Meadow Music

The masked rapper Follow Him to the End of the Desert is here with the 21-track mixtape, “Jacksonian March Mixtape”. And there’s quite some material here.

With the help of a number of guests like for example Prop Dylan, Stiko Per Larsson and K-Element, he present a coherent album with a lot of variation. Funk, soul, jazz, rock is mixed into the agressive rap but at the same time there’s a lot of self-distance and humour. Really good this, and I’ll make it this summer’s hip hop favourite.

If you’d like to grab the entire album, it’s available for download, completely free. You can find Follow Him to the End of the Desert on Myspace and on Spotify. Here are two tracks and a video:

Sea Lion (feat Stiko Per Larsson)
Lord Knows (feat Prop Dylan)

Jacksonian March feat Prop Dylan:

Riff Knives play music in a genre that’s normally not exactly my thing, but nevertheless I was caught by their music. It’s a mix of hip hop, funk and rock with a lot of attitude and cool hooks. They get their inspiration foremost from N*E*R*D but also also from bands like Looptroop, Jurassic 5 and Infinite Mass.

They have released their debut EP, “Rattle For Fame”, which you can listen to on Spotify or on their Myspace page. Here are a couple of tracks:

Rattle For Fame
Porn Scar

A little more than a year ago Dubious Quip released his singel “Obedient Minds”, and in the end of last year he finally presented the follow-up album with the same name. And the seven tracks on the album feel like a great continuation of the journey that he started with the song “Obedient Minds”. With mr Quip’s own mix of hip hop, reggae and soul, it’s laidback, cool and nice to listen to.

And it gets even better with the contribution from a personal favourite, Ulf Ljusberg, who visits with his song “Make It Right”, where he also sings. Pitz and R.A.W. also contributes in a couple of tracks with a really cool rap, which fits perfectly with the atmosphere on the album.

You can follow Dubious Quip on his site, where you also can listen to the other tracks. The album is also available on his Bandcamp page.

Free
Make It Right (feat. Ulf Ljusberg & Pitz)

Zucchini Drive released their third album this autumn. The album is called “Shotgun Rules” and oozes of heavy electronica, hip hop and rock, not to mention som really nice pop hooks. I enter a dark and dense soundscape and even if I feel the same vibes there is quite some variation from track to track.

The vocals are excellent and are performed by a range of invited guest artists such as Marina Gasolina, Christy Brewster, M Sayyid, Seraphim et. al.

The albumet is released on the digital music company Marathon of Dope, run by Zucchini Drive together with other artists like Pip Skid and Birdapres from Canada. The idea is to release all music for free. Albums, remixes, videos, instrumental versions and so on will be available for everyone, and with this they hope to spread their music as much as possible and then get support from those who like it.

This means of course that you can download the album “Shotgun Rules” for free and discover a lot more on Marathon of Dope’s site. Read more about Zucchini Drive or visit them on their Myspace page or their Facebook page.

Shotgun Rules (with Marina Gasolina)
Call the Gods back In (with Elissa P)

Ballistic, Ebbot and Mollgan together with the singer Cecilia Dumbuya form the hip hop group Middlesex. This summer they released the singel “Integritet” (”Integrity”) where they present a soulful hip hop and where Cecilia’s soft voice sits nice in the hooky choruses. There’s a good variation from the straight beats in “Integritet” to the backbeat in “Mistah Mistah” to “Det är vackrast när det skymmer”, which kan described as a beautiful hip hop ballad.

The song “Integritet” is a comment from Middlesex on the debate around personal integrity which started last year in Sweden with the FRA law. Mistah Mistah is also critical about society but the band states that they have no direct ambition to be political, but that they have strong opinions and that they can just as well write about love, if that comes to mind.

Here below is the video to “Integritet”, and “Mistah Mistah” to listen to and download. As a bonus they also give us the track “Fotografier” where they are joined by Peter and Annelie.

Visit Middlesex and listen more on their site and on Myspace.

Integritet:

Mistah Mistah
Fotografier (ft Peter och Annelie)

It’s been a while since we had some Hip hop here on Meadowmusic, so it’s right about time for some more. And Jaeger is the artist that supplies the hip hop today. A nice groovy, laidback hiphop, cool and somewhat retro.

