Ismo, from Holland:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z35b42zoyMI
― ArchCarrier, Saturday, 28 November 2015 15:49 (eight years ago) link
You must be talking to some knowledgeable people - seems you're more up to date with parts of the Danish scene than I am. Sivas, Ukendt Kunstner, Gilli and others all seem part of a wave/movement building on that contemporary American style they're emulating (what's it called?) - I haven't read a lot of interviews with them, but imagine they listen to a fair bit of Young Thug, Migos, Future etc.
First came across Sivas in 2008 when he released 'Hustler hele dagen', a somewhat corny cover of Rick Ross' "Hustlin'" which I found great fun, happy to see him reach the biggest Danish audience imaginable with ubiquitous smash 'DAUDA' though I initially thought it was too derivative to ever be a smash. Wrong. It's a very effective style, obviously, but I find it a bit hard on the ears, so can only enjoy it in small doses. My favorite song along those lines is probably 'Fucking Nummer' by Ukendt Kunstner (yes yes, 2013, I know) which has a Drakey subtlety and melancholy.
First saw Gilli featured in very gritty track 'Fissehul' (it's kinda like "cunt-hole") where I was a bit scared of him - but later realized he's probably a really nice guy, only a few years later both he and some of the other upcoming artists around him were featured in a high-profile video with all-time best selling Danish pop rap group Nik & Jay in 'Gi Mig Dine Tanker Pt. 2 Feat. Young, Kesi, Kidd & Gilli' (nice song too).
Out of that lot, Kidd had an unbelievably strong run in 2011 where he blew up bigger than any other urban act in Denmark I can think of, he's been taking it a bit easy since then afaik (at his peak he actually said on national tv in a primetime interview that he was calling it quits). I think Kesi was the first of the Danish "internet rappers" to sign with a major label, very promising but he's yet to deliver a proper smash imo, though last year's 'Søvnløs' had a strong hook.
There are not too many Danish acts I really like, but this year has seen strong releases from Paulo & DJ Cars10 and Khal Allan (under pseudonym Fede Poul). They're very lyric-oriented and maybe too backward-looking in their aesthetics for ILM. I'll recommend 'Spyt feat. Eagger' by Paulo & DJ Cars10 as well as the Fede Poul i Centeret mixtape which features a bunch of different rappers & producers from Danish underground/not-on-the-radio-type-rap.
Few years back Marvelous Mosell went from releasing funny homemade youtube videos with him telling silly stories in naive affected manner on top of disco&funk instrumentals to featuring on one of the biggest music award shows in Denmark - he's teamed up with Tue Track from GOAT Danish rap group Malk de Koijn, and they're set to release an album soon I think. Tue's also been working with former satire show hosts Peder & Simon Bonde(from Gramsespektrum) on the project Xtra Naan, their 'Malk Mig' single is fun if not great.
Natkat is a very talented rapper/producer releasing tracks with a strong east-coast-90s vibe, s/t 'Natkat' is such a jam. He's part of the Lagoon Digital crew/label but don't know much about them.
Finally I'll add that I contribute slightly myself since I have a rap duo with my friend, been a while since we uploaded a track but maybe you'll enjoy the video I made for 'Med på en lytter' though it's amateurish in production value.
― niels, Saturday, 28 November 2015 15:59 (eight years ago) link
(xp) Ismo's studio session is awesome too:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy8YiCu70fs
Lots of great performances on the 101Barz channel anyway:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dAEhqeTRpwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUgxyXGdhO8and this classic from last year:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiBnZrbSqVU
― ArchCarrier, Saturday, 28 November 2015 16:04 (eight years ago) link
xpost @niels
Ha ha, I enjoyed the Med på en lytter joint. Good fun.
Kidd was huge for a while - Kysset Med Jamel and Ik Lavet Peng are both classics - but he kind of lost it, imo. His new stuff is just there and I'd rather listen to someone like Lord Siva. Also, Topgunn. His "21" is probably my favourite Danish album ever - so effortless - but everything he has done after it just brings me down.
I didn't know Marvellous Mosell was working with Tue Track though. He is fun and they were great, so let's hope something good is coming out of it. Thanks for the info on that!
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Sunday, 29 November 2015 23:55 (eight years ago) link
glad to hear that!
