Tim Cook enjoys music by Vietnam's 'Queen of hip-hop'

Visiting Apple CEO Tim Cook met Vietnamese rapper Suboi and listened to her latest track “Dau Thien Ha” (People-pleaser) on Monday.

During a 15-minute meeting the two discussed the Vietnamese music scene and the singer’s career trajectory. Suboi played her song, which highlights the societal pressures faced by Vietnamese women to conform.

Cook, after listening to the song on Apple headphones, exclaimed it was "so great" and that he absolutely loved it.

Suboi, who lives in HCMC, made her way to Hanoi on Sunday following an invitation from Apple. She believed it would be a standard company gathering and was surprised to learn Cook would be attending.

She did not do much preparation since she preferred their interaction to unfold naturally, she said.

The meeting was held in a Hanoi studio, where Viet Max, a pioneering Vietnamese hip-hop artist, welcomed Cook and introduced him to local talent.

Cook shared a video of the gathering on his X account the same evening, saying: "Thanks to the very talented VietMax for showing me how iPhone and iPad fit into his dance and street art workflows, and to rapper Suboi for sharing her newest song in Spatial Audio.

"It was incredible to see the energetic Vietnamese hip-hop culture!"

Apple’s website defines Spatial Audio as a feature that adapts to the user’s head movements to deliver a cinema-like sound experience, making it seem as though the audio envelops the listener from all directions.

Earlier Cook had engaged with Vietnamese filmmakers and photographers at the local Antiantiart studio, and observed their creative use of the iPhone, iPad and MacBook.

Cook also savored Vietnamese egg coffee with pop diva My Linh and her daughter, singer My Anh, at a café in Hanoi’s old quarter the same morning, where they conversed about the art, culture and history of Hanoi for about 30 minutes.

Cook expressed his ambition to introduce Apple Plus products to non-English speaking markets.

Cook arrived in Hanoi Monday morning on a two-day business trip during which he will meet notable content creators and app developers on App Store.

Apple has unveiled plans to strengthen its commitment to Vietnam, including increasing spending for suppliers and funding a clean water initiative at local schools.

Since last year the company has been launching new major services in Vietnam. It opened the Apple Store Online in May and launched payment service Apple Pay in August, is taking pictures of Vietnamese streets to develop its Apple Maps and expanding recruitment of engineers to develop its Siri voice assistant in Vietnamese.

Cook, 64, became CEO of Apple in 2011.

Born Hang Lam Trang Anh, Suboi, 34, has been dubbed Vietnam’s "Queen of hip-hop."

In 2015 she was likened to American rap icons Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill by The Wall Street Journal. She was featured in a documentary on hip-hop in East and Southeast Asia, and highlighted as a standout in the Vietnamese music scene by Vogue Japan.

She performed for former U.S. President Barack Obama during his 2016 visit to Vietnam, and was named among Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 stars in Asia the next year.