Hip Hop Lives Art Gallery
Preserving Hip Hop Kulture for Future Generations
BACKGROUND: The 4 official languages are German, French, Italian and Rumansh..
Basically it's very symple.. the part that borders to Germany is the “swiss german” speaking part.. there are different accents in every “canton” and the newspapers ect. are on German (bc there is no real grammar for Swiss German) the part that borders to France is the french speaking, the one to Italy is the Italian speaking part.
If you grow up in the Italian speaking part, then you’ll have to learn at least one of the other languages at school (most of em learn German or French. - IGI
BREAKIN: The most known active dancers and crews were:
- "Fantastic Rockers" from Zurich: Power, Fast5, Prince Crime, Chase, Sky
- "Battle Rockers" from Zurich (first known as "Back Street Crew"):Charly, Duster, Csizee, Spinkie, Steve
- "City Rockers" from Bern (lasted about 1 year, '83/'84): Zed & Ice (joined later the Jazzy Rockers), Silvano, Mike, J.K., Scholl, Tweety
- "Jam Power" from Geneva: Pascal, Punchy, Fred, Jose, Emilio (aka Joe B and Dj Mil of the rap crew Duty Free)'82/83, maybe before because were dancing on shugarhill gang 'rappers delight 1979'and the influence was "The rock steady crew, The New-York City Breakers and the cult film Wild Style"
- "Supreme Rockers" from Lausanne: Speedy & Carlos (rap group Sens Unik - Carlos is actually movie actor), Oswaldo, Nino, JP
- "Jazzy Rockers" from Biel/Bienne: Seyo, Eduzy, Kid Rock, Rubber Band, Dee, Chico Rock, (Around 1986 Carlos a.k.a Risk Leader of the African Posse, Shy One, Lee joined the crew), Zed
Of course there are also other people who played a significant role along with the upper mentionned
EMCEEIN: Early Swiss German rappers started rapping in English, but after the bilingual track "Murder by Dialect" by P-27 featuring Black Tiger, rappers switched to their native Swiss German dialects. Rappers from the French-speaking part (where the traditional dialects died out in most parts) and from the Italian-speaking part (where most people mix dialects and Standard Italian freely) only rap in the standard languages. The issue of language choice has become a major influence in the Swiss Hip-Hop scene: As author Pascale Hofmeier notes, the creation of "Mundartrap" (dialect rap) has enabled Switzerland to develop a unique scene that, due to the lingual choice, is immediately identifiable as a distinctly Swiss product. The importance of language in Swiss hip-hop can also create tension, however: Although the members of the Italian speaking group Stoffunita live in Switzerland and consider it their home, their choice of language combined with their lack of Swiss citizenship earmark them as "Secondo", a term used to indicate people of foreign descent born in Switzerland. Given Switzerland's particularly strong opinions on who is "Swiss" and who is "other", it is easy to see that groups such as Stoffunita make use of the fact that hip-hop "is still considered a voice for the oppressed"
GRAFFITI: Switzerland had the first Graffiti/Hip Hop Magazine in Europe in 1988 called 14K Magazine. It was more like a piece of paper that they printed at home LOL ..but got really big after a while.. people from allover europe started ordering it.
Zurich and even Winterthur had a really nice Graffiti Scene until a few years ago when the Police hired a “Graffiti Specialist” ..now the scene is almost dead bc they busted everyone
The most famous Graffiti Writer from Switzerland was “DARE” from Basel which passed away earlier this year bc of cancer - IGI
One of the best known swiss german groups is “Sektion Kuchikäschtli” from the eastern part of Switzerland (Sektion = Section and “Kuchikäschtli” is a typical swiss-german word which actually means “cupboard” LOL. It’s often used to make fun of people from outside the country.. almost no one can say it correctly bc it sounds so weird)
The track is called “u deserve more” and it’s about all the people that work hard and still don’t get enough…This whole video was shot in Winterthur, the last scene is even right is almost infront of my house - IGI
Also well known is “Greis” from Bern, he’s also rapping on swiss german…
This track is called “Global” ..a very political track about the USA, Bilderberger, illuminati and so on…Dope lyrics! - IGI
There are also Bligg & Lex from Zurich (rappin on german) and Stress from Lausanne (rappin on French) …all three had some tracks here and there with good lyrics.. and some consider them to be the best rappers out of Switzerland… but most of it is just some regular party & bullshit rhymes. Bligg & Stress are really the two mainstream rappers outta Switzerland - IGI
Switzerland has a direct democracy and is divided in 26 “cantons” (similar to federal states) and instead of 1 president we got a federal council consisting of 7 members from different political parties..
This international gallery was sponsored by TOHH-Templist, Igi Boev aka IGI B (Iggy B) of Winterthur Switzerland. Check his video stream on shadesradio.com LIVE EVERY WED. with DJ Xelcior in Plymouth, UK. For comments on his page check out his blog below.
IGI B HIP HOP Blog
