Livin' La Vida Lyoka: A Rapper Displaced From Karabakh Finds Hope In Music
A year ago, more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh as Azerbaijan recaptured the long-disputed territory. One of the refugees was a rapper and singer named Lyoka, who suffered through years of displacement and conflict as a child. A song he wrote about the war of the early 1990s in Karabakh became an anthem for others forced from their homes. Now living in Yerevan, Lyoka spoke about the loss he felt when he left Karabakh and about his hopes of sharing a message of resilience through his music.