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

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

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNmJuKQsuI8

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