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Prague DJ sits down with this year's Hip Hop Jams headliners Adam Tensta & Eboi

Sweden. What is it about Sweden? As an American in Europe, I must say I find Swedes to be the hippest of the bunch, and that’s not just because their streets are packed with leggy bombshells, not to mention their knack for easily–assembled furniture. Swedes are innovators and trendsetters, savy with the latest in style and technology. They’re vbloggers, graphic design aficionados, iPhone maestros and they’re global in a way that makes the rest of Europe seem insulated, particularly when it comes to music.

Benefitting from strong influences from both sides of the Atlantic, Sweden resists the house-drenched Euro scene with a diverse range that has produced world-renowned acts in almost all genres. ABBA and Ace of Base topped the charts with their catchy pop hooks, Air France and The Knife renewed indie rock with their fresh electro flair, and even Sweden’s long-haired metal reached all the way out to California with the progressive bend of Meshuggah and Opeth, but what about hip hop?

Enter Adam Tensta, a Swedish rhymesayer who’s got a sound and image like Kanye West, an arm full of Nintendo tatoos, and supposedly, he can solve a rubix cube in less than a minute. We talked over a number of topics, ranging from the risks and rewards of trying to make it big on an independent label (Vampire Weekend was the first earlier this year), to his fresh new style that's gonna take him there. He calls it Block Pop. I would say it's a fresh new fusion of tight digitalized rhyming over heavy European electro beats ala Daft Punk, and that's what's already makin him a BREAKOUT even as far OUT as LA.

When we walked down the narrow stairs to Lucerna’s backstage, or more accurately, substage, we were greated by Tensta’s chill glassy-eyed manager, Babak:

I had been in touch with Babak via email earlier in the day, and was impressed by the swiftness with which he replied to my late request for an interview, particularly because of the two to three day lag time it usually took to receive a Czech response. This guy was a mover and shaker through and through, and had grown up in the same immigrant projects as Tensta. An Iraqi, Babak had certainly learned to navigate the Myspace and Facebook trenches, and was keenly aware of the role internet and new media would play in the success of his client.

You just have to have that internet mind. You know at the beginning of Adam’s career, we had two people sitting on the internet 12 hours a day just Myspace and Facebook everything. You know last night, Common, twittered that Adam’s video was like .. this is a good rapper, so that was big. That’s like his idol.

After our little chat out front about our mutual anticipation of Dr. Dre's latest and greatest tease, Detox, a little elfish lookin Dutch fellow waved us in with our cameras to the backstage inner sanctum. Inside, Tensta's got a towel over his shoulder after a hard night's work of droppin rhymes in front of what turned out to be a typical young Czech audience - a less than entheusiastic mishmash of visual arts students and "zabkas" (Czech jailbait) - a likely story I'd seen played out at Lucerna numerous times before.

Earlier during his show, he had made a little "in between songs speech" about growin up in Tensta, goin out of his way to point out that this was a place and not his real name. A perceptive reporter, I figured I'd follow up on what he wanted to say:

If I hold a paper up, I’ll probably see something about Tensta, it’s always based on something negative, ya know. So with that in mind, I thought about doing something positive instead. Coming from Tensta, and trying in some way to ya know (Makes grappling motion) change the people’s opinion about how it is growin up there. People’s don’t know, they always afraid of stuff they don’t know .. and I put it in my name so people would know.

Growing up on the fringes in a Stockholmn ghetto had obviously had a major impact on Adam Momodou Eriksson Taal's identity, not to mention the serious hip hop street cred that comes with hard-knock street life.  Every rapper tips their hat to their hometown ghetto, but for Tensta, this was no show - it was honest.  The next day after Tensta + Eboi's show at Lucerna, they quietly made their way out to the panalacky of Chodov to put on a free show for underprivileged kids at KC Zahrada. 

We're goin to one of the hoods, one of the projects here in Prague to meet with some of the youth, some of the youngsters out here, ya know, perfoming and talk to em and whatnot.  I love to do it wherever I go.  I wish I could do that in every city - go to the underprivileged and disadvantaged kids and talk to em and see what they're up to and see if we can influence em and do something for em.

