As a Hip-Hop aficionado and a linguist (by training), I’ve always loved listening to a good flow in another language, regardless of whether or not I can understand the lyrics. Although a lot of it is up to particular lyricist’s personal style, languages have very different cadences and rhyming patterns.
The problem is that a lot of times foreign rap just isn’t put to very compelling beats, so it can be very difficult to listen to. However, there’s some good stuff out there. Here are my favorites, please add:
Spanish: Don Dinero feat. D’mingo – Pana Pana, Cypress Hill – No entiendes la onda
Maasai/Swahili: X Plastaz – Kutesa kwa zamu Japanese: DJ Krush feat Boss the MC – Candle Chant French: Supreme NTM – For My Peoples, MC Solaar – La Nouveau Western
Please let me know any suggestions, especially in other languages. Again, a catchy beat is preferrable.
In the thread on computer game The Movies, Aleong has made a number of videos of songs by Taiwanese rapper Jay Chou (see pages 2 and 3 of the thread). It doesn’t sound bad, as rap goes.
There was a movie starring Kirsten Dunst and Jay Hernandez called Crazy/Beautiful - he’s a kid from the barrio trying to get ahead, she’s a politician’s daughter - privelidged and screwed up. And they find…well, see the movie.
Anyway, the soundtrack is surprisingly great. The one case where we rented a silly Friday movie and got the soundtrack straight away.
Lots of Spanish rap interspersed with a variety of other good tunes…
Yes, Jay Chou is probably the rap/hip-hop king in the world of Chinese music. Other Chinese rap/hip-hop artists I’d also recommend Nan Quan Mama (a band that Jay helped start), J.J. Lin, and Lee-hom Wang.
As far as Slovene hip-hop goes, the person you should check is N’toko. His rapid-style delivery and amazing freestyle talent should’ve earned him a spot in every top MC list in the world if anyone besides 2 million Slovenes understood him.
Unfortunately I can’t provide any of his songs here, so I’m enclosing one of my songs. It’s an older one (from 2000 or somewhere there, those years are a bit blury) called Dj gmh which should translate something like Stop bugging me.
**Jovanotti ** is an Italian who sometimes sings in Spanish as well. His '90’s albums were mostly rap, though sometimes more pop. His more recent stuff is a sort of mellow hip-hop, I guess. All in all, covers a lot of the same ground (musically) as, say, Beck.
Ah Jovanotti. I’d forgotten about him! He had some minor hits across Europe back in the nineties. Fun music, though definetely not gangsta variety rap. He’s about as threathening as straciatella ice-cream with an umbrella in it.
The biggest Dutch rap group, who are (or want to be) in a much more tough gangsta-ish vein are the Osdorp Posse. Osdorp being a not so nice part of Amsterdam. Personally I think they are trying a bit too hard though some of their lyrics are quite witty. Not sure how much of it is left if you can’t understand them, but if think there are some soundclips on the linked site so check it out if you wish.
If you want to check out Israeli Hip-Hop, the two indisputable leaders are Hadag Nachash (“The Snake Fish”) and Subliminal VeHaTzel (“Subliminal and the Shadow.” It helps if you know Hebrew, though, if you really want to appreciate them. Both duos are overtly political, with the first leaning left, the latter right.
There is some love for them (I still listen to Die Vierte DImension and Lauschgift occasionally) but as far as the German speaking hiphop goes, I’d recommend the Hamburg scene. First two records by Fettes Brott: Auf eine Auge blöd and Aussen Top-Hits, innen Geschmack (sp?) and 5 Sterne Deluxe’s Sillium (record full of laugh out loud skits and a guest performance by Biz Markie). Also worth checking are Die Jazzkantine compilations with various rappers performing over live jazz band and Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt.
There’s also DJ Tomek, who produced few records with American and European rappers plus Massive Töne who did a song with Thirstin Howl III.
Please, take into account that I haven’t been checking the German scene for the past few years, so there are probably some new good bands and soloists.
i thnik theres a noweigan rap group by the name of “nik og jai” or something th that effect… or maybe that was the song title… cant remember and lost the tunes somwhere in the sands of hard drive deaths…
I agree that you should check out the Hamburg scene - it had it’s hey day in the late 90s- 2001. While the Hamburg scene was made leftist college kids the rough and tough Berlinrappers dominate the German Rap scene today, artists like Kool Savas, Sido, Harris or B-Tight and Labels “Royal Bunker” and “Aggro Berlin” established explicit sexual and violent content in German rap.
While the lyrics of acts like the Beginners, 5 Sterne Deluxe or Samy Deluxe were about smoking grass, having a good time and opposing fascism, it now goes bitches, dicks and ghetto all the time.
