Rolling non-US rap thread 2016

Let's see if we can bring some Bollywood rap this year!

Kicking off with a post from S & D: Foreign language hip-hop?

Thought there was another thread for this but

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slei8n08Cqk

― video2000, Sunday, February 7, 2016 1:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'll add that Gilli is currently #1 on the Danish charts with this... thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6w1gvQqCTo

And that Danish poetry sensation Yahya Hassan is apparently planning (relaunching) his rap career, this track released yesterday, kinda hilarious stuff

lol, i kinda like them both, albeit for different reasons.

ah! been waiting for this thread to pop up, been listening to this new track from Malaysia a lot in the last week.

http://www.bandwagon.asia/articles/listen-woodlands-rap-god-akeem-jahat-returns-with-ua

Started a playlist, keep em coming!

ILM's Rolling Non-US Rap Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist

Sivas and Gilli very much crossing over into tropical territory with this hit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMmg6fR_dlI

Sweet sound of success...

don't know where to look for Swedish and Norwegian rap, but stumbled upon this Swedish tune, nice banger with 90s/east coast vibes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lXBVqtPsg8

Also, Ukendt Kunstner just released the album Den Anden Side, unfortunately no singles so far, but sounds promising, the Tue Track/Track72 produced 'Mand over bord' is very nice.

Love this Dutch rap track to pieces:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlBrab59L3c

SBMG ft. Kevin "Langs Je Rij"

good energy! netherlands seem to have a good scene, was quality stuff on last years thread too

Apparently I've been sleeping on a few things - this track by Eebz is a banger:
https://youtu.be/M5uAS6XM5rA

Cannibal Records is the name of a label I hadn't heard of until today but they're doing lots of interesting stuff - this video from Hakeem looks v pro:
https://youtu.be/0CbCyuRUqc8

My favorite discovery today is Artige Ardit - beat's derivative but sounds great and he's got a lot of nerve:
https://youtu.be/N23RF6-WNK0

Playlist is updated through March

ILM's Rolling Non-US Rap Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist

I'll try to contribute to this a bit more often but atm I'm just popping in to say that my pals the Basmo Fam have just released their producers' album Alene hjemme, which in addition to a great new K-Major song also includes some pretty great Norwegian rap songs.

Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/album/7qUc5RujVEGSw91phAvB4F

The title track is from Linni's great 2015 album, Minimum, which also deserves your attention: https://open.spotify.com/album/7hi6vMYfsUgrpnnTz6oMOB

There's also this - Kobe's Vinter - on the same label. Kobe is the least charismatic member of the duo Sushi x Kobe and the project is a follow up to the poppy Sushis Sommer, which was an underground hit. There's some nice stuff on here, Medisin in particular, with Kong Makko Makeba on the hook. The whole thing is produced by Thias.

https://open.spotify.com/album/5D1q4Rhui926R5ooLa3fSb
Medisin:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6ZGyqoNLS2UT2Ar5ijm9sE

Playlist is updated through April.

ILM's Rolling Non-US Rap Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist

like the menace of this Bollywood rap a lot...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wsi7YTI2nY

Jungli Sher - DIVINE

now THAT's what I call non-US rap!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdRaS5mZkjk

Yakutyanochka by L'One - tropical house rap from the coldest city in the world, Yakutsk in the Sakha Republic. It's rather lovely.

Love how the new Mareko single "No Country for Old Men" has a decent chunk of Samonan, & uses the old David Axelrod sample for self-aware bitter old man grumblings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6eTq03UBW0

Love that Divine single!

This ethnic sing-rap-EDM chant about being the black sheep of the family is racking up the views in the Balkans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF-9RpwhHco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1_8WG9zLME
^^this is a nice Danish jam

https://soundcloud.com/kongchain/sets/clockwork-12-timer
^^this track from the album "12 Timer" is fantastic punchline rap, not sure how good it sounds if you don't get the lyrix - but this thread needs posts!

Playlist is updated.

ILM's Rolling Non-US Rap Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist

you will have heard similar songs, but "Ik' Tal Til Mig" by Omar is enjoyable all the same

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuNy7U4_FZE

Biggest song in Norway atm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykj5RlRdPyg
Snowboyz - 42

seems a bit contrived to me

(so much rap is)

i don't think it's contrived at all. They're genuine, lol.