Just one thing though - Chodov ain't that bad.  Sure, it's on the outskirts of Prague and a lot of the old buildings have that stale panalacky design, but nestled within are parking lots full of nice family sedans, women pushing strollers with babies, and all the creature comforts of normal suburbia. Right as you get off the metro stop you won't find the homeless or thugs, but instead a huge shopping center wth a BBC Fitness tanning salon, Marks & Spencer, H & M, Bata shoes and all the same places you can find in the center of the city sans tourists.  It's actually pretty lovely out there, except for the communist architecture of course. 

In Chodov, Tensta and Eboi put on a legit show, performing all their hits, meeting with fans, and signing autographs.  Next time, however, I imagine they'll keep their show to the center.  The socio-political slant to Tensta's rhyming was fundamental to the beginning of his career, but it was now something he was sheding in the process of becoming a major electro force.  Just watch the vid for "Bangin on the System" and you'll see all the acoutrements of underground hip hop - dark hoodies, black and grey panalacky Euroghettoscapes, and of course hard rhymes about tough life on the streets.  Now, it was all about the sound.

Yea, we created a new sound, a new sound, a new genre - Bloc Pop.  What do you see all over the world?  People jumpin' on electro shit.  It's like ... I ain't sayin I'm the first to do it, but first to do it big.

A lot of em are coming from European influenced electro rather than just electro in general, you know what I'm saying?  Like a lot of people used to have something called "Eurotechno" back in the day - you know, it was really big in Europe.  And that blew up in America, I remember that.  But that has developed in Europe and the result of that is what I see a lot of Americans are trying to copy these days because all of these different genres are merging together in a way I've never seen before regardless of whether it be pop or whether it be hip hop or Timberland - everyone is doing it.

As long as I make new music and I’m happy with the results everything I get out of the booth, that’s the direction I want to take it in. Even so, it does differ from “Bangin on the System” to, for example “They Wanna Know” “My Cool” and “Before You Know It.” That’s because I evolved as an artist, and as a man, and had some strong vision, ya know. Because I stumbled across the production on “They Wanna Know” and I loved it and I just decided to take it from there, so if you listen to “It’s a Tensta Thing” first version, half of it is somewhat conventional hip hop music, whilst the other half is progressive.

No doubt Tensta has evolved, and yet he keeps an arm full of old school Nintendo tatoos to remind himself where he came from.

This is my history, proud of my history. This is a gameboy, that’s a schroom (Mario Brothers kind, not the psychedlic kind). I got Megaman on this side. That was my escape being young, ya know, being able to dream, to control my own world playing video games so it symbolizes a good era in my life. Still try to play, but I don’t have as much time as I used to.

In fact, video games have been a huge part of Tensta's promotion as his signature track "My Cool" is featured on NBA 2K10 and the latest Tony Hawk game.  I asked what it must be like playing a game and then all the sudden your own track comes up and Eboi laughs

You get a motherfuckin' erection (puts his fist up in the air), what you think man?

They had been on tour recently to both coasts of the US, so I asked them about how their Euro-Electro-Hip Hop had been recieved.  How did Stockholm fit into East Coast vs West Coast?

It's a little bit more raw in New York cause it's this melting pot of all different cultures, ya know everything all formed into one so it's [electro] not new out there.  On the other hand, in LA you know it's a new movement and people are just starting to catch on.  So it's different depending on where you go as long as you're focused on trying to present this music to the people in a good way.  If they go home after the show thinking 'yea I had a good time though it wasn't traditional hip hop, then you did a good job."

A new sound for a new kind of artist.  Traditional hip hop was not for Tensta, and neither were traditional promotions.  Rather than signing with a mainstream label, Tensta decided to stay independent, getting his name out through the new media of Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and all that stuff.  If you go to YouTube and check out his vids, they're all quality and clever, his tracks are polished, and his pics are professional. 

I've been in talks with basically every big label there is, both in Sweden and in the States, but you know, you can always rely on a big machine, but what would that leave in terms of freedom and the ability to make quick decisions if so needed?  Cause we move on Facebook, we move on Myspace, Twitter, the blogosphere.  That's everything cause that's where all the people are at.