Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.03.2017, Side 35

‘ ÓS’
by Shades of Reykjavík
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen & Shades of Reykjavík

Notorious Icelandic rap collective
Shades of Reykjavík unexpectedly
dropped their new album ‘RÓS’ last
week. Shades member Prins Puffin
and a few featured artists gave us
their thoughts.
R.J.Ó.M.I.
Prins Puffin: “R.J.Ó.M.I.” means
“C.R.E.A.M.” and it’s a shout-out
to old-school hip-hop. It’s about
darkness, or dark alleys, or I guess
the darkness of dark alleys.
DÍLANDI ft. Kristín Morthens
& Geimgengill
Prins Puffin: Dílandi means “hus-
tling,” and it’s about when you
can’t really handle yourself or
what you are doing in life. Shout
out to Kristín Morthens who is a
really talented rapper.
Aðein$ of feitt
Prins Puffin: We already released
a video for “Aðein$ of feitt” before
the album came out. We filmed
the video in Nashville, Tennessee.
I don’t know what else to say. We
love America.
MelluDólgur
Prins Puffin: This
song was inspired by
our friend, melludól-
gur Hannah Jane. We
were just in the studio
freestyling and the
beat was just pimp,
you know. Melludól-
gur means pimp. It’s
a cruise song, a good
song to just cruise
around in the car to.
It’s called pimp but
it’s not about wom-
en-hatred, more just
like, being a pimp.
Pimpin’.
SO DOPE ft. Kiló
& Since when?
Prins Puffin: This is the first Eng-
lish song from Shades of Reykja-
vik. Since when? rapped his part
in America and then Kilo just sort
of jumped on the beat one day in
our studio. We’re making a video
of this and will definitely do more
English hip-hop.
Popp í RVK ft. Dadykewl
Dadykewl: Hemmi showed me this
beat he was working on at the stu-
dio and I was like damn! Then Ar-
nar came, heard it, and just drove
us all to this crazy work level to
finish it. There was a moment
there when we all just connected
on a level where the only thing
that existed was us and the song.
We all worked together on it: I fid-
dled with the beat, Arnar fiddled
with my lyrics, I fiddled with his.
It was amazing.
Einhleypur á klúbbnum (Single in
the club)
Prins Puffin: “Einhleypur á klúbb-
num” means “single in the club”
and this song is just about being
single in the club and not giving
a fuck about that or anything. You
know, everyone goes through that
phase where they are really single
and just don’t give a fuck and just
want to be alone. All the verses
are all freestyle verses. It was just
us having fun in the studio and
laughing. It’s not a song to be tak-
en seriously and if people do take
it seriously, they should just shoot
themselves in the foot or maybe
just shoot someone else.
KISS KISS BANG BANG ft. Blaz
Roca
Blaz Roca: Well we were in the
Shades studio in the suburban
outskirts of Árbær and like every
modern rapper studio, it was full
of these expensive cars that no
one there owned, like Range Rov-
ers and stuff. But the
Shades studio is more
like an art collective.
Everyone was tattoo-
ing each other while
vaping their home-
brewed vape oil. This
just made us all re-
ally horny, like sickly
horny, which was
problematic cause we
were four guys vap-
ing and getting tat-
toos, you know. We
were so horny that we
had to find an outlet
for it so we sat down
and “KISS KISS BANG
BANG” came out of it. It’s just
a horny song. I get really horny
when I listen to that track. Seri-
ously, I could have sex with dead
things when I hear that song.
LISTEN &SHARE: gpv.is/tt02

TRACK BY TRACK
35The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 03 — 2017
ALL DAY
©
2
0
17
D
D
I
P
H
o
ld
e
r
L
L
C
.
Dunkin
Laugavegur 3
Kringlan
Hagasmári 9
Leifstöð
Fitjar
ALL BAGELS 599ISK. EVERY DAY
“Everyone
was tattooing
each other
while vaping
their home-
brewed vape
oil. This just
made us all
really horny,
like sickly
horny...”
WAR
IS
OVER!
IF YOU WANT IT
Happy Christmas from John & Yoko
(and The Laundromat Cafe)
All
needislove
you
!