Rolling worldwide rap thread 2021

Same as the previous 'non-US'/non-UK threads, but I figure there'll be some study that says a positive title gets triple the views of a negative one, or something. (For a more popular thread you may like to try Japanese hip-hop and rap and the UK Grime & Rap thread and the American one, Rolling distraught pelican 2030)

As always, you can post your hip hop here from around the world, from this year or any other, with a special emphasis on South Sudanese trap, Belgian gengetone, Cambodian drill, right, let's get TV banging

Past threads: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

For all ye French-speaking fans of New Zealand hip hop, well, there may only be two but they love it. Voilà

10 Bons Sons néo-zélandais en 2020 - Le Bon Son
- http://lebonson.org/2020/12/30/10-bons-sons-neo-zelandais-en-2020/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhfU8YfzOi4
Choicevaughan feat. Melodownz & Tom Scott – To Live And Die in AD (Prod Choicevaughan)

I will continue to reserve the right to post my urban(o) jams, Dutch and otherwise, in this thread, if it’s alright with you, sbahnhof!

natuurlijk!
interjection

by all means yes, of course

fijn!

. I see in The NY Times actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas saying that she listens to Hindi rap like Raftaar and Divine when she works out.

liking this rn, from South Africa (from last year):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBQhHgzNHQY
DJ2WNTY ft. Lani , BANDSMIDNIGHT & 6ixty Jonas • Oorkant

yeah, dope!! love the flow and the whistly sounds!

the original that I posted in last year’s thread is superior in its sparseness, but this beat remains irresistible:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dDEsxksHjk
Saaff ft. Qlas & Blacka, Mula B & Delano Holwijn • Neckless (Remix)

(and yes, this is Dutch)

cool obscure Danish track that I came across (from last year):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KaJnmD0u3c
Icekiid • ErruDumEllaHvad

not really, came across it on this thread. it’s got 17.7M streams on Spotify and is on the FIFA 21 soundtrack album - or vice versa

love this Dutch track (another one from last year that I just came across):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZA4zIlmGXM
Yssi SB ft. Qlas & Blacka, Ashafar & ADF Samski • Scooter

especially love the production by Oath - this is the instrumental

replacing broken link for Saaff ft. Qlas & Blacka, Mula B & Delano Holwijn • Neckless (Remix)

still a banger

busy thread eh?

here's another jam from South Africa:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w65HxZ2q_Vc
Dr Peppa ft. Blxckie, Aux Cable, Lord Script & Chang Cello • Mntase

from Turkey (where it's a big hit), interesting to me because of the afropop influence most of all, but it has one of Turkey's most popular rappers on it as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUCt4Yy_vRE
Güneş ft. Uzi • Dua

Tøyen Holding is a great Norwegian duo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmpA4eQacfc

I'm delighted to say that 10 Over 10 is still on every Friday evening on Kenya Citizen TV (live stream).

The music show, which I wrote about on ILM in March last year, had to go into lockdown within weeks, and returned without its patented madcap audience, and only with the studio performers. Luckily, the host Willis Raburu is acting like nothing's changed, and he hypes up an empty room just as well as if it's got 500 screaming fans in it.

And out this week, their endeavours have produced one banger:

"JESHI" - Willis 'BAZU' Raburu X Ssaru X Fathermoh X Rico Gang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up-FReh0fWs

...a possible entry for "Videos where people feign enthusiasm for the Premier League" (along with thousands of other videos).

Also, thanks to WordHippo.com for the information, "What does jeshi mean in Swahili?", well of course it's
= "army"
or
"yokel"

https://www.passionweiss.com/2021/09/10/afro-jams-of-the-week-september-10-2021/

Guy is writing about Kenyan Swahili rap here

Thank you, champ(ez)!

All of those are postworthy...

KHALIGRAPH JONES feat. KHALIGRAPH JONES and KHALIGRAPH JONES - "CHAMPEZ"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crYum29M-VE

"BOUNCE" - VENRICK X SHATTA BWAY X DJ RAMBO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_EOyTi-9nw

On a linguistic note, I'm learning a lot, well, a little:

"Yooh is common word used by Africans especially Burundians to express their regret and/or anger feeling."

...."Rappy Boy"?! Yooh!

Trey Zo x Rappy Boy - "Yooh"
- youtu.be/CpWnprH7FU0

...Whereas, titling your album SENEGALBOY DELUXE, as Samba Peuzzi has, is evidently classic.
(There is a non-deluxe edition, but who wants that?)

