretly giving their opinion about a military regime.
Bet you can't. If this scandalous development wasn't carefully planned, then the careful planner everyone knows as Gen Watchman has lost a step.
As it stands, every high school senior just turned 18 will be told: "No problem, just finish up the exam and rush to your tambon of residence to vote. As long as you are there by 3 o'clock..."
So now the election will be delayed, to the delight of the country, or the exams will be rescheduled, to the delight of already agitated, stressed high schoolers and the education bigwigs, or neither, which will stress even more people. Well planned.
This is precisely what Prathet Ku Mee addresses so very impolitely and why it has potential to be an anthem.
The slowly building background theme throughout Prathet Ku Mee ('What My Country's Got' in English) is the massacre at Thammasat University in 1976, climaxing almost at the song's end with re-enactment of the infamous beating of the hanged student with a chair.
Music history is littered with protest songs that came, got popular and went, their fate to be labelled as "novelty".
Any child of the '60s can assemble a list in a few minutes. Vital note: Kumbaya the song no more ended strife and war than "No Coup" the sign ended military rule.
But 12 million YouTube views in six days - half of them on Saturday alone, as the song gathered social media speed - isn't leftover pak khana. Apart from the few hundred purse-lipped, annoyed People of Ammart who watched the first 30 seconds and quit in disgust, there have been a million people for whom the song struck a nerve every day, and probably many millions more today.
As of early Sunday, the like/dislike factor of the song on the "Rap Against Dictatorship" YouTube channel is an eye-watering 99.98%. Nothing (it is thought) ever gets 99.98% approval on the internet.
One fascinating note. Voted most-liked of 65,000-plus comments on the song was one placed Friday by the official YouTube channel of the Future Forward Party led by maverick "young Turk" politician Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit. All it said was that the Prathep Ku Mee "showed tribute to a fighting spirit".
There were 29,000 likes on that comment alone.
Any song, on its own, can simultaneously be fantastically popular and a quickly forgotten one-hit wonder. Right today, Prathet Ku Mee is on the knife's edge and could succeed or fail.
The election approaches, with a nearly foolproof plan by Gen Watchman for indefinite pro-military rule. Key word: "Nearly". Here's an impolite song with an idea to change that, but it will take a leader.
For the moment, in its first week, Prathet Ku Mee is a cause without a rebel.