the looptroop rockers

on this particularly rainy saturday i am folded up in my armchair, wrapped in my covers and watching nature clean my window. tore and i are simultaneously streaming the oh-so-fabulous radio show “p3 hiphop” and discussing it over im.

one of my favorite swedish hiphop groups, the (recently renamed) looptroop rockers, opens the show with their new single “the building”. i believe msn messenger documented my first reaction as “this doesn’t sound like the looptroop at all”.

now, my knowledge of the group could still be called limited and i need wiki to tell that they me lost their third rapper cosmic about a year ago and now consist of promoe, supreme and dj embee. but i still feel like this sound is different from the looptroop i know. in my world, they have a dark, dirty concrete type of city sound. like snow on the streets of stockholm. white that was ran over, turned gray, got pissed off, and decided to give it back to the man by wetting his shoes. the most famous track on their debut album “modern day symphony” is probably “the long arm of the law”, but i like this one better:



moving on, there are a few tracks from their later albums “the struggle continues” and “fort europa” that feel more… upbeat. or less underground. to be diplomatic, let me put it like this: to me, this is a track way likelier to get played at a club than “zombies” above. nothing wrong with that though, i think it’s a kick-ass song.



so, as p3 hiphop comes on and i reluctantly stretch towards the volume control to settle the contest between my stereo and my neighbor’s vacuum cleaner once and for all, i’m confused. and i don’t think it’s only because dj embee is singing, which is somewhat concerning in some parts, i’m not gonna lie. rather, it’s because "the building" is something different. something close to bouncy. and not the classic, hip-hop-put-your-hand-in-the-air type of bouncy. but happy bouncy. a new sound for a newish name. and after listening to it a couple of times, i still don't know what to say. for the longest time i want to label it non-looptroopy. but that's not entirely true. "the building" is far from what they used to do back in the day, but it does follow some kind of mathematically logical development curve. not that they are headed towards bad. just more commercial.