A young rapper from Reykjavík is making waves in Iceland with his first album. Yesterday a line formed outside Bad Taste’s downtown Reykjavík shop with buyers eager to get hold of copies.
“We have not seen so much excitement since Kveikur by Sigur Rós came out in 2013,” says Ásmundur Jónsson, head of Bad Taste (Smekkleysa S/M), the record label marketing the album.
The young musician, Gísli Pálmi Sigurðsson (born 1991) is certainly not to everyone's taste. He raps in Icelandic about his controversial lifestyle of bling, drugs and promiscuous women. While he does not bring anything original to the table regarding themes in rap lyrics in general, he is a figurehead for new times on the local rap scene.
“He has led Iceland from its pre-historic 90´s based hip-hop scene to an exciting new world of booming bass and chiming synths. He’s the only one committed to this type of slowed-down, double tempo, club-inflected trap music in Iceland,” is how he was described before his performance at Sónar Music Festival in Reykjavík last year.
Gísli Pálmi has been officially active since 2011 when he released his first single via YouTube, which became his main creative outlet and ensured him a dedicated group of followers.
And now with his first album under the belt, he is turning that following into serious sale of CDs. That’s well done indeed.
You can get a hold of a digital version here.
A young rapper from Reykjavík is making waves in Iceland with his first album. Yesterday a line formed outside Bad Taste’s downtown Reykjavík shop with buyers eager to get hold of copies.
“We have not seen so much excitement since Kveikur by Sigur Rós came out in 2013,” says Ásmundur Jónsson, head of Bad Taste (Smekkleysa S/M), the record label marketing the album.
The young musician, Gísli Pálmi Sigurðsson (born 1991) is certainly not to everyone's taste. He raps in Icelandic about his controversial lifestyle of bling, drugs and promiscuous women. While he does not bring anything original to the table regarding themes in rap lyrics in general, he is a figurehead for new times on the local rap scene.
“He has led Iceland from its pre-historic 90´s based hip-hop scene to an exciting new world of booming bass and chiming synths. He’s the only one committed to this type of slowed-down, double tempo, club-inflected trap music in Iceland,” is how he was described before his performance at Sónar Music Festival in Reykjavík last year.
Gísli Pálmi has been officially active since 2011 when he released his first single via YouTube, which became his main creative outlet and ensured him a dedicated group of followers.
And now with his first album under the belt, he is turning that following into serious sale of CDs. That’s well done indeed.
You can get a hold of a digital version here.