Samba Peuzzi - "Lou Yakou Yawa"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYBWX4vtql0

Not seeing a Non-US rap 2022 thread

so will post here for now-

The movie Casablanca Beats will be streaming online April 25 through 28th via Filmfest DC. The trailer for it looks better than this description from the Guardian: Franco-Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch has made a likable, high-energy youth movie that could almost be called the Moroccan answer to Fame and which features that time-honoured plot device: putting on a concert.

Using nonprofessionals playing docu-fictionalised versions of themselves, Ayouch has created a drama revolving around an arts centre for young people that he himself helped to set up in the tough district of Sidi Moumen, called by someone here the Bronx of Casablanca. The school includes a special programme called the Positive School of Hip-Hop. A crowd of smart, talented teens join the class and we watch as they find out the challenges, limits and opportunities of learning self-expression through western-style rap in a Muslim society.

https://www.filmfestdc.org/filmView.cfm?passID=11

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jul/16/casablanca-beats-review-morocco-nabil-ayouch-cannes?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1626473900

the france rap scene has been taking cues from jersey lately, what a time to be alive

thahomey, skuna - "work"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZFF40gCf_I

that's nice!

Since I'm here, quick update on what is a pretty great year for Danish hiphop.

Biggest star in the country, Gill, made this undeniable banger to start out the year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw11uMF8GS0

And trio Shooter Gang made Alt Har Sin Pris, which I think is the best drill album from anywhere since the last Backroad Gee. Their three voices complement each other perfectly, and the productions are, excluding a couple misguided crossover-attempt, consistently great. Check out how the second verse escalates until they can only shout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rxi-Fqqbdk

Just an ocean of adlibs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLPgDIL_73w

wow "Baíana"!

not to rain on Gill’s parade, and he does sound good here, but he’s practically daring us to post this example of worldwide rap (among other things) from 2005:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHyzrYBACcg
Barbatuques • Baianá

oh, it’s Gill*i*, right!?

“Alt Har Sin Pris” (the track) is great.

good to see you, Fred!

Oh, cool, I couldn't locate the sample, but it's pretty obviously relying on that sample a lot. And yeah, it's Gilli, don't know what happened there.

Another big hit is this stellar example of the fad known as 'sample drill':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ_o2Lvd-C8
Take a few minutes to check out the original, a classic of 90s Danish pop, especially the video is pure 90s end-of-history extravaganza.

This one goes out to you, breastcrawl. The Ghanaian diaspora in Denmark makes music too, and Abudebi Zonjon is one of my favorite up-and-coming pop artists. I was obsessed with these two tracks a year ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB-e7F1os-g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFnmpvTvuHU

Unfortunately he does not get a lot of support here, so singles are trickling out quite slowly. I'm hoping an album could be one of the best Danish pop albums this year.

“Shout My Name” especially is great. it sounded vaguely familiar, turns out I played it after you nominated it for the 2020 EOY.

this one from earlier this year is by far his biggest streaming track on Spotify - hopefully that album will materialize at some point!

“Biggest Wov!”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHCx8IE01As

Yeah, hoping for an upward trajectory!

Speaking of songs i nominated in 2020, and artists where I'm impatiently awaiting an album, the biggest story in Danish rap the last few years are of course: Tessa! Inspired by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, technically proficient freestyle-rapper and an extremely dedicated writer of complicated rhymes. And completely brazen, sex focused and -positive.

Blæstegnen was my favorite song of 2020, an ode to Vestegnen, the suburbs west of Copenhagen. Great dembow beat, fun lyrics about sex, drugs and assault, and the woman at 0:20 in the video is former prime minister Helle Thorning Schmidt being the proto Sanna Marin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSGjsAsZllk

Hallo Kitty from last year is one of her best sex-songs ('pull my g-string down, say 'Hello Kitty'). The first verse illustrates how purely euphonically great her verses are, especially the moment where she ends one rhyme-scheme on 'tiktok' then begins the next one on 'toxic'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd5EKLPrKFs

And then... She kinda stayed silent. She only just released her first single of 2022, Engangspik (One-time-dick), which is fun, but not her best stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzQchUie-64

I've heard she's been working on her album for years, but... Still no sign of it.

