Why You Should Listen to More Czech Rap

Before beginning with hip-hop, Bonus was part of the post-punk bands Sporto and Ememvoodoopöká. Even in this early stage, Bonus was using samples and has long had a fascination with electronic music.

“I’ve always been interested in electronic music. Then I was looking more at politics than aesthetics and electronic music didn’t have much politics. I moved to punk and post-punk. I was listening to some post-punk bands using keyboards and samples. What was always interesting for me was bringing new sounds into the sub-culture, making people face aesthetically what they’re not ready to face.”

The move towards hip-hop emerged from a desire to be creative using the most basic materials. He wanted to find the easiest way to express himself and his opinions. And opinions are hard to ignore in Bonus’ work. His lyrics inveigh against many of the maladies of modern Czech society from the reliance of social media (“Ztrácíme čas” from his full album Konec Civilizace) to racism (“Dětem”) and problems following the Velvet Revolution (“Co zbylo z revoluce” from his last release Náměstí Míru).

The politics shouldn’t get in the way from the music. Using both acoustic instruments and electronic, Náměstí Míru has a warmth not typical in a lot of mainstream hip-hop. That fact that Bonus wrote and recorded much of the sound on a laptop in the early morning at work – he is a professional graphic designer – adds to the recording’s personal appeal.

“Most of the songs are not songs in the traditional sense. There’s not even a chord. It’s just loops and layering. This makes it different. Usually people who play instruments aren’t able to make things simple,” Bonus said.

Was simplicity at the heart of good hip hop?

“Yes, definitely. It’s at the heart of everything,” he said.

MaryC’s musical background started with a love of jazz and funk. Darker, more creative acts drew her to hip-hop, so today she is one of its most noticeable supporters.

“On my show a lot of the time I like to present people that are artistic in more forms, that are really talented as artists, like Renaissance people, that they bring an opinion, or a different view. They bring themselves. They don’t follow any form. They don’t just try to follow a trend. They are real artists,” she said.

For MaryC, creativity counts more than ‘authenticity’. She is not concerned with artists sticking to what is ‘true hip-hop’, probably impossible in the Czech context. Rather, she is interested in those artists who are creating something unique, a purpose for which hip-hop is well-suited.

“It’s direct. The music is simple. It is heavy. It’s like bricks falling on you. The music really gets behind the message.”

“The distinction between mainstream and underground is so personal. Everybody has that line which divides the mainstream and underground somewhere,” she said. Added to this she acknowledged that the relatively small size of the scene meant those who had made it were understandably hoping to maintain a career.

The Czech language is, interestingly, a key factor in the rap scene and something which marks local rappers as ‘authentic’. I say interesting because hip-hop seems so rooted in US culture, you might expect English to be more readily used. On the contrary Anna writes that for many rappers Czech rap would “be nothing without Czech words and slang”.

When the open mic was announced, a handful of young guys lined up and waited their turn. The main MCs kept everything orderly, so that each performer got more or less the same amount of time on stage. The DJ changed things up enough to keep the rappers on their toes. A live band and vocalist joined in later, adding some hard funk and soul to the mix. Down on the dance floor a couple of guys showed off their breakdancing.

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