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, released in 2025. The song belongs to the hip hop and modern urban genres mixed with trap, funk, jazz and dark pop. The title of the song is a wordplay between "career" and "nghiếu". 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 MV Visualizer reached 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).

Background

YouTube streamer ViruSs and TikToker Ngoc Kem officially announced their breakup in mid-March 2025. 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. That same evening, rapper Phao released the song on YouTube. The meaning of the lyrics of the rap combined with Ngoc Kem sharing Phao's Sự nghiệp chướng made the incident even more noisy and many people speculated that her diss was aimed at ViruSs. Phao revealed to producer Only C that she not only had Sự nghiệp chướng attacking her ex-lover, but the rest was not been released yet.

Composition

Phao said that Sự nghiệp chướng was developed from a demo of hers available since 2024. The song uses a funk-inspired beat and a clearly divided harmonic structure from Turkish music producer Kerem Kocak, at the cost of 1.3 million VND. Based on the available demo, Phao completed the lyrics, layout and then officially released it. 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. The rap's tempo changes continuously from the melodic rap section to the hook.

The content of Sự nghiệp chướng 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. The girl responds by using wordplay, metaphors and comparisons to satirize the boyfriend's bad personality and deviant lifestyle. 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" 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." 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."

In the second segment, Phao mentioned 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." 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" 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." 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."

Reception

Because Phao remained silent about the lyrics 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 her involvement in the incident, contributing to the rapid popularity of the song. According to statistics from Social Trend, as of March 24, 2025, the song attracted 294,000 discussions from Vietnamese social media users. 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. 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."

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. Many streamers on YouTube and TikTok 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". 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 "career" and attached me to it." In the video, ViruSs simply praised and said that "now I know Phao is like that."

Commenting on the viral effect of the song from the ViruSs incident, writer Lê Vy said the cause was due to FOMO in the majority of the internet user community in Vietnam. In addition, the algorithms of social networking platforms are being boosted to maximize interactions. Less than a day after its release, the MV lyrics of "Sự nghiệp chưng" appeared in the top 2 trending on YouTube. On March 24, 2025, the video surpassed the MV "Bắc Bling" by Hòa Minzy to take the lead in YouTube trending. Following right after the MV was ViruSs's reaction to the song reaching the top 2 trending on the same day, which is said to have never happened in Vietnamese music.

Media experts consider the song to be one of the rap songs that skillfully combines diss and media, not falling into the form of personal attacks but still sharp enough to make the audience discuss. Đậu Dung left a welcoming comment for the song on Tuổi Trẻ and praised Phao as a female rapper who is complete in performing diss rap from language skills, flow, storytelling, metaphors, creative ideas to straightforward messages about feminism, in the context of Vietnamese hip hop associated with a somewhat aggressive masculine image. Writer Lê Vy noted and compared the success of the song to "Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53" (2023), when both are hits with the theme of criticizing ex-boyfriends with desperate emotions from women.