I was listening to a bit of French rap, and a new single from Niska made me check if Gnonmi avec lait was ever posted? That's a total classic from last year, a bit coupé-décalé, I think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQtwXWk3gJQ

Another thing was the album RIYAD SADIO from rappers Ashe 22 and Freeze Corleone (both of whom people might remember from the Eurovision track on Central Cees album). I like the sound of it, it sounds like the title, sad desert music, vaguely arabic-sounding samples + wheezing and buzzing drill and trap drums. It's one of the most cohesive drill releases I've heard yet. The whole album is recommended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NREvaS5qzyE

Okay, this is only a little bit rap, but it's the big one. This is the biggest Danish pop album in ages, and while of course the impact is lessened if you don't know Danish, I'd also say it's one of the best non-English-language pop-albums of the year (a little below Stromae and Rosalia, but still). Tobias Rahim has been absolutely dominant on the charts with his songs, and as he began dominating his lyrics became wilder and wilder, including a song about how men take drugs instead of crying, a song attacking lawyers, an ode to a fifth grade girlfriend, and a song fantasizing about being a prostitute in Dubai. It's so insanely catchy and hooky, and the complex lyrics are obviously from someone who comes from a hiphop tradition.

Again, this is definitely a top 25 album for me, but I get why it won't be for anyone else on here. Just please check out 'Kurdere i København'. It's about being from Kurdistan, having made it in Denmark, then going back to the old village to celebrate. The song goes from melancholic piano loop and a verse about the racism his granddad endured, and gets more and more celebratory until it's a full on Kurdish rave. This is absolutely one of the songs of the year, in ambition as well as execution, and I'm going to hype it a lot at poll-time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQYDn2N4UFw

https://open.spotify.com/album/40mMNrTODUEEEd7JNsNd3A

Thanks, Frederik!

yes, thanks for posting!

Headie One's 'No Borders: European Compilation Project' is a pretty good introduction to a lot of European rappers, whether French, German, Italien or even Dutch. Gazo's fine album DRILL FR from last year was exactly what it said on the cover, and Luciano does the same throaty trap thing he does on a thousand hits a year. A lot of the producers are continental as well, which is nice. The inclusion of Yasin is a sour note to end on though, due to his conviction in a kidnapping/torture case where the victim was later murdered. And I don't get why there's no Danish rappers on there, but oh well.

Drill is big in Denmark, all the biggest rappers peppered their albums with drill-tracks as soon as Pop Smoke broke through, and I'll still claim the Shooter Gang debut is one of the most consistent drill-albums released anywhere. Yesterday saw the debut-release from Kong Kurs, an underground rapper who made his album with dubstep-producer RDG, and they've created a sort of dubstep-drill hybrid - dub-drill? - and I'm loving it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDiPCHMI__k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2l_Cx-5Vlw

maybe time for a rolling worldwide rap thread for the ages thread

I see there is some discussion on Norwegian rap on the EOY thread

Tøyen Holding are amazing

look forward to their coming 3rd album, the 2nd is among my all time rap records from any nation

This is apparently a Norwegian hiphop chart topper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCTC2wkUgUE

I rest my case

that's not hip hop

tøyen holding is

it's not terrible tho?

In comparison, this is Danish pop rap at it's most populist. I think we can all agree it's much better, even if you don't know the sample.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ_o2Lvd-C8

(I honestly don't know if we can agree on that. And I'd also be interested in recommendations for the best Norwegian hip hop songs)

hehe the lowrey/gobs/helmig tune is hilarious!

I actually don't know much abt norwegian hiphop, mainly fascinated with the 2nd tøyen holding album, first one not as great (to me) and I'm lukewarm but hopeful on their upcoming release

My favorite Danish rapper, Stepz, just relased a new album. Everything is produced by my favorite producer Nicki Pooyandeh (who did Baiana, which got an amazing two votes in the 77 poll). Truth be told it might be his worst, he consciously included a couple 'crossover' tracks, that won't work, but these two are so great together. Great beats, often changing with weird outtros, and Stepz has such a good voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtM9I7rAulU

There's an article on Tobias Rahim in the New York Times. I told you this was the big one:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/19/arts/music/tobias-rahim-danish-pop.html

Undergrunn is the second biggest group in Norway (after Karpe) at the moment. They are definitely hip hop.

This is Karpe, btw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0OymS-SET8

PAF.no, from the album Omar Sherrif.

Today is the ten year anniversary of perhaps the best and most important Danish rap track of all time, at least since the eighties. D.A.U.D.A. by Sivas. Brought trap to the Danish masses, is in my opinion one of the best trap beats made anywhere, and it's a track I shamefully forgot to nominate for the decade list. Would have been top five for me, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDLaJm5noSU

Two of todays biggest rap stars, ArtigeArdit and Lamin, released a Watch the Throne style collaboration a couple weeks ago. It's up and down, but this jersey club track is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxC_MuFF1vg