Sự nghiệp chướng

"Sự nghiệp chướng" (lit. 'Mr. Career Overload') is a diss track produced by Vietnamese female rapper Pháo with a remix from producer Kerem Kocak. The song belongs to the hip hop and modern urban genres mixed with trap, funk, jazz and dark pop. The content of "Sự nghiệp chướng" revolves around a girl criticizing her cheating boyfriend, using many expressive styles in Vietnamese hip hop such as wordplay, metaphors or comparisons. The song was released on March 21, 2025 - right at the time of the controversy between male streamer ViruSs and his ex-girlfriend Ngoc Kem, causing many people to ask questions related to the song's theme and whether Phao was involved in the incident. The MV Visualizer reached the top 1 trending on YouTube. The song debuted at number 2 on The Official Vietnam Chart of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).^[1]

Streamer ViruSs and TikToker Ngoc Kem officially announced their breakup in mid-March 2025.^[1] However, they had a few words with each other in the following days, culminating in Ngoc Kem live streaming to criticize her ex-lover for being promiscuous, attracting nearly 200,000 viewers on March 20, 2025. Immediately after, ViruSs denied the betrayal and live streamed a report on the morning of March 21.^[2][3] That same evening, female rapper Phao suddenly released the diss track "Sự nghiệp chướng music video (MV) of the song's lyrics on YouTube.^[4][5] The meaning of the lyrics of the rap combined with Ngoc Kem sharing Phao's "Su nghiep chuong" made the incident even more noisy and many people speculated that her diss was aimed at ViruSs.^[6] Phao revealed to male producer Only C that she not only has "Sự nghiệp chướng" attacking her ex-lover that has not been released yet.^[7]

Phao said that "Nguyễn Chức" was developed from a demo of hers available since 2024.^[8] The song uses a funk-inspired beat and a clearly divided harmonic structure from Turkish music producer Kerem Kocak, at a cost of 1.3 million VND.^[9][10] Based on the available demo, Phao completed the lyrics, layout and then officially released it.^[11] Author Hoang Minh of Dau Tu Tai Chinh Magazine commented that "Nguyễn Nghị" is a typical example of music products that do not require much investment but can still become hits and bring huge revenue to the artist himself.^[12] The title of the song is a wordplay between "career" and "nghiếu".^[13] "Ngư Nghiệp Chuẩn" is a modern hip hop and urban genre mixed with trap, funk, jazz, dark pop,^[14][15] synth-pop, electronic and groovy soul.^[16] The rap's tempo changes continuously from the melodic rap section to the hook.^[17]

The content of "Ngư nghiệp Trừng" tells the story of a girl who mistakenly loves a guy who does not have sincere feelings for her, even treats her badly and betrays her.^[18] The girl responds by using wordplay, metaphors and comparisons to satirize the boyfriend's bad personality and deviant lifestyle.^[19] Throughout the hooks, Phao refers to her ex through his identifying characteristics as a musician: "Tears stuck on the music sheet / Thought it was jade and precious stones, he loves silver [...] The person I love is extravagant, flirtatious, and flirtatious." In the first rap segment, the female rapper frankly criticizes by "calling him an obstacle, an obstacle, an eyesore, an earsore." She throws out punchlines typical of rap battles in Vietnamese hip hop music such as "making diss music like this is too nice"^[20] and continuously exposes the face of the character mentioned through the rap line "this pig denies being evil, they don't know who I am."^[21] Phao composed four-bar (sentence) raps to describe events, such as: "That night, he took her into the small room / Closed, just listening to it you know the current story is happening in the movie."^[22]

In the second segment, Phao mentions the Peter Pan syndrome criticizing her ex-boyfriend for not wanting to grow up despite getting older: "I don't believe it but it's true / Peter Pan means never growing up."^[23] The female rapper continues to compare her ex-lover's meanness: "Tomorrow I'll leave, my name is beautiful for life / but your name is harmful to the Fatherland and the whole country"^[24] before using the musical intonation, changing the pronouns to you-me and threatening "to slap you once and you'll be sent to the maxillofacial hospital, orthopedic trauma department". She accepted to "leave quietly" and warned her ex-lover to "be smart and live a decent life."^[25] At the end of "The Bad Karma" appeared a recording of a male character's voice with a tone and conversational style that is said to be very similar to ViruSs: "[...] But I always have feelings for you, always think about you / And if you don't want to talk about it now / Then that's fine / As long as you're happy."^[26]

Because Phao remained silent about the content of "Sự nghiệp chướng" and only posted a story with hidden meanings on social media without naming anyone, many people were curious to speculate about the female rapper's involvement in the incident between ViruSs and Ngoc Kem, contributing to the rapid spread of the rap.^[27][28] According to statistics from Social Trend as of March 24, 2025, "Sự nghiệp chướng" attracted 294,000 discussions from social media users in Vietnam.^[29] They argued that Phao had only dated male rapper Tez briefly before, and then rumors of her relationship with Hai Dang Doo appeared, but she had not thought about dating ViruSs. Some opposing opinions said that Phao only represented a female character and was not involved at all.^[30] Phao's management company denied that the female rapper was involved: "All the information being circulated is just online content, not official. We do not confirm any information."^[31]

Several artists have responded to the spread of "Sự nghiệp chướng" among music fans, such as MisThy reposting the lyrics or Emma Nhat Khanh releasing the song "Fake It Up" following the theme of criticizing "red flag" men of the rap song.^[32] Many streamers on YouTube and Tik Tok also took the opportunity to publish a series of reaction videos to profit from ViruSs's scandal as well as the theme of "Sự nghiệp chướng".^[33] On March 23, 2025, ViruSs posted a reaction video about the song. He said "a lot of people sent me and said that this song is for me [...] Maybe people saw the word 'ngoc' and attached me to it." In the video, ViruSs simply praised "Ngoc Nghiep Chuong" and said that "now I know Phao is like that."^[34][35]

Commenting on the viral effect of "Sự nghiệp chưng" from the ViruSs incident, Lê Vy from Tri Thức said the cause was due to the fear of missing out (FOMO) syndrome in the majority of the internet user community in Vietnam. In addition, the algorithms of social networking platforms are being boosted to maximize interactions.^[36] Less than a day after its release, the MV lyrics of "Sự nghiệp chưng" appeared in the top 2 trending on YouTube.^[37] On March 24, 2025, the video surpassed the MV "Bắc Bling" by female singer Hòa Minzy to take the lead in YouTube trending.^[38] Following right after the MV "Sự nghiệp chưng" was the reaction video of ViruSs's song reaching the top 2 trending on the same day, which is said to have never happened in Vietnamese music.^[39][40] "Sự nghiệp chướng" debuted at number 2 on The Official Vietnam Chart week 13, 2025 of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).