Looptroop Rockers

The Looptroop Carnival in da house! Hell yeah, well-known and (d'apres moi) mos def the best european hiphop crew brought their phat beatz in the capital of Czech Republic. The loud and angry swedish vikings were about to make an outstanding show in the most known czech club - Roxy. I entered the club in a company of famous MC Monno from the Prague-based hiphop crew called Projekt-ill and his girlfriend (Eva, thanx for the tickets!). It was full of young people, wearing FUBU stuff and showing, that hiphop is not only music, but also the fucking way of living...

The start was kinda boring. The performance of DJ Large and MC Freestyle (watta original name, huh?) was more a talking session, than some music performance. We heard three times, that he was born in Brooklyn NY, his "skin is black" (a quotation, not some racistic shit) and hates George Bush. Then he kept askin' people, if they are ready and a loads of other silly "warming-up" stuff... It's a shame, because from what I heard, he is quite skilled rapper. And he actully prooved this in a few moments, when he wasn't telling us his "wisdom". Only if he would show us his gift, instead of talking crap. DJ Large was ok though...

After mentioning, that NY is an anti-Bush city, his part ended. I was afraid about the following events, because there was one more crew before Looptroop and less than a hour of time left. But I was pretty surprised, when tall swedish MC Chords and "shorty" MC Timbuktu appeared on the stage and started makin' really interesting show. Very melodic hiphop riddims were flowing thru the place and it made every single slacker bounce. These guys, both having a sign of infinity ("lying eight") tatooed on their hand, are really interesting pair of musicians, check 'em out, if you have a chance! Accompanied by DJ Mr Moe they made a really good warmup for the crowned tsars of this evening...

The sad thing was the sound (as usually). When standing right in front of the stage, the sound was too loud (especially the input of a DJ) and after some minutes my head started hurting. On the other hand, when I was standing in the back, DJ's instrumental input was almost inaudible.

Yeah, but now I went off topic. As soon as MC Timbuktu & co. ended their set, Looptroop rushed to the stage. First - DJ Embee, checking his turntables and drums (yeah, he plays TTs and drums at the same time), them MC Promoe, known for his extravagant look (his hair is glued together to one big dread, his beard to three), MC Supreme and MC Mellow T and started rockin'. They are not only some ordinary hiphop emcees, but a very good musicians too. Accompanied by sick beatz and drum performances of DJ Embee, they were delivering tons of wicked lyrics, spitting this shit in the mic bigtime! Even people, who do not listen to hiphop so much must like Looptroop show, because their lyrics are intelligent, sense making and music has a lot of others influences mixed in it (i.e. reggae, even some rockish stuff). They played a lot of tracks from their most famous album "The Struggle Continues", including the kickass and mind-blowing piece called "Revolutionary Step", which every LT fan must know and sing with them. The rest was mostly from their new album "Fort Europa".

When you visit their "Looptroop shop", which should be present at every concert, they have many things to offer. What surprised me the most was a burned CD labeled "bootleg". The cost is approximately 4 euros and I was told, that its "Extra limited edition"). I have never seen any band selling this kind of stuff.

Back to the gig. Roxy, which wasn't full (actually it was a good thing, when Roxy is full, the concert turns into a fight for your own life), was totally satisfied. Everybody jumping, singing lyrics with emcees and giving a huge support to a crew. The encore was 20 minutes long and included 4 tracks - a fair end of the absofuckinglutely phat gig. The final track was delivered by the whole "Carnival" members, even the DJs showed their skills on the mic.

Although I don't listen to hiphop very much, I just love these guys (along with other hiphop bands like Cypress Hill, Cherry Hill and Wu-Tang Clan). They are really good musicians and their wild performance has a lot to offer. So I recommend you - keep it real and go to their gig, if the carnival settles down in your city. If you like to jump and party, you will have a great time for sure. Because... From '68, the struggle continues...