The song that Jaeger serves us here, “Blossom” is taken from the upcoming EP “Futuretro” (Swingin Hut), with guest vocals by Leon.

You’ll find Jaeger on Myspace and on Swingin Huts site

Jaeger - “Blossom”:

Blossom feat Leon

We have presented him before. But Frispåkarn doesn’t stop at just giving us “Den ena dan är den andra lik”; he continues to create at a high level. Here he gives us his new singel “Nästa tåg nästa buss” (”Next Train Next Bus”), a song that is very direct for me, a song where he presents us with a darker side of Stokholm, while the track hammers on into my mind with beats and melodies that really hook me.

It feels like Frispråkarn moves forward all the time. Listen for yourself here:

Nästa tåg nästa buss

Möt Frispråkarn på Myspace

Lately Sweden has seen a flood of rappers with stone hard boombap-beats. Somewhere in this flood you’ll find Pikturez & BumBill. Pikturez, a guy from the deep woods of Småland, did like the old emigrants and moved out. Not to New York, like you’re led to believe when you listen to him, but to Stockholm. After a while connecting through the net, Pikturez met Bumbill out on the green line. They continued to work together, and the latest work is “Urbanized Konfusion”. A consistently pleasant and, according to me and Pikturez, a narrative and true record. Pikturez:

“… lyrically it all comes from the inside. I can stand for every word on Urbanized Konfusion.”

Pikturez & BumBill is something for you that wants to listen to music that is completely free from annoying moments. If you like what you hear and are a sucker for Swedish hip hop, don’t despair! Pikturez is also available in Swedish, where he calls himself “Bildspråk den Tyngre”. Together with his crew Unionen, says Pikturez, a new release is underway. He’s also been a guest on many albums, like Shazaam’s “I Huvudet på John Landenfeldt” and Elsa’s “Stick-up”. You can be sure that you’ll hear a lot more from Pikturez in the future, not just here on Meadowmusic!

Pikturez & BumBill ft. Phonetik & Rigael Damar - In the air

Pikturez & BumBill - Nikes & Asics(Robin Bankz remix)

You liked it? Then you can download the EP by clicking on the image below..

Pikturez & BumBill on myspace

If you missed Zacke last time Jesper wrote about him here on Meadowmusic, you really missed something special! With a voice just as characteristic and unique as Louis Armstrong and an expression like no other swede, Zacke raises the level for Swedish hip hop yet another pinhole. Just like Snook did with their album “ÄR”.

In “Förlorad Generation” (”Lost Generation”) Zacke raises caution to his generation of the eighties and their creators. On a well produced Kihlen-beat I think that Zacke presents his qualities in the best way. Instead of being impressed, listening to an endless row of rhymes, it makes me think when I hear:

“Media, politicians, they speculate. No job we’re floating on studies ’cause on loans we can almost survive. Let us become academics in these rough times. But that education gives you a job automatically, those times are gone.” (translated from the Swedish original lyrics)

Zacke says that he’s inspired by artists like Allan Edwall, Ola Magnell and Cornelis Vreeswijk. And even if he also listens a lot to music from his own genre, it shows in his music that he gets inspiration from the outside of the hard-boiled hip hop-egg. The piano, the instruments, well the whole arrangement, makes me experience something more than just traditional hip hop. An important ingredient to this is that the instruments are handled by real musicians, which gives an extra dimension to Zacke and his music. This, and opinions like:

“I believe and hope that my generation has a positive view on society. We are the society. On the other hand, I would like that everybody, including my generation, would become more interested and engaged in what’s happening around us. That we consider how we act and also how the authorities act. If we are not aware, we are in a way lost.”"

The fact is that I, as I write this, have been thinking about “floating on studies” next fall. And maybe it’s like that. That Zacke presses the right buttons, in us, in time, musically and so on. And that the kettle has been boiling long enough, up there in the north of Sweden, to start a “Revoluuuushooon…“

More from and about Zacke you’ll find on his site, and his Myspace page.

