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 Hip Hop Kemp 2005 Czech Republic
Czech this out Bitch!
When it comes to summer festivals, residents of the UK are generally amongst the luckiest in Europe. We might not get the nicest weather but we sure get a load of festivals, covering enough styles to leave your average music lover/party goer replete till the sun comes back 10 months later. 2005 even saw a few new ones spring up, including the O2 festival in London (a bit shite from what I heard), while Glastonbury remains one of the best music festivals in Europe and is nicely complemented by the likes of Reading, V, Global Gathering, Homelands, T in the Park and others. One thing we do lack though in recent years is a decent all out hip hop festival. Hip hop is a part of most of the summer festivals but since 2001 hip hop has been by and large the poor family member of music festivals. The last decent all out hip hop festival was the short lived Essential, which brought a line up that made most fans cream their pants to Hackney marshes back in 2001. On top of that the majority of events in the UK are way too expensive… so when in need just turn to your neighbours. In this case you need to look slightly further east to the Czech Republic, soon to be a member of our glorious European Union. For the last 3 years the Czech have been putting on Hip Hop Kemp, a grassroots, 3 day festival dedicated to hip hop culture and put together by the Depo Crew and Bbarak Magazine, the two main Czech hip hop organisations. Now in its fourth incarnation, HHK offers many advantages to most UK festivals: it’s dirt cheap (beers are 20p, food is less than a quid for a meal, tickets are £20 for 3 days), it’s in a lovely part of the country (about 2h from Prague), it’s got ridiculous line ups and it’s full of people from around Eastern Europe who just love hip hop – which helps when you got to spend 3 days in a field surrounded by nothing but.
Having only found out about the festival earlier on this year, I ended up organising their UK promo on ukhh.com and ticket sales via Scenario Records and preparing myself for what was set to be my main holiday for the year and by all accounts a banging 3 days of hip hop madness. And disappointed I was not.
After a night in Prague we got our shit together and headed down to Hradec Kralove on a bust up old train, meeting a few UK heads on the way as well as Germans, Austrians and Czech… this was gonna be one interesting festival. The town itself was nothing like what I’d imagined, it turns out it’s one of the biggest towns in the country (and home to the most violent football fans in Eastern Europe apparently, but we couldn’t confirm that), and still looks like it’s just come out of the Soviet era. This old communist charm was apparent throughout and it’s a shame we never got round to checking the town out properly. This year the festival was held at a disused military airport and base, on the outskirts of the city. One cab ride later and we’re walking to the gates. And as luck would have it, the sun was shining bright and the weather was ideal for 3 days of camping and partying. Bring it on.
After spending 3 hours getting into the camping site and retrieving our passes (further proof that sometimes going somewhere for free isn’t the best option) we finally stepped into the main festival site. After a quick walk around the main food and shop area, the first major shock of the weekend was the realisation that pretty much none of the signs are in English and that most of the people don’t really speak much of it either. When you think about it it’s pretty obvious, German is the second language in the Czech Republic and you’re not in Prague but in a field in the middle of the country. Still I guess it’s one of those things you just take for granted. We spent a good part of the first 2 days trying to learn some basic Czech but god knows why I couldn’t actually remember a word, apart from sorry, and that’s because it’s the same as in French. Still we managed to get by and feasted over the 3 days on a wide range of local foods, including the legendary Czech sausages, Klobasa, and some amazing roasted animal (I’m pretty sure it was a pig) that looked like something out of a medieval cook book. The local canteen, which offered standard meals was also nice but it must be said some of the local specialities were downright filthy. For anyone that went there and saw those pizzas that weren’t pizzas you’ll know what I mean. The best part of it, like most of the festival, was the fact that most of the food was ridiculously cheap. When you know the prices charged at English festivals, Kemp is like a breath of fresh air. You could bust your stomach for a fiver.
The beer was also amazing, 20p a pint and downright tasty. Plenty of bars spread around the main site had various ones on offer, though the local Gambrinus was all we needed. Cocktails were also impressive, served in pint glasses for the price of a half pint of lager in most London pubs… just don’t come here if you’re an alcoholic is all I can say.
Back to the music, and once our stomachs were replete with food and drink, we headed off to the main stage area after checking some of the hangars. As the festival was set in an old airport, the organisers had the excellent idea to turn the hangars into massive rooms that were banging out music from 6 in the afternoon till 6 in the morning. A couple of them also served as the cinema and the breakdance area, while one was the skatepark. A dope idea that made all the more sense at 3 in the morning when they were crowded up. The acoustics were pretty spot on in most of them and they all had bars inside or just outside… these people sure knew how to party. As we got there on Friday I heard quite a lot of UK hip hop being played, with Yungun, Taskforce, Mystro and Roots Manuva all emanating from the various hangars.
