August 24, 2018

‘Trading black brothers in for white ones’

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 6:45 pm

Since popular rap group Broederliefde (in Dutch, ‘brotherly love’) from Rotterdam, with backgrounds from Curaçao, Dominican Republic and Cape Verde, attracted too many people at Gorinchem’s summer festival in 2017, the mayor has now banned the music style this year altogether ‘for security reasons’. The ban is being understood very differently by the Dutch media, accusing the Caucasian mayor of different shades of racism. Sure, safety is important, but this doesn’t seem like the best way to go about it. Why not get smaller, lesser known urban acts instead of punishing an entire segment of the Dutch population?

Not only is the ‘no urban’ thing doing the rounds in the media, it’s even a selling point on the festival’s website: “no urban, but still a party”, with acts that are the polar (ha, pun) opposite of urban, that is, carnivalesque après-ski music from the whitest of Caucasian Dutch men, amusingly enough called De Gebroeders Ko, which means the ‘Ko brothers’ who are also brothers just like Broederliefde.

Last year fights broke out when Broederliefde was performing, and that has made the mayor weary of anything urban, leading to an all out ban in the name of security. Problem is, there’s tons of urban-like music being played at festivals throughout the Netherlands and elsewhere, but the mayor is turning it into a ‘we don’t want black music [who is ‘we’ many people ask] because it attracts a bad element’ without flat out saying something overtly racist.

To drive the point home, one of the people in charge of programming (I bet he’s white) even said ‘we don’t want any acts like Ronnie Flex or Lil Kleine because they attract too many people. It’s scary to know that being popular is a reason to ban an entire genre of music that is mainly represented around the world by non Caucasians.

UPDATE: Hip hop and R&B festival Encore in Amsterdam is letting thefirst 300 visitors from Gorinchem in for free.

(Link: ad.nl, Photo of Microphone by visual dichotomy, some rights reserved)

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June 1, 2016

There’s a Dutch rap song about Max Verstappen

Filed under: Music,Sports by Orangemaster @ 11:42 am

By now Formula 1 fans around the world have heard that Dutch-Belgian F1 driver Max Verstappen, the son of former Dutch F1 driver Jos Verstappen and former Belgian kart driver Sophie Kumpen, is the youngest winner of a Formula 1 race at age 18. According to Wikipedia, he’s had a bunch of other firsts before that, but some firsts are more interesting than others.

What better way to celebrate than with a song, which is exactly what Dutch rap duo Dos Hermanos decided to do, inspired by Max Verstappen. Dos Hermanos from Haarlem are currently participating in a talent search show and their assignment was to write an ‘anthem’. Apparently, they didn’t have to think about it for very long. “There’s one person who deserves an ‘anthem’ and could use one! That’s why we chose the young hero Max Verstappen.”

Even if you don’t speak Dutch, every speaks F1 motor noises.

(Link: 1limburg.nl, Photo of Microphone by visual dichotomy, some rights reserved)

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June 2, 2011

Dutch hiphop intermezzo

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 11:57 am

As a DJ, I always end up talking about music with my hairdresser whose taste in music matches her peers: hiphop and R&B. I told her I DJ French rap and hiphop, but she said she doesn’t like music if she can’t understand the lyrics, so it has to be English or Dutch.

Since today is a holiday, here’s some Dutch hiphop with videos that you can look at if you don’t understand the lyrics.

We both agreed on one thing: many wannabees, usually boys of non-Caucasian background who make crappy raps from the one ghetto Amsterdam still has, De Bijlmer (where I actually lived when I immigrated here), should really stop and listen to the ones doing it right.

Here’s THC rooting for Amsterdam and Boef en de Gelogeerde Aap representing the province of Brabant.

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October 10, 2009

Public Enemy to produce next album through Sellaband

Filed under: Music by Branko Collin @ 11:41 am

Legendary rappers Public Enemy are taking the fan-financed route.

The group will try and sell their next album through Sellaband, according to the Guardian. The Amsterdam based website works by letting users buy shares of an album to provide musicians with the money to produce an album.

Chuck D’s crew have turned to an independent Dutch website to raise $250,000 (£157,000) for recording and promoting their 13th studio album.

On Tuesday, the group began selling $25 (£15) shares in the as-yet untitled, as-yet unrecorded album. By selling 10,000 shares, Public Enemy hope to cover “complete recording costs and expenses … [and] fund a strategic marketing plan for [its] worldwide release … in 2010”.

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