Zacke feat. Kihlen - Förlorad generation

Lately hip hop has branched and formed new varieties. One of these is called “Grime“. Often the explanations become rather diffusse when you try to explain what Grime is and how it sounds. You could say that it’s more dirty, heavier, more techno/electronica and a little darker than traditional rap. One of two grimers in Sweden, Kid Colt (to my knowledge, the other one is Max Peezay), was recently a much cheered guest on Contrahesive’s new album “Reflection is Relative” in the song “Gutter Music” and he has also released an mp3 together with Machete Productions.

Kid spits like he’s walked the streets of the London suburbs all his life. The Grime he produces is really hard, the flow heavy and the lyrics is high-octane. One can think about that if  Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer appeared geekish when the gangsta rap started, the gangsta rap now appears geekish as the Grime and Kid Colt comes out in the light, or darkness (!?).

Instead of me talking more about Kid Colt’s heavy style, I’ll let Kid Colt present himself and his Grime.

I asked Kid Colt on how his time in London has influenced him and how he discovered the grime:

It’s correct that I have lived in London, 6 years in two periods of time. Musically I only played drums in a harcore band, ha ha. Not that much hip hop then. But I did have a lot of friends that did hip hop and then there was a lot of grime-mc’s in my school. I obeserved the scene closely during my London years, but it wasn’t until I moved back to Sweden that I picked up the microphone and started rapping.

I also asked what he thinks about Dizzee Rascal and Max Peezay and if he could se himself in them:

I listened a lot to Dizzee’s first two records and he was one of my favourite MC’s for a long time. Today, though, I don’t know if he’s about grime at all. He doesn’t say that much nowadays, which is a pity. When I heard Discokommitéen for the first time I was really struck by it. I remember that I thought it was so damn’ big and it was partly because of that album that I wanted to do grime. Musically I don’t I recognise myself in any of these artists, but I have probably been more inflenced by Max Peezay since I do Swedish grime and my lyrics relate more to Sweden and my surroundings here.

Kid Colt - Flush out the crap (Machete Prod)

Kid Colt - Statement (Grime)

Kid Colt on Myspace

Sci-Fi & Hands is something of the most refreshing that has hit my eardrums; maybe ever. These two gentlemen certainly takes it back. I haven’t heard hip hop with mad skills like these since the nineties. I give my full respect and devotion for Hands who, to me, is one of the best DJ:s in Sweden. Furthermore, Sci-Fi grabs the microphone and shows a flow like the phenomenal east-coast.

It’s quite obvious that there are no ordinary guys from the suburbs behind the wheel. Partly because of Sci-Fi’s high quality of the rhymes, the punchlines and the English skills overall. And partly because of that Hands’ hands creates magic for the listener. This is something that should be heard from everybody’s speaker!

Sci-Fi and Hands are not only old-school in their expression but also in their constellation as an MC and a  DJ. “working together. “Sci-Fi & Hands is a Stockholm duo consisting of a chronically complaining computer nerd and a polished KTH-academic”, you can read at kulturfascisten’s blog, which could seem a little strange with the gangster images of the rappers of today in mind. But really, how much of gangstas were MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice?

Well, enough of this, there is no point of continuing to throw superlatives at Sci-Fi & Hands; better to listen to the music:

Sci-Fi & Hands - Poison of choice
Sci-Fi & Hands - The dating game

Sci-Fi & Hands’ site (more tracks to listen to)

Sci-Fi & Hands’ Myspace page

There was obviously some problem with the track “Obedient Minds” with Dubious Quip as published two days ago, some people have reported. Therefore we have converted the track into a more common format which you can download in this post:

Dubious Quip - Obedient Minds

Maybe you have seen the movie Black snake moan and remember the scene where Samuel L. Jackson’s character plays the song Stack-O-Lee Lee in a smoky, sweaty and dirty Mississippi bar and remember the feeling. With the song “Obedient Minds” Dubious Quip have managed to create the feeling from the after-party.