The main stage itself was open from midday till around 2 am, and as we followed the concrete strip round the site on the Friday evening, we literally stopped as the stage came into vision and we saw thousands of hands up in the air, waving together towards the stage. This was hip hop alright, hip hop like I’ve never seen it before. The sheer power emanating from the stage and the crowd huddled in front of it was amazing. And what’s more it’s a sight we saw repeated every night. When I say these guys love their hip hop I mean it, they absolutely go crazy for it and I can now see why all the people who told me about this festival said it was one of a kind. It really rekindled your faith in the culture and the music.
The friday night line-up was tasty enough, with Skinnyman, One Self, Lordz of Fitness and Inspectah Deck on the main stage. We got there in time to see the second half of Skinnyman’s set. Nothing too impressive as far as I’m concerned, as Skinny seemed to be rambling on about various socio-political issues rather than putting on a show. He did drop a couple of accapella freestyles and tunes amongst the ramblings… ramblings that probably passed over most people’s heads as well. He did however drop his rhyme from Twilight of the Gods and teased the audience with the beat from Hold On, over which he told people to come back tomorrow night to see him perform the track with Foreign Beggars. Still people were feeling it and showing Skinny love, and he was swiftly followed by one of Germany’s finest crews, Lordz of Fitness. Over an hour the four members, Kid Fresh, Rasgunyado, J-Bounce and Rafik, dropped some nice solo tablist sets, blending cuts, juggles and assorted turntable fuckery to a good reception. While it’s easy to lose the crowd with this type of performance, the Lordz put on a strong show, even though the gear kept fucking up. Highlights were J-Bounce’s juggles, cleaner than a triple washed jumper and seriously head nodding, and Rafik’s drumming. That boy has some seriously ridiculous skills, and everytime I see him he drops something new. His drumming on the night was good enough to put the likes of Qbert to shame, and that’s no joke. The Lordz were followed by my most anticipated act, and the crowd’s favourite, the one and only Vadim, who was showcasing the new One Self project, alongside Yarah Bravo, Blu Rum, Woody and Bongo Pete. True to form the crew dropped a storming set, leaving the audience bumping and waving their arms for an hour. Yarah and Blu held the stage with amazing chemistry and lyrical talent while Vad, Woody and Pete laid down the album’s best bits and some new ones too. Seeing them on stage for the first time since the album made its way to my top 3 of the year was worth the wait. They showed how diverse hip hop can be with Woody dropping some lovely tablist skits (including his excellent trumpet routine), Blu and Yarah freestyling and Vadim’s legendary ‘Terrorist’ getting the crowd seriously hyped. Friday’s proceedings were closed off by Inspectah Deck who also dropped a storming set, including pretty much every track he’s ever featured on, no joke, as well as a few solo bits. However it was the legendary featurings we all wanted to hear and he didn’t disappoint. Above The Clouds, CREAM, Triumph, you name it, he dropped it and the crowd loved every minute of it. As my mate remarked later on as we chilled in the tents, Deck is one of those MCs who was part of an era of hip hop were classics were still being churned out on the daily and he just needs to step on stage and drop his rhymes to get an amazing response. It was good to see the Wu spirit back on stage. And that was friday done, an amazing introduction to the festival and one that made us eagerly await the next 2 days.
Saturday started with a sweaty wake up in a tent, followed by blazing sun, smelly bogs and unusable showers. Oh and one thing that I’d say was definitely lacking was a proper breakfast stall. With the main site closed till midday all we had was one bar outside the gates, serving hot drinks and breakfast food for a few thousand people. Still on the upside we just had to step out of the camping site and walk 5 minutes to enjoy the 2 lakes nearby. Who needs a shower when you can wash away the sweat and grime in a nice lake? Well it wasn’t exactly nice, a bit on the muddy side and downright filthy in parts on the Sunday, but eh it was a lake, the sun was blazing hot all day and a few spliffs and beers later and it was all you cared about. A nice spot of cool water. It was good to see everyone get into the spirit and chill around the lakes and surrounding woods during the day. Meanwhile the festival got back underway at lunchtime, with the main stage providing dozy and hungover heads with music by local crews from Czech, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Austria, Russia, Greece and Denmark. Street basket ball was also on site, as well as some trampolines, water football, record shops, bars, graffiti and more. All in all the type of stuff you want while lazing about on a sunny day in the middle of a field. Once more the Kemp organisers proved that you don’t need shit loads of money to put on a dope festival and the grassroots spirit was alive and well. You just had to ignore the odd trip to the toilets, an adventure all in themselves. As evening approached we made our way to the main stage, sunburnt and blasted… it was gonna be a long night! Note to anyone doing this next year, watch out for the sun, I got totally burnt thanks to my stoned haze throughout the day and spent the rest of my holiday unable to lie down. First up on our list was a quick detour to the Semtex tent to check out DJ Tuco’s grime and crunk set. Pretty nice even if most of the people in there seemed like they were wondering what the fuck was going on. Props to him though for dropping some bangers and for playing the