Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.01.2018, Qupperneq 20

COSTCO ZEITGEIST
The first coming of Joey Christ
Words: John Rogers
In the summer of 2017, Icelanders were
in a frenzy over the arrival of the Cost-
co supermarket, lapping up the offer
of bargain goods in a notoriously ex-
pensive country. At the same time, Ice-
land’s rap music explosion was going
full tilt, with new artists coming out of
the woodwork on a regular basis.
It was an opportune moment for
rapper Joey Christ to introduce himself
by combining the two phenomena on
his debut track—an instant hit called
“Joey Cypher,” which crisply distilled
the zeitgeist into three short minutes.
“I like hearing that,” says Joey. “I felt
that the decision to do the video in Cost-
co was actually crucial for this release.
The track had leaked previously, and
people were so excited about it, but the
video gave them something they weren’t
expecting. Costco arriving in Iceland
was a pop phenomenon. I liked putting
it into context with the other pop phe-
nomenon of Iceland—the rap scene.”
101DERLAND
Joey cut his teeth as a part of the col-
lective behind Sturla Atlas, working
out of the infamous 101derland Studio.
He often hung out with rappers Birnir,
Aron Can and Herra Hnetusmjór, the
trio who ended up as guest vocalists on
"Joey Cypher."
“We were sitting around playing
some beats, and we just caught a vibe,”
Joey recalls. “Herra Hnetusmjór and
Birnir did their verses, and I recorded
the hook and my verse. Then Aron Can
wrote a verse during a class in school.
He freestyles a lot, and talked about
how fun it was writing out a whole
verse. I like bringing people together,
so it was a perfect statement for my vi-
sion in this scene at the moment.”
At first, there was confusion about
Joey’s artist name, with some people
mistakenly thinking he was called Joey
Cypher. “A cypher is when you have a
beat, and many rappers rap to it,” he
laughs. “It’s an old thing in rap, like at
the MTV awards and so on. People got
confused, but I embraced it.”
LANGUAGE BARRIER
After some English language work
with Sturla Atlas, Joey took a mind-
ful decision to rap in Icelandic on his
solo project. “I like joking around,” he
explains, “and I found I could more
easily channel my persona in my na-
tive language than in English. But I
feel like, to a certain extent, music is
a universal language. I listen to a lot
of Scandinavian and French hip hop,
and don’t understand the words, but
if there’s something that catches your
attention, that can be irrelevant. If you
connect with the aesthetics, attitude
and vibe of a track, the language bar-
rier is a small fence to hop over.”
When pressed to translate the lyr-
ics, Joey furrows his brow as he thinks
it through. “The first line is like… ‘I got
friends who do crime, not me though,
just the vibe. Just applied for a job, took
a pill and smoked a joint…’” he peters
out, laughing. “It sounds dumb when I
translate it! It’s a basic rap song, which
is the point of a cypher—letting ev-
erybody do their thing. Cyphers aren’t
always released, but we couldn’t not re-
lease this one—it was just meant to be.
It was a breakout record for me. I owe a
lot to this track.”
20 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 01 — 2018
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Högni - ‘Two Trains’
When choosing the best album from 2017, the panel was
adamant to select an album that was excellent in its en-
tirety; an LP on which the whole experience could be en-
joyed without disappointment. Högni’s album ‘Two Trains’
won by a good margin for being a well constructed opus
that sits independently from Högni’s previous collabora-
tions, whilst bearing the hallmarks of his career to date.
Högni’s electrifying voice was first heard in the band
Hjaltalín then, later, as a powerful collaborator and stage
presence in techno-pop outfit GusGus.
In his solo project, the scope of Högni’s talent truly
shines through. ‘Two Trains’ is at once a nod to the past,
with a sonorous male choir and heart-wrenching string
arrangements, and a glimpse of the future, with its elec-
tronic textures. “The album has a good flow, but the songs
also work individually,” one panellist said. “Listening to it
can be a strange experience at first—almost transcen-
dent—but it truly is the gift that keeps on giving.”
Track Of The Year: Joey Christ
- ‘Joey Cypher’
A blood-sworn 101 boy, and partner in crime of local R’n’B
star Sturla Atlas, Joey Christ arrived in style in 2017. His
sound is fine-tuned to the hip-hop vibe that permeates
downtown Reykjavík, and the Icelandic music scene in
general. ‘Joey Cypher’ turned out to be the hit of the sum-
mer—the video, filmed in the newly opened Costco super-
market, went viral immediately.
Perhaps, because it was a collective mash-up that in-
volved fellow artists and friends Birnir, Aron Can and Herra
Hnetusmjör, the song “easily summed up the rap explosion
in one top notch track,” as one of our journalists said. “It
was a real high point in a scene that often gives mixed re-
sults.”