Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.12.2016, Page 8

The R
eykjavík G
rapevine
Iceland A
irw
aves Special 20
16
8
If you’re reading this, chanc-
es are you are a visitor to Ice-
land and, uh, talar ekki íslen-
sku. While you can totally get
around Reykjavík with only
góðan daginn and takk fyrir in
your Icelandic repertoire, the
idea of listening to rap in Icelan-
dic might not seem that great.
What are they saying? What do
they mean? Well, útlendingur,
no worries, because the world
of Icelandic hip-hop is easily ac-
cessible to a foreign ear. There’s
a ton of hip-hop acts playing at
Airwaves this year, but we’re
going to focus on acts that have
never performed at Airwaves
before—the newbies. So grab
some Stüssy (is that still cool?)
and check these guys out.
Veisla, Veisla!
Without a doubt, the biggest
thing to happen to Icelandic
hip-hop this year came from a
sixteen-year-old named Aron
Can. His song “Enginn Mórall,”
which vaguely translates to
“No Shame,” just blew up. The
video, where Aron and his bud-
dies walk through Reykjavík
in a purple haze, has 300,000
views on YouTube, which is
close to the entire population
of Iceland. During the reign of
“Enginn Mórall” (which is still
going strong), you couldn’t go
anywhere downtown without
hearing those smooth opening
chords. Aron’s music is pret-
ty relaxed. It’s kind of sensual
but still danceable—a difficult
combination to master, but fokk
já, he does it. The beats are kind
of sexy, but we at the Grapevine
feel weird associating that word
with a sixteen-year-old. He’s
playing on Thursday at 22:30 at
Nasa, and Saturday at 00:40 at
Valshöllin.
If you’re looking for some-
thing more underground, check
out Valby Bræður, who are
playing at Húrra on Friday at
2:10. Valby’s got an old school
hip-hop vibe, which is fitting
considering their newest song
“Laidback” is a tribute to Tupac
and Biggie. Another song to
check out by them is “Svartur á
leik.” It’s party rap anthem that
will definitely get you turnt (is
that word still cool?). The Val-
by brothers are also notorious
for passing illicit substances
that rhyme with pear-a-wanna
to their audiences so if you’re
420 friendly, you’ll feel right at
home.
A couple of acts before Val-
by is local cool-kitty Alvia
Islandia, who brings some
much-needed bubbles and
spunk to the Airwaves rap line-
up. Alvia’s first album ‘Bub-
blegum Bitch’ dropped a few
months ago, and it’s magical. If
you don’t know anything about
her: first, where have you been?
Second: the girl is sponsored by
Hubba Bubba, and names her
biggest influences as: “the elf
side of the moon, bubbly state
of mind, wildcats, cozyslide
and real stuff all put together
in a riddle that sometimes only
I can understand.” Fascinated?
Captivated? Who wouldn’t be.
We know she’ll be on your mind
all Airwaves so show up to her
show, cheer loudly, dance, and
maybe if you’re lucky, she’ll let
you join her GumGumClan.
Teiti, Teiti!
Gísli Pálmi is an Airwaves reg-
ular, but this year he isn’t per-
forming under his own name,
but rather as Glacier Mafia.
Glacier Mafia, for you foreign-
ers, is some sort of art-collec-
tive crew associated with Gísli,
but we’re not exactly sure who’s
in it. We just know we’re not. At
the Secret Solstice Glacier Ma-
fia show, Gísli performed a ton
unreleased songs that were A+
incredible. This guy is the king
of Icelandic rap and we are just
dying to know what he’ll do at
Airwaves. Pro Tip: We know you
don’t understand Icelandic, but
if you guess that Gísli is rapping
about drugs and partying 99%
of the time, you’ll probably be
right.
So whether you are a newbie
to Airwaves or a scorched vet-
eran, these are the newest and
dopest (are we still saying that?)
rap acts you need to check out.
And there’s no need to thank us
when all your friends think you
are super cool and in-the-know.
That’s our job.
New Rap And
Shit Like That
A guide to the
Icelandic rap scene
Words Hannah Jane Cohen
Photo Valby Bræður by Þorlákur Bjarki
Aron Can - Daglega
The opener of his first mixture,
Daglega is an underrated Aron
Can track. As a true opener,
it reveals the world-scale as-
pirations of a teenager, that
anyone—disregarding their
age—can relate to. It also goes
really hard.
GKR - Tala Um
It’s huge already and if you hav-
en’t checked it out, you should.
It struck down on Mad Decent
playlists earlier this month—a
huge step for a 100% Icelandic
track. It gives the producer, the
mysterious Marteinn (Bngrboy)
due credit. Amazing work.
Cyber - MÁVAR
Produced by TY of Geimfarar,
MÁVAR is a great introduction
to Cyber. Really powerful stuff
in my opinion—Cyber is on foot
to establish themselves as a
concept with their last project,
CRAP. Check this out.
Emmsjé Gauti - Frumskógur
This chain swinger packs all of
Gauti's best qualities into some
three amazing minutes. What-
ever you do, don’t miss his live
sets come Airwaves week. He
always brings it.
Mælginn - Hvar Og Hvenær
Truly crazy, but more people
should bump this track. It’s re-
ally loud & all over the place. It
exhibits Mælginn MC’s surf-like
abilities on bass-heavy tracks—
it’s hard to believe it came out
three years ago.
Hip-Hop
5 Hip-Hop
Tracks To
Start Your
Airwaves
Selected by Geoff,
impresario of Prikið
bar, Icelandic hip-
hop's home turf.