edIT remix of Usher, absolutely smacked it, even if I was the only mug dancing to it. Elsewhere the Czech ITF heats were being held in the Urei DJ tent in the afternoon, nothing amazing but good to see Kemp representing all aspects of the artform, with a breakdancing competition happening as well in the evening and beatbox workshops and battles on the Sunday. Open mics were also on offer during the nights, and quite a few UK heads made some noise, including Sonny Jim and the Nine High crew. On the main stage, 45 Scientific, the only French crew there, put on a dope little show before the evening’s main course, stepped up, in the shape of the Foreign Beggars crew, complete with Schlomo and Dr Syntax, who flew down just to be with them on stage. By the time Beggars came on, people were already hyped and all was needed was Vulgatron and Metropolis to start the show and the crowd just went bonkers! It was amazing to see them get such a reaction, as apparently they’re not that well known over there, but you wouldn’t know that from seeing the way people reacted to the tracks from the ‘Asylum Seekers’ LP. Vulgatron showed once more why he is possibly the best MC in the UK right now, riding riddims with such ease you were left unable to gasp in awe. Once Syntax and Schlomo came on stage, it was truly momentous. Schlomo blew the locals away with his routines and the tried and tested joint routine regrouping all members of the crew. They also treated the audience to their new 12”, Let’s Go, featuring Wildchid (on some proper Jay Dee shit) and also graced us with the Oh No beat they recently bought, which in the words of Vulgatron ‘is on some hard rock shit’. The beat needs to be heard to be believed. Their show was rounded off with Hold On, featuring Skinny and then with Skinny and Vulgatron double timing over a jungle beat courtesy of Schlomo. Once more smacking it and leaving the crowd with massive smiles and a feeling that we’d just witnessed more of the UK’s finest. Again borrowing from Vulgatron, this was some true hip hop shit, it just happens to be from the UK. Saturday was finished off by the legend that is Masta Ace, who also got an amazing reception and put on a fine show, including all his classics and recent tunes. We left at about 2 to go catch some rest after the sunburning while the hangars filled up and people partied on till the end. It should be said at this point that I was pretty damn amazed by the local kids, who can seemingly put most English to shame when it comes to alcohol intake. These kids are insane, leaving piles of bottles and cans big as tents around the sites.
On to sunday and even though this was to be our last day of festivities we didn’t let this bring us down. Another trip to the lakes for most of the morning and afternoon kept spirits up high and as the sun disappeared round 3 we got ourselves to a local pub down the road for some proper sunday food and real toilets. What’s more the food was dope and the beer was even cheaper than the festival. We got back to the tent just has the rain started and after a few showers, you realised that holding a festival in an airport was a pretty damn smart idea. While others get bogged down in mud we were left chilling on concrete strips, dope. The other rainy cloud for the day was that Non Phixion didn’t make it over due to airline problems. Still spirits were kept high by Polish crew WWO, who brought some homemade beats and lyrics to rock the main stage. With a big Polish contingent in the crowd they put on a pretty good show, easily the most impressive Eastern European crew we saw all weekend. With Non Phixion out of the frame, Beggars and Skinnyman rocked the main stage once more as well as the small ASM stand a few hours before, urging the rain to go away and regaling a crowd with freestyles aplenty until the mic broke down. After that US crew Cherry Hill put on a dope little show, with live musicians and it was left to the aptly titled Last Emperor to round off an amazing 3 days of hip hop. The hangars carried the party on till the early hours and with that another successful edition of HHK was rounded off, leaving us with plenty of memories, sunburns and dirt. Thankfully the journey back to Prague wasn’t too painful, and the hotel’s shower never felt better.
One month on and I still look back on this festival as one of the best ones I’ve ever been to, and an amazing showcase of the power and strength of hip hop culture today. As I said before these people really love it, with a passion and some may say naivety that is truly refreshing. It’s easy to become slightly blasé about hip hop when you live in London or in a big western European country like England, and seeing the Czech, Polish, Slovakians and Russians’ energy and love for hip hop regardless of language or appearance was really an eye opener. The organisation was also pretty on point for what is the biggest underground hip hop festival in Eastern Europe, showing that you don’t need loads of money or big corporations to run a tight ship. 16 thousand people had an amazing time and showed that the power to bring people together under one banner is still alive and well. While I’d hate to leave this on a downer, it has to be said that personally the one thing I was slightly disappointed about was the lack of other musical genres, but then you can’t have it all and frankly what we had was more than enough. If you missed out on this year’s event I can only urge you to make next year’s, it’s amazing, cheap and truly unforgettable.
Big up and thanks to K-Hill at HHK, Smiff, QED, Scenario and SA for all their help, Square One, Beggars, ASM crew, Chimp and the Manchester lot, Pippa, Gav THTC, the Oxford boys (sorry I cant remember your names!) for the company and laughs, and everyone else for making this a dope holiday and festival.
- Kper
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