From what I know, Dubious Quip comes in several variations; a smoky, sweaty and dirty kind of modern blues, an acoustic version and also as hip hop. It’s hard to put a label on Dubious Quip; and sometimes I also find reggae influences.
I like the first variation best, since I have a preference for songs where I can create my own music video in my head. Moby is a good example of this, and even if Dubious Quip and Moby are far away from each other musically, Dubious Quip also manages to create images within me. Dubious Quip is something for you who like to sit in a smoky room with a smoky whisky and feel good!

Dubious Quip - Obedient Minds

Dubious Quip on Myspace
Dubious Quip’s site
He also has an interesting community where you can listen, discuss and read more.

“It’s human to error, so we do it every day!”

That’s a quote from the-don’t-give-a-fuck-ism or just Ismen that Mickelito and Sober formed together. Ismen is real farm boy hip hop in a good way, and the sound they create together, sometimes with an almost embarrassing puberty sense of humour in “Alla gillar brudar” (”Everyone likes chicks”), sometimes more serious like in “Alla älskar en död man” (”Everyone loves a dead man”) and a nice image of smelly flannel shirts and fuck you-attitude, is just what is needed on stage.

The album “Inget kan bli skönt nog” (”Nothing is nice enough”) is without doubt the hottest release in Swedish in a long time. Mickelito and Sober makes their music sound intelligent, however unintelligent this may sound. But the fact is that if there were a winner’s stand where Organism12 would be the punchline master of Sweden, then Ismen definitely would be up there on the stand. Instead of an all-too-serious record you are entertained all the time by the music that is inventive and well-written. Ismen’s enormous vocabulary shoots out original thoughts while the beats, produced by Xeilon and others, give Ismen’s expression a totality.

So if you thought that Eminem didn’t “give a fuck”, go and get “Inget kan bli skönt nog”. You have to!

Ismen & Gorillala - Alla gillar brudar

Ismen - Vita stolen

Ismen’s Myspace page

Ismen’s site

Ps. Laxmacka Crew with Ismen, Mofeta & Jerre, Cleo and others, will release a new mixtape in the beginning of week 47. The release is on Ismen’s hemsida. Get it!

Nowadays hip hop often is about the wrong things. One who knows better is Menteroja. Menteroja is the Swedish answer to Immortal Technique. One who knows better is Menteroja. Menteroja is the Swedish answer to Immortal Techinque. Someone who knows what the content of his lyrics really means. Politics is the headline in Enesto’s lyrics and you can read from his artist name Menteroja from where he’s speaking. Menteroja that, translated from Spanish, means “red mind”. The blood that flows through Ernesto’s veins is red since birth and inherited from his parents that had to flee from their country, Uruguay, to avoid torture and possible death because of their political views.

Menteroja produces his music together with the master mind Robin Banks and the result is a a sound that sounds like well-produced underground. Since Robin Banks is involved there is a feeling of the nineties and with Menterojas aggressive attitude and opinions there is a a touch of Wu-Tang Clan but without the gangsta rap.

”Never riding no trend we forever devoted

making the tracks you’ll be hummin

and the rhymes y’all be qouting”

To me Menteroja means a musical moment that will stick with me for life. One night a friend calls me asking me if I want to come to Menteroja’s release party. Mente-what? I ask and feel a little ashamed since I don’t know of him. A few hours and a few drinks later I’m standing there at the party in Växjö, digging the rhythm and feeling that everything is so soft! Hopefully you’ll like him as much as I do.

Forever Devoted
Science to the Youth

Menteroja’s hemsida

Menteroja’s Myspace

The vibes from Contrahesive takes you back to the heavy nineties with a touch of Fjärde Världen. Not least because of the genius producer Robin Banks’ ability to create feeling and thought in every beat, and Luuda’s verses, delivered softly just like Jay-Z but in Swedish.

The first time I heard Luuda was on Snook’s first album “Vi vet inte vart vi ska men vi ska komma dit” in the song “Har du tänkt på din egen begravning?” (”Have you thought about your own funeral?”), where he makes a masterly guest appearance. MC Porno I heard on Allears a year ago, and I have liked him since then. Especially for the song “Bob Dylan Is a Rapper”. Porno’s style is right up my alley, since hip hop and electronica are my two favourite genres. I think that Porno’s way of mixing these genres and at the same time have an international and unique sound, makes him stand out. And that the styles of the two rappers are so different makes this collaboration even more interesting.

