Reykjavík Grapevine - 30.06.2017, Blaðsíða 27

27The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 11 — 2017
Landaboi$
Listen to: “Matrix”
How did you all get into rap?
Steindór: Rakim, Nas, old school
stuff. They really influenced me even
though I make trap music now.
Helgi Ben: I listened to Eminem in
6th or 8th grade. For a school talent
show, I made a rap, lost, made a come-
back rap the next year, and won. I hope
no one ever sees it.
Jón Bragi: My dad gave me the “Get
Rich or Die Tryin’” CD by 50 Cent.
All great choices. So then
what was the birth of
Landaboi$?
Steindór: “Pussybois” was the first
song that we as the group we are right
now did together.
Starri: It set a whole new standard for
production, lyrics, everything.
Steindór: There were these three guys
from Vesló, who, in a school competi-
tion, made a diss song about us. So we
made this song. They call themselves
GucciBois so, “Landaboi$ are puss-
ybois,” became “GucciBois are puss-
bois.”
Should we interview them?
Helgi Ben: No.
Steindór: “You call me a pussyboi but
you are the bitch. Nobody knows you
and if you would leave, you would not
be missed. You’re living in a dream
world, time to wake up.”
Helgi Ben: In English, it sounds really
emo!
Steindór: “We drink moonshine not
to save money.”
Starri: That’s our motto.
Jón Bragi: Like “Bad and Bougie,” you
know.
Cookin’ up moonshine with
the Landaboi$. But, how was
entering the current Icelandic
rap scene for you guys?
Steindór: It’s been hard, especially
at first. We didn’t really know anyone
else in the scene so we didn’t have the
connections other people had. We had
to work harder for our spots.
Helgi Ben: Like at Solstice 2016, we
had a 16:00 slot, which is really bad,
but the place was filled to max and it
was turnt. We managed to make it lit.
Steindór: That shows how good we
are and how hard we work. It’s just the
beginning for all of us.
ed something bad
about us so now
I’m like Ok, man.
We shot our video
in Kóp but we have
a shoutout in the
song to Garðabær.
Some guy called
us out for it and
Herra Hnetusm-
jör retweeted it.
C’mon. That said,
he’s still the best
right now.
Yeah, fuck that. But let’s talk
about your music. You guys
have a way old school vibe.
K: No one is doing old school right now
but we like that style. To be real, this
album is just stuff that we like. Some
trap songs, but mostly old school. It’s
just by chance that we are the only
ones.
J: I make the beats and we produce
everything ourselves.
K: Our album is almost unintention-
ally a satire. Neither of us drink and
we’re both poor students but our sin-
gle is called “Spreða,” which means
“spend.” I think in our fake rap world,
we have lots of money. But I’ll be re-
ally arrogant and say, I don’t know, yo
mamma jokes in my verses and that’s
not me in real life. But in our fake rap
world, it is. We’re having fun, making
music for ourselves.
J: You can sort of lie in rap but it’s not
lying, it’s just living the fantasy.
It’s a good fantasy. Who’d be
the fantasy collaboration?
K: Fun fact: I was in a Facebook rela-
tionship with Leoncie for two days, so
maybe her. It got 550 likes, lasted two
days, and then she fucking blocked me.
It was an amazing prank. My cow-
orker did it. After she blocked me, I
changed my status to “It’s Complicat-
ed.”. If she’s reading this, please un-
block me. We should do a song.
J: We definitely won’t.
Dadykewl
Listen to: “Ástralía”
What did the Icelandic hip-
hop scene used to be like?
Hip-hop became good again around
2010 with A$AP and Kendrick. I
couldn’t stand 50 Cent and Icelandic
hip-hop groups during that time—
they were so negative, it was deranged.
Yeah, most Icelandic raps at that
time were about “being hardcore”
and that pretty much meant say-
ing a line about “MY CREW”
and rhyming that with “FUCK
YOU.” Or “I’m gonna fuck
you up!” but really they just
go to tanning salons. Can
you imagine if I did that?
Walked around rapping,
“DON’T FUCK WITH MY
CREW, GÍSLI PÁLMI!”
No way.
We were com-
pletely stuck in the
90s until Shades of
Reykjavík and Gísli
Pálmi made the scene
pull a U-Turn.
Amen, Dadykewl. So then
what is it like now?
The scene is really diverse. It’s such a
small country so it’s pretty amazing
that there are so many genres of hip-
hop here at this time.
Personally I want to make sincere
music. People will connect to that.
So then let’s talk about your
last two songs, “Ástralía" and
“Lada.” Are they sincere?
“Ástralía" was the ending of me find-
ing my sound and what kind of music
I wanted to make. All of 2016 led up to
that, and since then, I’ve caught the
Dadykewl vibe.
“Ástralía” is a sincere love song:
“It’s hard to predict the future. I can’t
have a relationship through a phone.”
“Lada” though was complete satire,
probably due to me being around Hrn-
nr & Smjörvi too much. In my view,
everyone else is singing about Lam-
bos and I’m like, what about the other
cars? They need love too. So I’m just
shooting all the haters that are hating
on me while I am flexing on my Lada.
By the way, please put that in this
article, because I have no car right now
right now and I really want a sponsor-
ship. Hey Lada, I like cars and I’m a
cool rapper.
Yes, you definitely are… So
what’s next?
I want to do positive battle rapping,
something like “Don’t give up!”“You
seem like a great person!” “Nice sweat-
shirt!” It could be cool.
But really, I am making an album
right now with BNGRBOY and it’s
coming out real soon.
Well give us some wisdom to
end, Daði.
If you want to be happy, you have to
surround yourself with people that are
doing what you like doing or else you
end up on the bottom of the pile, kind
of like where Gísli Pálmi is going to be
if he fucks with my crew. You can film
it: “It’s an exclusive: WORLDSTAR!!”
I’ll be, “Don’t fuck with my crew.” And
he’ll be like, “I didn’t? Who are you?”
“And before you
ask, nothing about
the nature in
Iceland inspires
me. I am kind of
sick of it actually. I
have seen too much
nature.”
Hrnnr & Smjörvi