I'll check that Topgunn record out, find him slightly disgusting but he's certainly talented and while both non-US and non-rap 'Kongens Have' was a very strong 2014 single
never been exposed to a truly great lord siva/dani toma/karl william/hukaos track but open to suggestions
Raske Penge should probably also be mentioned when talking Danish rap, he's sometimes regarded a dancehall x-over act but with jamaican/caribbean rhythms all over hip hop he's def urban - just released a 100 minute debut/retrospective album featuring among other good singles the first one that caught my attention back in 2011, 'Bor Her', still sounds good to me
― niels, Monday, 30 November 2015 19:24 (eight years ago) link
Kongens Have was the beginning of the end for me, lol. 21 is a joy throughout.
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Monday, 30 November 2015 20:37 (eight years ago) link
As we move into December, I'd like to drop a quick note to encourage any readers / lurkers / ilxors to post their favorite as-yet-unmentioned non-american / non-UK hip hop tracks from this year to the thread so that I can hoover them into the ongoing spotify playlist. Last chance for any accessible stragglers that may not already be in the lexicon.
― Eugene Goostman (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 1 December 2015 08:48 (eight years ago) link
well, this Serbian video (the song starts at 1:30) only came out yesterday, but "Ideš za Kanadu", a previous 2015 collaboration between these artists, was the biggest rap hit the Balkans have had in years. the reason i prefer this one is that the guys rapping seem more appreciative of the melody driving the track. the dude in the hook is also the producer, and both songs' formula seems to be interpolating into trap a (different) semi-forgotten, very depressing late 80's/early 90's serbian folk song known to have been loved in serbia's criminal underworld around the turn of the millennium. it bangs in the whip though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrT4MB-higA
― drab daddy (mahica), Tuesday, 1 December 2015 18:58 (eight years ago) link
Yeah that's a banger!
― niels, Thursday, 3 December 2015 08:10 (eight years ago) link
None of these are on spotify yet i think but I'm posting them anyway because they're great:
Sushi x Kobe feat. Larsiveli - Brenner ned alt (=Burning it all down) (Norwegian, prod. Kvamkollektivet)https://soundcloud.com/sushi-x-kobe/brenner-ned-alt-ft-larsiveli/s-dLLnZ
Larsiveli & Kong Makko Makeba - Fingertuppa (=The Fingertips) (Norwegian, prod. Soul Division)https://soundcloud.com/oslo/larsiveli-makko-makeba-fingertuppa-brenner/s-C8p7t
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, 3 December 2015 09:11 (eight years ago) link
hey niels thanks; i might as well try explaining another p great thing happening in serbia for the 2 people interested-
https://vimeo.com/43739942mimi mercedez - diamonds on my mind
this is one of mimi's oldest (from 2012) and in the meantime she and her still independent crew have accumulated a large following around the region, every show seemingly a trashy speed-and-E-fuelled all night event, with half-hour breaks mid concert so the audience - a disproportionate amount of whom (for a local hip-hop event) are young women, young gays and older rave heads - can have fun with techno and turbofolk songs side-by-side with current US rap, combinations unheard of around the balkans.her thing when rapping is she's very class-aware and uses it in the most fun way to cut through the thick post-90s haze still obscuring the whole region. she's obviously smart and woke and likes playing dumb for the controversy, but even if we only know this 'dumb' persona she still comes off as opinionated, brave, non-judgemental, a lover of life, really funny, etc. or that's just me crushing on her. anyway she also held a stripping job up until this summer.
bonus: this other rapper's unbelievably trashy and potentially disturbing video, with mimi sitting next to him.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY6sR1jJ-h8
― drab daddy (mahica), Thursday, 3 December 2015 12:59 (eight years ago) link
South Africa Does Young Thug:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezArNHVP3WE
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, 3 December 2015 23:45 (eight years ago) link
mimi mercedes pretty cool! that freestyle video is... something!
think the south african thugger works best on chorus but good find
― niels, Sunday, 6 December 2015 12:42 (eight years ago) link
who is Jimilian? wish there was some Danish mag that did proper coverage of popular culture...
anyway, I think he' a self-made youtube artist who used to do sentimental rap stuff and is now doing this years 4th most watched youtube video - a Snapchat video, p hilarious stuff actually
but it's his latest jam that's really propelled him into the Danish charts, Slem Igen is #10 on Danish single chart (currently p competitive with Adele, Biebz and Wham topping)
I find his style on that last one pretty offensive, both vid and song, a snippet of a lyrics translation: "I feel sorry for the guy who has to fuck you, he doesn't know how you're tripping" and I find the Lil Jon-ref kind of isn't earned but... it's a hit
― niels, Tuesday, 15 December 2015 10:42 (eight years ago) link
I haven't checked this scandinavian rap/rnb 2015 mix yet but judging from the tracklist it looks legit:
https://soundcloud.com/gotestrangler/skandinavia15
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Tuesday, 15 December 2015 11:33 (eight years ago) link
http://dawnraid.co.nz/mareko-hong-kong-food-city-free-download/
Samoa-via-Manurewa-via-Sydney; being on an E-40ish dad-rap vibe suits Mareko p.well.
