Just wanted to hype the release of my man DJ Carsten and his MC partner in rhyme, Paulo, on their new release, Den nye gamle stil (‘The New Old Style’). I’m obviously biased, but I still cannot recommend their work enough, if you want to get a taste of quality Danish underground hip hop.
Carsten’s production skills have grown in leaps and bounds over the past few years, synthesizing traditional boom bap sound with a more jazzy vibe without ever sounding contrived, while Paulo has long been one of the most interesting and original MCs on the Danish scene. Although perhaps a little too mired in the classic preservationist, back-to-the roots, two-turntables-and-a-microphone themes so common in a lot of hip hop, he brings to the table a highly distinctive, often arrythmic, almost conversational flow, and when doing more concept-driven raps, such as “Animalistisk” on the new record, he shows himself as a fine writer too.
In addition to that career highlight, Den nye gamle stil also contains one of the very best songs cut by the duo, “2Pac Lever” (‘2Pac Lives’), an homage to the dead rapper, reminding today’s Tupac-worshipping youth that the man was about so much more than Thug Life, beautifully incorporating elements of his classic raps over Carsten’s production, which similarly combines a couple of his most memorable tunes.
Anyway, go check out snippets, and order the EP here. Also, if you’re curious, this is what their Copenhagen release party, last week, looked like, and here’s their youtube presence and their Facebook profile.