Porno, Luuda and Robin Banks have together created the album “Reflection Is Relative”, which could be the soundtrack to Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, Domino or any great movie. The album is real and doesn’t solve any political world problems, but the lack of good Swedish hip hop and autumn drabness.

Download Contrahesive’s “Reflection Is Relative” for free.

Contrahesive - One

Contrahesive - Gutter music

Contrahesive - Window view

- with real hip hop muscles

He likes to ride the bike against the wind, eat meatballs and he likes soft nights at home. And maybe it’s there he finds all inspiration to his songs. Because this mr Fredric is the face of productivity. He releases songs all the time in a high pace.

This guy from Jakobsberg in Stockholm moves smoothly among the hip hop elite in Sweden and delivers romantic themes or philosophical speculations about life and love.

This is how he presents himself in a clip:

And listen to this: Fredric feat. Frida Muranius and Mattias Welin. It’s a little like Me Tarzan and You Jane, and I fully love it. A warm-up party song that should be a hit among the winedrinking mothers of bothersome teenagers. It’s an enigma to me that it’s not constantly played on all the Swedish radio stations, as it’s a smashing superhit bomb according to me:

Fantasi (with Frida and Mattias)

Heres another song from Fredric:

Du kom du gick

Fredric is now working on his new site, where he will upload 19 new songs, all free for download! So keep a look at Fredric’s site.

In the meantime you can visit him on Myspace where you for example can listen to a couple of cool collaborations with Melina and Anthon.

I will leave this space entirely to this man of words to describe himself and his music:

“To step into Frispråkarn’s world is to bring the world down from the la-la-land of television. Håkan Bäckman a.k.a. Frispråkarn - “The Freespeaker” - delivers rhymes of utmost quality, served directly from Swedish reality. After having made a name for himself on various mix tapes and compilations, he is now taking charge of his creations by releasing his music on his own web site.

Frispråkarn’s music is characterized by the mix of improvisation and lyric writing which alternates between attitude competition and freestyle. To deliver at least one whole verse that is all improvised is something that fans of Frispråkarn has come to expect from a live performance. But the political and the storytelling has equal parts on Frispråkarn’s menu. It’s about range - something that a lot of Swedish artists today seem to not even bother to take into consideration. Sollentuna, the suburb outside Stockholm, is Frispråkarn’s home turf and New York is only distant an uninteresting. This hungry MC is here to spread his music and his words - without compromising with the everyday or his art.”

This summer, Frispråkarn has been one of the most played artists on SR Metropol with his second single from his forthcoming album “Signerat Frispråkarn” (”Signed the Freespeaker”). The song has also been played on Swedish national radio (P3), Cityradion among other stations. On Youtube, you can find an impressive video that has receive over 55 000 views, and it has also been aired on Ztv. Things are indeed rolling for this focused artist. Here’s a sneak peek of his professional video:

Listen to an artist with drive:

Den ena dan e den andra lik

and

Kärlek växer till hat

Want to know more about him?

Frispråkarn on Myspace

—————————
Uppdate

Frispråkarn - the Freespeaker - releases a mix tape free for download as an appetizer of his forthcoming album!
Download here

So it’s time again to pick up my keyboard fingers. For a while my inside has been trying to formulate som thoughts about the album “Run Amok” (Svedjebruk), which is a co-op between the MC Porno and his musical beat master Spunk. Before this, I had heard a few demo versions of the songs, which made me writhe inside, so it has been hard to even get started to listen to the album with my really selective ears.

But what a surprise it was as I finally started listening, finding my head bopping from the first beat to the last spin. I don’t know if it’s because of Andreas Tillander’s mastering efforts or if it’s because I was in a bad mood before, but this really has it’s place for a hip hop nostalgic like me.

Even if I think that the production of “Do It Like I Do It” should be reconsidered, in general this is real quality. From the jazz sound of “Sit Back and Relax” to the Pharcyde inspired songs “Keep Running” and “The Revolution Will Not Be Streamed”. I sense that tilted lowrider feeling in my body and kind of glide down into my armchair.

