Dutch hip hop

Dutch hip hop or Nederhop, is hip hop music created by musicians in the Netherlands and Flanders.

History

1980s

Between 1980 and 1985 a few Dutch Hip Hop records had already been released, but in 1986 Dutch rap duo MC Miker G & DJ Sven (Lucien Witteveen and Sven van Veen) had a major top 10 hit (often #1) across Europe with their "Holiday Rap", which sampled Madonna's "Holiday". That same year Dutch rapper Extince released his first record: Rap Around The Clock. Another 1980s group was the Osdorp Posse, who first started to record tracks in Dutch. But there is disagreement about who started rapping in Dutch between Blonnie B, Alex and the CityCrew, Dynamic Rockers, Def Rhymes and Osdorp Posse.

Notable in the late 1980s were All Star Fresh of King Bee topping charts with: "Back by Dope Demand" in early 1990 and Rudeboy of Urban Dance Squad who, at the time, were arguably more widely known in New York City than the Netherlands. DJ and Producer All Star Fresh Started as a Pro in 1979. After winning the Dutch Mixing Championships (DMC) in 1988, he was invited for The World Mix Championships in the London Royal Hall and won third place in a fierce competition. He was invited by Dave Funkenklein to enter the lions hole in New York. He made history in the Big Apple of Hiphop by being the first non -American to fly into the finals of The World Supremacy Battle of DJs. He gained the highly respected second place of this prestigious DJ contest). The impression that he made that year, resulted in many invitations to perform with world known artists like Public Enemy, Stetsasonic, Ice T and Ultra Magnetic MCs.

All Star Fresh. As performer and producer he is better known as KING BEE. With his second floor filler Back By Dope Demand he achieved one of his biggest hiphop hits. In the Netherlands it resulted in a Top 3 position, and best Dance Product by The Edison Awards in the Netherlands. (The Edison Awards is an award by the Dutch Music Industry.) This also meant that with this title, he was the first black artist to win this award in the Netherlands. After that he appeared as supporting act for Madonnas show in the Netherlands. All Star Fresh kept entering the dance floors. The last titles mentioned were also popular worldwide, selling over 2.4 million copies. He didn't only work within projects like King Bee or Capella, but also was featuring well known production teams like Snap (I Got the Power). This teamwork resulted in the single Lets Get Busy (Clubland Quarts feat Snap introductin [sic] King Bee). This record ended up No. 1 in the Billboard Dance Charts (United States). Other productions in this line were Deepzone "It's Gonna Be All right", Kellee- my love, Ty Holden- you're my Inspiration and His Royal Freshness- They don't understand.

Urban Dance Squad was a Dutch rap rock band formed after what was originally intended as a one-time jam-session at a festival in Utrecht on 20 December 1986[1]. Band members were rapper Rudeboy Remington (Patrick Tilon), guitarist Tres Manos (René van Barneveld), bassist Sil (Silvano Matadin), drummer Magic Stick (Michel Schoots) and DJ DNA (DoNotAsk) (Arjen de Vreede). The band's music is described as a blend of genres, including hard rock, funk, soul, hip hop, reggae, jazz and ska and is often compared to that of Rage Against the Machine, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone. They are widely known for their hit single "Deeper Shade of Soul", which charted at number 21 in the United States on Billboard Hot 100.

1990s

In 1992, Osdorp Posse released their debut album Osdorp Stijl, which was the first-ever hip hop in Dutch language.[1] They started out translating N.W.A songs to Dutch, though later wrote their own rhymes in Dutch. Their beats, created by producer Seda on Amiga 500 with Protracker, have a familiar heavy sound and are similar to U.S. old-school hip hop. Frontman Def-P describes it as hardcore rap.

After the first Osdorp Posse demo cassette they toured around the Netherlands. In Deventer they found the first followers and the first Dutch language hip hop scene. The first hip hop groups after Osdorp Posse were Zuid-Oost Posse and Maasstraat Mannen. These groups did concerts all over the Netherlands. Maasstraat became famous as the first group combining reggae with Dutch lyrics, inspiring acts like Postmen, for example.

Another Dutch-language rapper is Extince, who in 1995 took Nederhop to a new commercial level. With two of his singles Spraakwater and Kaal of Kammen being major hits in the mid-1990s, Extince was the first Dutch rapper making the MegaCharts. Other notable acts include Ali B (who has been featured on other artists' tracks, most significantly with Marco Borsato on the song "Wat zou je doen?" for the charity War Child who achieved solo success with "Leipe mocro flavour". Together with his cousin Yes-R he made an international remix of "Ghetto" together with Akon.; the duo Lange Frans & Baas B with their patriotic but introspective "Het Land Van"; and Yes-R. Other notable groups are "Opgezwolle" (consisting of rapper Sticky Steez, rapper Phreaco Rico and DJ Delic) and Brainpower.

There were two styles dominating the Dutch hip hop landscape: Extince, known for his easy flows, catchy songs and funky tunes, while hardcore performers like Westklan and Osdorp Posse found their own niche group of fans.

In the mid-1990s The Postmen were topping the charts with their rap/reggae mix.

2000s

In the early 2000s the MC fronted band Relax got much airplay, as did de Spookrijders.