― etc, Tuesday, 15 December 2015 11:46 (eight years ago) link
looks very legit! will check
― niels, Tuesday, 15 December 2015 12:58 (eight years ago) link
Oh, I didn't know Slem Igen, but that one is hilarious. The lyrics are awfully misogynistic, yeah, but it's just fun with a mustard-ripoff taken half the chorus from Get Low. 'Jeg beskidt skidt med det' is a pretty smart line.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 15 December 2015 17:24 (eight years ago) link
hehe, it is p hilarious :P hard to dismiss altogether, but he sure comes off a total jerk - and the imitation of a specific US aesthetic (naked women, sports cars, gold etc.) is off-putting to me, feels weird in a Danish context, but I don't wanna sound "old"
― niels, Wednesday, 16 December 2015 12:30 (eight years ago) link
I LOVE the weird imitations in Danish rap. When at it's best foreign rappers manage to pilfer two or three sounds at once, without seemingly realizing what they are doing. It's all just music. In my favorite Danish rap-song it filters into the lyrics as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu_sOtINg3YKesi - Ku Godt
The complete overload of elements in the production, more than half of which should have been removed for any resemblance of taste (like that edm-bass line thrown in half the time, there's no use for it, there's no coolness points in it, but hey, fuck it!), mirrors the lyrics, which is about meeting two girls at the bar, and not being able to choose. Seeing two good things, choosing both. Only thing left is to say 'Ku Godt' ('I could'). Jeg' Ku Godt Jeg' Ku Godt Jeg' Ku Godt. It sounds like a little guy who's just learned how to tie his shoes. I COULD!! And that childish exuberance is everything. It will never be 'authentic' anyway.
My #1 on my ilx-ballot that year. A milestone in non-US rap, imo.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 16 December 2015 13:17 (eight years ago) link
haha I don't know how I missed that one
I'm sure it's a grower
― niels, Wednesday, 16 December 2015 13:38 (eight years ago) link
― etc, Tuesday
Posted this from my phone; had meant to say it's interesting seeing what Mareko's up to compared with his Deceptikonz crew-mate Savage who, after getting some Stateside and Aussie success after his solo track "Swing" was used in Knocked Up, is now working with the Aussie EDM scene. Cute video:
Savage - Like Michael Jackson
Much much older, but been revisiting Samoan/NZ rapper King Kapisi's debut Savage Thoughts a lot while I've been in Guangzhou ... bit of homesickness, bit of tapping into general anxieties re: impact of climate change in the Pacific Islands, current overstayer/migrant/refugee rhetoric:King Kapisi - "2nd Migration"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjsCI_X7WtE
― etc, Thursday, 17 December 2015 02:50 (eight years ago) link
I'm wrapping this playlist for the year. It has been updated with a few new adds (Jimilian, MocroManiac, Yung Trappa, THCF, $ushi X Kobe) and includes every track mentioned on thread that is available via Spotify's US catalogue as of EOY 2015. If I missed something or if a track comes available sometime in the future, bump here to let me know and I'll add.
Rolling Non-US Rap 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist
― Copy rights, pleasing all star wars fans, hiring professionals. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 6 January 2016 19:47 (eight years ago) link
Larsiveli & Kong Makko Makeba's Fingertuppa got a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUDkKcJhzY8
These guys have also done som production for US sub-Burn One type rappers before as Soul Division.
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, 7 January 2016 15:44 (eight years ago) link
love the skrrt skrrts
are we doing a '16 list or running this?
― niels, Thursday, 7 January 2016 17:27 (eight years ago) link
I'm all for a '16 list!
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, 7 January 2016 17:31 (eight years ago) link
Rolling non-US rap thread 2016
― niels, Monday, 8 February 2016 13:42 (eight years ago) link