A few years ago I was introduced to the Dutch hip hop band “Relax”. If you’ve heard of them you probably love them… If you’ve never heard of them you’re certainly not alone… try googling them; hardly anything… they don’t even have an entry on Wikipedia.
The band was formed in 1998 by a few guys from Harlem (the Dutch one) who decided they wanted to make live hip hop. I’ll repeat that. Live. Hip Hop. No backing tracks, no loops, no nothing. Just drums, bass, guitars and decks (for scratching). (ok, there is a studio recorded intro)
The result? In 2002 they recorded their début album “Live in Panama”. To say this band is brilliant demeans the very word “brilliant”. It’s a live album. Let me repeat because I know you aren’t paying attention. Live album recording of hip hop… If you don’t know how incredibly talented you have to be to pull that off you should rather just stick to your latest Britney album. If you want to hear one of the best drummers in the world hold back and play flawlessly for an hour, I suggest you get this album. It doesn’t get any tighter.
They’ve released many more albums over the years but I doubt anything will come close to the awesome raw honesty of the “Live in Panama” album.
A piece of my history.
arbitraryuser 