I'm sure they are - they just don't come across that way to me, they're adapting a style that imo doesn't make too much sense in a Norwegian context, and to my ears it sounds more like they're goofing around than taking it seriously

When did rap "make sense" in a European context though? Or conversely, when has it not made sense? Music is created when people make their own home made versions of whatever they themselves are listening to and inspired by. This is no different.

I agree completely - but that being said, some acts seem more disingenuous than others, both in the US and Europe.

I think some trends in current mainstream rap (as embodied by the likes of Future, Thugger, Yachty) attract a lot of... I wouldn't call them wannabes or posers or opportunists, but all the same, rappers that don't seem to understand what their idols are doing or for some other reason get it wrong, produce songs that sound like poor parodies. But I don't know these people, I just see their songs online and think "the genre is a joke to these people", and it bothers me a bit. But I'm mostly familiar with this in a Danish context and can't tell what Snowboyz are up to - was just my initial reaction.

Who would you put into that category on Denmark, though?

In terms of Norway I'd say that the major problem for a very long time was that the major gatekeepers mainly listened to NY rap and to some extent west coast rap, and to a minor extent texas rap. What we're seeing now is sort of a huge release of pent up energy where all these kids who have been listening to atl music all their lives have suddenly just started to release music that reflects that fact. Also, they're having fun with it, which is always a good thing.

well, I think that is very otm, and there's still a lot of counterproductive REAL HIP HOP gatekeeping going on

To think of examples... hmm... I follow https://www.reddit.com/r/danskrap/ a bit, and stuff like this rubs me wrong:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEK5w6sALv8

Well... you know, the first commercially viable attempts at vernacular rap over here were mostly "comedic" raps by white men, and leaned hard towards pure ads, signaling that this kind of language could not possibly be taken seriously. So what you got were exercises in ironic distance. Here's an early example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9DIDJbZxg4

And at times, that vibe lives on. Ka Du Li Det would seem, to me at least, to fit into that dishonorable tradition, at least superficially. However, up here at least, there is another side to that narrative, since some of our brightest talents discovered rap at an early age and decided to make their own version of it, incorporating a sort of humor or even irony that was not primarily directed at hip hop as such, but rather addressed the discrepancy between the US context and the Scandinavian one as something that should not be glossed over but rather emphasized. Thus, you got early pioneers of norwegian country rap tunes like Side Brok, where the comedy is an integral part of it, but which at the same time is really passionate, knowledgeable and poetically competent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw1s7n_24c4

or the more current Yoguttene, who, in having fun and disregarding all self-important gatekeepers managed to open the gates to a new generation who suddenly didn't have to fit in with past conceptions of rap:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K-PR39YNTg

Runar from Side Brok were among the first to pick up Yoguttene and Tone from Yoguttene discovered Snow Boyz, so there's a certain alternative tradition at work here, obviously. But there's no irony in what Snow Boyz do - they mainly reacted to the diy ethos and free spirit of Yoguttene and decided to give it a go themselves.

you are completely otm, same developments in Denmark

even if this thread has been somewhat lacking in videos this year, it's been fun!

Playlist is updated for November.

ILM's Rolling Non-US Rap Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist

Speaking of Norwegian Country Rap Tunes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfnev8N0nY8
Sirkel Sag - Ørsta Rådhus

haha, a long walk to the town hall

this is perhaps my favorite from Denmark this year, unfortunately it's not on Youtube:

https://open.spotify.com/album/76PZaxLmfIoFY7yBF17LhM

the artist is Johnson but it's published under the alias niggernislæden (~the n***a in the "sled" (car))

Finalized playlist for this year's thread:

ILM's Rolling Non-US Rap Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist - Final

The Gribi album is really good fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWrg5Jj8waQ

The Kaspiiskii Gruz album was rated best Russian-language release of the year by the Moscow magazine Afisha but i'm not hugely keen on it. This, from the tail end of last year, was good though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srGCQfzh1OI

i'm always a sucker for bulgarian radio women's choir samples