Reykjavík Grapevine - jan. 2019, Qupperneq 31

Music 31The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 01— 2019
Rapper Ragga Hólm
“Welcome to
my zoo.
Welcome
to my crazy
state of
mind.”
TRACK BY TRACK
‘BIPOLAR’ By
Ragga Holm
Love songs, cockiness and
everything in-between
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen
Photo: Art Bicnick
Ragga Holm might be best known
from Reykjavíkurdætur, but her
newly-released ‘BIPOLAR’ shows she
can easily stand on her own two
feet. The album, inspired by Ragga’s
experiences with bipolar disorder,
is a melange of pop, hip-hop and
electro. We sat down to hear about
it, track by track.

Komdu með mér
This song took me almost a year, but
it’s a love story about a person I lost
when I was in a bad place. The cherry
on the top, though, was getting Svala
on the song. She’s something else.
Dýragarðurinn
Welcome to my zoo. Welcome to my
crazy state of mind. ‘Dýragarðurinn’
is a cocky song. I’m really going for
it, which I think is hard for girls to do,
to be cocky. I even drop the word
bukkake, which is kind of the worst
word ever.
Sísí
‘Sísi’ is an Icelandic song by Grýlur-
nar. When I started writing music, I
was really shy to sing about women.
I thought it was, maybe, too gay? But
this song isn’t necessarily about a
girl I’m into, it’s just a girl. Sísi is really
secure with herself. She’s just the
girl everyone wants to be. Doing this
song was amazing because Ragga
Grísla gave me permission.
Tíminn
‘Tíminn’ is about teasing. The song
says, “Don’t give me hopes that I
can’t grab.” I only write love songs
when I’m very depressed, but I never
make them sad. There’s always hope.
At the end, people are left question-
ing themselves and what really
happened
Teggana með
This song is about my ex-girlfriend.
We literally name-drop her, but I was
still with her when it was written,
so it’s not a diss or anything. ‘Teg-
gana með’ means I take her with me
everywhere I go, like she’s my trophy.
So it’s like, even if you’re crazy or
fucked up, I still take you with me.
Sjáðu mig nú
‘Sjáðu mig nú’ means look at me now.
It’s very private and about a breakup
that wasn’t fair. I’m saying that I’m
relieved it happened. I can put my
feet on the ground and know that
life isn’t always dancing on roses. It’s
a song about the end of an era.
Hvað finnst þér um það?
I don’t know how I ended up rapping
about having sex with a guy because
that only happened once but I’m
talking about it like it’s dirty when
it wasn’t actually like that. I put so
much spice on the story that it is
nothing like reality. Kilo then comes
in rapping about how he’s the best.
We were just in that manic state of
mind.
Þorparinn
‘Þorparinn’ is a cover of a famous
Icelandic song. It’s about an outlaw
that returns to his hometown but
always feels like he’s not supposed
to be there. I connect with that.
Sometimes I feel like I don’t belong. I
think, I’m not supposed to be here.
RAGGAH RAGGAH
I was shy about putting this on the
album because it’s not my style. Writ-
ing this, I was so high up that I’m just
talking down, saying I’m a female
DMX, that I’m so cool. At the end,
though, I thought, fuck it, just put it
on the record.
Af stað
When I play this live, I always say,
“This is about two girls having sex,”
and everyone starts yelling. It’s
about two people who see each
other in a club. There’s a teasing vibe,
where I say, “I know you’re playing
me, but I like it.” At the end, though,
you know it’s probably going to go
nowhere—but you still like it.
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