Thai | en

On September 11th, 1983, in Nashville, Tennessee, Thai Minh Ngo was born to Nga Huynh. Thai is the middle of three brothers. Raised by his mother most of his life after his father left the family.

Three years passed, Thai and his family moved to San Jose, California where his mother found a job at a restaurant. He lived an innocent childhood while his parents struggled to put food on the table and care for him and his brothers. At the age of seven, he was left with memories that emotionally scarred him. His father kissed him and said goodbye while his family was eating dinner. He begged for his father to take him along, not knowing what was really going on due to the point Thai was still young. Things were awkward at that second in time that he cried all through the night, feeling as a part of him was missing leaving him alone and confused.In 1993, Thai’s mother moved her family to Portland, Oregon to start a better life. Life did not get better it only got worse. Without a father to help care for the family, his mother worked two to three minimum waged jobs to care for her family. At a young age, Thai would roam the streets finding a place to be accepted, spending most of his time around Asian gangs.

After finishing the 6th grade, Thai’s mother was offered a restaurant job in a small city located just outside of Portland. She accepted the offer and once again, moved her family. Thai was enrolled at a new school, starting the 7th grade. He didn’t have many friends nor much to do so, he began getting more into music. He used lyrics from other rap artists such as Bone Thugs & Harmony, 2Pac, Eazy-E and used other artist’s instrumentals and rapped the lyrics over them. He began developing his own unique style where he began writing.

At the age of twelve, Thai and his family moved back to Portland, Oregon. He continued to hang out with the same crowd, continuing his old life where he left off. A little after he turned thirteen, he was caught with a much older gang in the involvement of a gang shooting after school in broad day light. He was arrested and put in jail facing nine years if convicted. At the time, he was scared and didn’t know what would happen, thinking he would be sent off to jail. Since he was at a young age and the shooting being his first offense, he was let off with probation. He felt blessed and thought about changing his ways when he was released. Instead, he went back to his lifestyle with the streets.

Not long after Thai was released, while hanging out at a pool hall with a few friends, he was a target on much older rivals that had much hatred towards him. He was attacked and stabbed in the face with pool sticks leaving him hospitalized. His mother came to the hospital and saw blood covering his face. She couldn’t handle the scene and fainted. Thai felt more anger and hatred. The next day he recovered with a broken arm and a scarred face crying by his mother’s bed side at the hospital. After recovering, he had nothing else on his mind but the incident. “An eye for an eye.”

Thai and his gang was involved in countless shootings, their homes being shot up numerous times, getting into fights weekly at all rival gang hangouts, and was always a high profile suspect with the gang task force unit. At such a young age, he dealt with street drama thinking he would either die or go to jail. Even after seeing many of his friends sent to jail, he never thought about changing his ways.
After many years, Thai is still in the same place of his life. Knowing one day something bad would happen, Thai was at a party when a drive by hit letting off over forty rounds into the home. While he was trying to fire back, he was hit but luckily just once, only shattering his bone. He went to the hospital where soon after he was released with a cast to his left arm. At times he felt as he was stuck, and even being shot at, he felt as he never changed. However, he did become more careful with his life but, he seemed to be the same person. It’s part of his life story. Throughout his years growing up he wrote about his life experiences of the things he’s been through and seen.

In 2000, Thai released his first EP title “Portland Love,” with the hit single “Vietnamese Gang.” which was downloaded internationally.

On October 20, 2001, Thai’s life changed forever. His beautiful baby boy “Tysa Star Ngo” was born. He began to look at life differently. He felt as he needed to grow up. Though it’s funny through all the incidents he’s been through, he never thought about changing for any of that. Nearly dodging death, seeing friends come and go. The birth of his son and the first time Tysa called him “Daddy”, he knew he had to be a positive role model one way or the other. His son is his life, his heart, and the only reason for him to survive by any means necessary. He wishes to be a better father than his father ever was to him, providing everything he can for his son.

Thai’s passion for music grows as he got older. After his first EP “Portland Love”, he went right to working on his album. He produced and recorded the whole album in his room. In 2003, He released his first album titled “Together We Rize”, which is still selling to this day.

Thai feels as he has a gift with his music knowing he can lift someone’s spirit, make someone’s day a little bit better, and make a person feel positive in life in any way then it is fulfilling.

What Thai raps about is based on his struggles, the overcoming of his struggles and what he sees around him. He knows that people go through the same things everyday hoping he can reach out to people with his music and tell them that he understands. He is maturing much to this day, seeing life a lot different than how he used to have it. He will never forget what he went through to become who he is today. .