A combination of these two styles gave birth to de Spookrijders, a three-man hip-hop group founded in 1996. With MCs Stefan and Clyde rapping about their personal lives and life in Amsterdam as a black man, de Spookrijders even gained respect from non-hip-hop musicians and fans. Most people admired the work of producer/DJ Cliff 'the Jazz' Nille after releasing Spookrijders debut album De Echte Shit. In 1999 de Spookrijders hit the charts twice with the hits "Klokkenluiders" and "Ik ben de man." Both these songs appeared on the second album, Klokkenluiders van Amsterdam. After some personal arguments among the three crewmembers, de Spookrijders split up in 2003, after releasing their and final third album Hee... Spookies!!

Def Rhymz, Spookrijders & Brainpower really helped develop the game. Def Rhymz & Brainpower dropped multiple hit records. With at least 8 Top 100 album/EP projects Brainpower is one of the most successful Dutch MC's ever and remains a prolific bilingual lyricist (in Dutch & in English) to this day.

Opgezwolle, a group from Zwolle's latest album, Eigen Wereld (Own World) appeared in the 'Album Top 100' at number 4; the highest notation of a Dutch rap album ever. Opgezwolle split up on 30 November 2007. Members Rico & Sticks formed a new group, Fakkelbrigade with MC Typhoon, Mick 2dope Murray, MC James and beatmaker ART. In 2009, they released the album Colucci Era.

In the mid-2000s Cilvaringz, Ali B and Raymzter have commercially been successful and Lange Frans & Baas B have had multiple No. 1 hits. In 2005, De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig ("Kids These Days") were successful with "Watskeburt?!" ("Wuzhappenin?!").

Rapper Jawat won the "Grote Prijs van Nederland" 2006.

Another Dutch hip-hop duo are Pete Philly and Perquisite who are already well known in the Netherlands, Germany, and even in Japan.

A famous Dutch rapper outside the Netherlands is Salah Edin. His album Nederlands Grootste Nachtmerrie (Biggest Nightmare of the Netherlands) won Best Album Award in 2007 and was fully produced by Dr. Dre's right-hand man Focus. He also shot three of the most expensive music videos ever in the history of Dutch Hip Hop and through a management deal with Cilvaringz, performed in 34 countries worldwide.

2010s

The year 2010 is considered an important year for Dutch hip-hop, with many albums and mixtapes released from the biggest Dutch rappers.

Also Mc Battles are having a large amount of popularity.

Nederhop is growing fast. So are the recently Nederhop blogs as Nederhopofficial.nl and Puna.nl.

In 2016, album WOP! by Lil' Kleine was the first hip-hop album to reacher number 1 on the Album Top 100.[2][3]

Conflicts

The Dutch hip-hop scene also saw many conflicts between rappers, followed by diss tracks. The following were among the biggest Dutch feuds in hip-hop:

[Osdorp Posse] Vs [Extince], [Brain Power] Vs [Extince], T.H.C . Vs Negativ, Kempi Vs Nino, Brainpower Vs Extince, Yukkie B Vs Negativ, T.H.C. Vs Lexxxus, Baas B Vs Kimo, Kempi Vs Mini, Kempi Vs Bloedserieus, Heist Rockah Vs Negativ, and Regga Vs Lexxxus.

The feud between T.H.C. and Lexxxus resulted in a fistfight on a hip-hop event, when T.H.C. frontman rocks got into an argument with Lexxxus and then started the fistfight.

Genres in Dutch hip hop

Gangsta

Dutch gangsta hip hop is currently a large scene together with underground hip-hop. Among the most notable groups are THC, Heinek'n, Keizer, Kempi, Steen, Hef, Crooks, Adonis and Negativ. The rhythms are influenced by the American rap scene, and the lyrics are often about crime, drugs, money, women and other criminal things. Often coming from Dutch ghettos, lyrics often include themes occurring in these areas. Dutch gangsta hip hop mostly comes from the five largest cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht and Eindhoven.

Commercial success

The commercial success of Dutch hip hop is largely made by Brainpower, Yes-R, Ali B, Lange Frans & Baas B and Extince. For a large part of the Dutch hip hop community Yes-R, Ali B and Lange Frans & Baas B are sometimes considered fake because they do a lot of work for children TV stations. Brainpower and Extince however both enjoy a great respect for bringing up hip hop in their native Dutch. Other commercial rappers are De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, and one of the more popular artists in the Netherlands, Partysquad or The Partysquad. They are a 2-man group, having had success with hits such as "Stuk" (Broken), and "Dat is Die Shit" (That's the shit), with other popular songs in the background such as "Non Stop" ft. Brainpower, "We Gaan Los" (we're going crazy {because of highness or drunkenness}) with Kempi, and "Wat Wil Je Doen" (What do you want to do?).

Dutch oldskool

The Dutch oldskool exists out of three primary artists, LTH, Osdorp Posse, Extince, Sugacane and Duvelduvel. Osdorp Posse make to what they themselves call hardcore rap and use beats that have much in common with N.W.A. Their lyrics are about racism, prostitution (not always negatively), police and other social subjects. Extince uses very different, more funky kind of beats than Osdorp Posse and uses a completely different rapstyle. Duvelduvel is known as a conceptual hip hop group.

Notable artists

The Dutch hip hop scene is roughly divided by the Netherlands' (mostly) larger cities.

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See also

References
  1. Keys, Kelsea. "Osdorp Posse's Biography". last.fm. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  2. "Lil' Kleine breekt records: heel WOP in de Single Top 100 – stories". 3VOOR12 (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  3. "Lil' Kleine breekt meerdere records in Nederlandse hitlijsten". NU.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 November 2017.
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