Lazy Mutha Fucka or Lazy Muthafucka or LMF is a Cantonese hip-hop group in Hong Kong. The group, signed by Warner Music, was founded in 1993 and disbanded in 2003. The members from the disbanded LMF are now pursuing their solo careers.
Their songs are very controversial because of their influence on Hong Kong youth and hip-hop culture and attitude, even making references to Triad societies such as the 14K Triad.
LMF offers Hong Kong an alternative to the overpopularized sentimental sop of Cantopop. LMF remains one of the few, if not the only, well-known localized rap groups. While American hip-hop focuses on racism and political oppression, LMF highlights the economic oppression and social alienation faced by the lower class of Hong Kong, all coming from Hong Kong's overcrowded public housing estates. In essence, LMF uses Bruce Lee as a role model of a generation of Chinese youth.
Their last and final album, finalazy muthafucka, was released just before their breakup.
LMF represent the youth culture and attitudes in Hong Kong. They have a great influence on Hong Kong popular culture.
Their most popular song's title, "冚家拎", is one of the most foul phrases in Cantonese. In English, it literally means "Put one's entire family into hell (or death)." Since the public response of Hong Kong to the media was and is still very conservative, LMF continued to remain low key, though it was well received underground.
Behind the profanity of "冚家拎" lies a deeper message. Another popular song by LMF, "1127", is a tribute to Bruce Lee. The song encourages young Chinese to take pride of their rich Chinese ancestry, culture, and history, instead of pretending to be like the Westerners. However, there may be some irony in that the group imitates a Western cultural form to advocate that Chinese youth should not imitate Western culture, though their lyrics suggest that they feel they've learnt the form instead of having imitated the form. Notable lines from the lyrics include:
"We only want you to become a Chinese you can be proud of. Learn from others; Need not copy. Use your heart to digest the knowledge of others. Try asking why there are so many failures here who do not support each other and always pretend to be like other people. [Chorus] We had Bruce Lee teach us we are not the "Sick Man of Asia". Though having yellow skin, we can still be ourselves. Do not follow, copy, and be like the other. Do not look down upon ourselves.... The spirit of Bruce Lee will never die and the Chinese will never forget that."
A documentary, Dare Ya! (Cantonese title: 大你), was made about LMF, composed of interviews with different members of the rap group.
The group concentrates a large amount of their effort in expressing their discontent towards the political and economic turmoils in Hong Kong, such as the Asian financial crisis, as well as the incompetence of the Hong Kong political leaders, as demonstrated through the song "WTF". More importantly, however, they also attempt to establish, or rather, reinforce, a distinct and unique Hong Kong cultural identity in which the youth of Hong Kong should be proud of as illustrated in the song "1127" taking Bruce Lee as a Chinese role model.
Many of LMF's songs reflect the cultural problem of having a lack of an identity for today's youth to look up to and be proud of in the modern day Hong Kong Chinese society. In their song "債" (Debt), they state many Chinese parents send their children to the opposite side of the world only to have them grow up to be "Caucasians with yellow skin" (Cantonese lyrics: "黃皮膚嘅鬼仔") while the parents have distanced themselves with their children and are not assuming the responsibilities of raising them.
In 2000, beer brewer San Miguel Corporation terminated their contract with Hong Kong movie star Tony Leung Ka Fai and signed LMF to star in six different commercials for the beer company. The commercials ran during Christmas and Lunar New Year. The song "Para Salud" was recorded to air in the beer commercial, which was also in their album LMFAMiGLiA.
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