The highlight of the album is the song that has the same title as this 11-songs-album. The song “Run Amok” really shows high quality. If you have the possibility, then you should buy a copy of this record, especially if you feel a little down and hip hop nostalgic in the autumn darkness.

Visit Porno on Myspace and Spunk on Myspace and both together in Amok on Myspace.

Here you can listen to and download a song with Porno in his band Contrahesive, consisting of Porno and Luuda.

Gutter Music

Contrahesive has recently released their debut album “Reflection Is Relative”. You can listen and download the entire album at Whoa.nu, the biggest hip hop-sajt in Sweden.

You can also listen to Porno at Sveriges Radio Metropol, spoken word

A song of contrasts is presented for me late by night. Strangely enough, it doesn’t happen often these days that MC:s from the land of Falukorv, makes political statements. But with the song “Nytt Land” (New Country), Bentancourt breaks this trend by rapping politically at the same time that he, together with his girlfriend Shacko Damidez and David Silva, performs an angry song in a joyful way.

The decision about the FRA Law in Sweden this summer, made a lot of people irritated and with the hook “Släpp mitt SMS” (Release my SMS), the trio has a good opportunity to be heard across the barricades.

On the Myspace page of Bentancourt you can find a lot of good music. The track that attracts me the most is “Dansa” (Dance), which I think deserves a lot more attention. With an intro that invites you to think that Gonza is on the scene, a beat and a hook that feels like Kaah, my neck starts swinging back and forth.

I received a press release together with the song “Nytt Land”, which I have presented below (translated from Swedish), as it sets the theme of the latest release from Bentancourt.

(Read about the FRA law)

But first - the mp3:

Nytt Land

And the Myspace pages of:

David Silva

Martin Bentancourt

Press release:
===========================================

”NYTT LAND” (New Country)

BENTANCOURT feat SILVA

”Det är ett nytt land sen vår integritet försvann”
(It’s a new country since our integrity went away)

Whether you are angry with the FRA law or not, you won’t be able to resist this year’s grooviest counter-reaction!

NYTT LAND expresses anger, surprise and disappointment.
And when you’re angry, sometimes it’s also easy to feel powerless.
Then it’s better to dance, sing and clap hands.
Turn that anger into something sexy baby!

”Släpp mitt SMS” (Release my SMS)

Martin Bentancourt is the artist and radio talker with the direct opinions. Before he has released the classic “första generationens svenne”, the song that became an important voice for an entire generation.

Now he has teamed up with his girlfriend Shacko Damidez and David Silva, to create the song you can listen to when you’re making the placards or blogging your opinions!

”Vill stoppa terrorister, så de stoppar mina kärleksbrev i register”
(want to stop terrorists, so they put my love letters in registers)

===========================================

At a first glance I thought I had had a tip about yet another trucker-cap-rapping Lidingö islander who hired a pal in order to get some publicity. But then…this was something else.

Levis-commercials gone magic, at last a swedish rapper who doesn’t collect troublesome rhymes and harmful south coast beats It’s inventive and feels alive and real and somehow it fills up a kind of void in me.

“Den här ungtuppen har putsat fjädrarna sen lunchrushen” (”This young rooster has been grooming his feathers since the noon rush”) is only one of many resourceful ways in the song “BS” to establish the fact that he’s a little bit smarter than the rest in this line of business.

BS sounds like a blend of Timbaland production and JQ. The wittyness of the rhymes sound somewhat like Robert Blom with a touch of fifteen year old voice-broken provocateur - and that is definitely meant as a compliment. It adds a little edge to something that else might have been somewhat lame.

On the MySpace page there’s also a number that feels more like everyday swedish hiphop beat. “Johnny Depp 08″ has got a lot of Timbuktu, which obviously ain`t ever all bad.
Your are anywayze recommended a visit to the MS page of Zacke.

To find Zacke’s music:
http://www.myspace.com/zackemusik
http://www.zackemusik.se/

An mp3-song:
Johnny Depp 08

BS - from Youtube:

(translated by Aurgrunn)