Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.12.2004, Blaðsíða 37

ANTLEW AND MAXIMUM
Before Hæsta Hendin, before XXX
Rottweilarhundar, even before Quarashi,
there was an Icelandic kid living in Sweden
who heard hip-hop for the first time and
inadvertently became the predecessor of them
all.
Having become a producer by the age of 12,
Maximum returned to Iceland and joined
forces with Brooklyn-born Antlew to form his
own hip-hop outfit in 1997. Although largely
unknown to the rest of the country until 1999,
their music would become the inspiration for
nearly every hip-hop act that followed them.
Antlew and Maximum write songs in English,
saying that “Icelandic doesn’t flow too good,
but when it’s good, it’s good. Forgotten Lores
is a good example.” The songs themselves, they
say, are trying to reach into something outside
of the typical subject matter of most Icelandic
hip-hop material.
“Most of the time you hear something like,
‘Your mama’s fat’ or some other stupid insults,”
says Maximum. “We’re trying to do something
a bit more meaningful.” Antlew agrees and
adds, “We want to produce something that
would touch someone’s soul. Not that we don’t
do funny songs; we do. We’re not trying to be
like teachers or something. We just want to
make good music.”
While working on numerous side projects
with other musicians in Iceland, Sweden and
England both inside and outside of hip-hop,
Maximum and Antlew are still focussed on
trying to change the Icelandic hip-hop scene
for the better.
“The radio DJs play stuff like ‘All I wanna do
is hit the pussy’ because their listeners are 15 or
younger,” says Antlew, who for a time ran his
own hip-hop program on Icelandic radio but
was dismissed because the show was entirely
in English. “But I think these same kids would
like our material. For example, we have a song
called ‘Ég Skil,’ which is about how a ghetto
is a ghetto no matter where you come from. It
doesn’t matter if you’re talking about Brooklyn
or Reykjavík; there are always going to be these
beat-down neighbourhoods.”
Apart from the approach to hip-hop that the
duo is taking (and the thankful inclusion of a
lyric sheet), they also want to be sure that the
hip hop scene in Iceland doesn’t mimic the US.
“Clubs in the US used to play music passed
between artists and listeners,” says Antlew,
“but today they just play radio stuff. Clubs in
Iceland are starting to head in that direction. If
Icelandic clubs start ignoring good musicians
who don’t get radio play, what then?”
by Paul F Nikolov
Predecessors of Icelandic Hip-Hop
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