Album Notes

What has started as a featuring and as a bonus-track on Dar Beida 04, is now continuing here on their debut-album “Kingztanbul” : unconventional Turkish Hip Hop from Switzerland ! Traditional sounds combined with influences coming from Old School, Electro, Ragga, Dub and Trip Hop.
The only 19 years old lyrics writer Kadir (Casus = the spy) and 20 years old Evren (Cesaret = courage), both grown up in Basel from immigrant parents, have the aim to bring Turkish Rap closer to the western world.
In Turkey as in Germany, there are actually many small underground Hip Hop labels and acts spreading their word for the cause. It`s obvious that bands such as “Das Cartel”, “Islamic Force” or “Boulevard Bou” layed the basics in the early 90`s for the typical sound in use today. So it`s not surprising that many featurings on “Kingztanbul” do come from German Turks:
Microphone Mafia : The crew from Köln has three albums and diverse singles out and did also some work with Jazzkantine.
Murat G : He is the label boss of Drei Finger Records in Frankfurt and since the early 90`s involved in the Hip Hop scene. He worked with artists like “Kanak Attak” or “Aziza A”.
Steryo C.E.M. : he is also from Frankfurt and well present on diverse compilations.
Statik : Is the project from Turbo (Istanbul) and DJ Mahmut (Frankfurt). Turbo is the guru of Turkish Hip Hop in his country. He is producing compilations and is also famous for his graffiti works.
DJ ACE & Def Cut : Both are from Basel and made their names at the “Battle of the Year” as at DJ Championships. Def Cut is well respected as the master of Break-beats.
From the Makale Crew, following artists did some vocal featurings: Siddet, Sosyarap, MC Orhan and Randagee, as the scratches of DJ Steel.
The main subject of the lyrics are the daily problems of life, integration, rascism, love, and the relations of two different cultures.