SASSJA (BIH)
The best known female MC in the region! She’s been on the music scene for a few years now, but only released her first album in spring 2015 with Menart Records as part of the record label’s compilation of the best Croatian rap-reggae fusion releases of the last fifteen years. She followed up on the album by releasing two hit singles, Clash and Etikete, and got over 5 million YouTube views on both.
Her album Taktički praktično was downloaded by a vast number of fans during the first few days of being made available online and earned raving reviews. Sassja knows exactly what she’s doing, where she wants to go, and accepts no compromises when it comes to picking collabs and songs for her first studio album. Sassja opened 2015 with a heavy touring schedule, appearing at numerous festivals across the region: INMusic (CRO), Seasplash (CRO), OK Fest (BIH), Lake Fest (MNE), and opening for the legendary Asian Dub Foundation at the CMA in Dubrovnik in August. As the proverbial cherry on top, Sassja ushered in the fall of 2015 by earning the Wild Card for the MTV Europe Music Awards. Thanks to fan voting, Sassja was nominated as the 2015 Best Adria Act alongside 2 Cellos, Hladno Pivo, Marchelo and Daniel Kajmakoski. In 2016, Sassja and Brkovi hit up Belgrade’s venue Hala Sportova and appeared at the 18th birthday party of the Croatian hip-hop collective Elemental at Zagreb’s Dom Sportova. She continued her march on the region with a summer tour that took her to Sarajevo Beer Festival, Regius Festival in Šibenik, Kunigunda festival in Velenje and the famous Bratislava Uprising Festival where she and Dubioza Kolektiv were the only artists from the Balkans.
No Problemo is Sassja’s second album two years in the making. As with her first album, Sassja assembled a who-is-who international crew: Jaka Berger of Ludovik Material fame recorded the guitar line on No Problemo, Benjamin Ziervogel brought his violin mastery to Ništa, and Kpow went wild on the scratch on Nek je živa glava. Erol Zejnilović from Elemental recorded the guitar on one song and Ante Zvonimir Stamać wrote the score for S njom. Darko Rundek is featured on Savana that will soon be made into a video. Sound mastering and mixing on the album was done by Kantriman. “Some songs have that ‘band sound’ and others are pure electro and bass. This was my challenge for this record; create as many bass sub-genres as possible. These are my favourite,” was how Sassja put it, and gave us a detailed breakdown of what we can expect from No problemo.
AMO SOCIALEC
Amo (a.k.a. Amo Socialec) is the stage name of the young defending freestyle battle champion.He’s an old vet to the hip-hop audience, having won all major freestyle and improv contests held across the country over the last few years. He first made us sit up and take notice back in 2009 when he finished second in the Freestyle Battle national championship behind the legendary N’Toko. He built on his fame by releasing a few ‘own release’ demo tapes that were well received by the insiders.
The first tape, Horizont, defined his style that encourages young people to be proactive, act smart and be socially active. He often gave us a critical view of social taboos in his own distinct and witty style. He also made us take notice as a featured artist in collabs with big names like Emkej, Zlatko, Trkaj, Mrigo and others. As part of his hip-hop collective, he opened for Dubioza Kolektiv on their mini tour across Slovenia and for the Grammy Award nominee Planet Asia.
In the meantime, he joined the all-Slovenian hip-hop collective Wudisban. He released his long-awaited record in 2016, entitled En dan, offering collabs with production crews outside of Slovenia. His newest project Spartacus is about to be released soon and he’s planning to recapture the very top of the Slovenian hip-hop scene.
NEOPOGO
According to legend, they crossed paths way back then. The only detail storytellers agree on is that they first appeared in Célovskhka, even though not all of them know the meaning behind that place. Some say they hail from Taman Negar, Malaysia, others say they’re from Brazil, Nepal, Sweden…
Some believe they’re aliens, others claim they’re ancient creatures from another dimension. Let me tell you, the first time I saw them live was 2016, and since I started following them, I came up with my own theory about their origin. They do appear magical.
The blue one holds the rhythm, while the orange one holds the melody, and each gig of theirs I’ve ever attended was a new experience: the gig in a dining room reminded me of my grand-grandparents; the gig in a black hole with shimmering walls, making the walls look like water flowing down black marble, the gig in a living room in the middle of the club…
They try to show and tell us of their history with the images they project during their sets, of their everyday life, of their adventures. The more I listen and watch, the more I understand their language. I’m looking forward to the day when I finally understand enough to tell my theory of NeoPogo.
(Introduction by Jure Držaner, NeoPogo’s No. 1 fan.).
SPEJS COLLECTIVE
At the Mladina Stage, the SPEJS Collective will be represented by Junker (Staš Kramar) and Pinta (Per Pintarič).
The SPEJS Collective are a six-member crew of music producers with different musical backgrounds, who take the audience for a ride through-audio-space with their wide-ranging productions. The crew are: Junker – the collective’s source of ideas, author of chill-bass and sample-heavy beats; Kaluza8 – complex electro banger and riddim drop specialist; Tschimy – artist with a repertoire raging from Lo-Fi acoustic original cuts to trap-fuelled mosh pit starters; Pinta – crate digger / vinyl archaeologist in residence; Qinn – trap-inspired producer, smooth sub-bassline and clean percussion specialist; Simonsezdie – futuristic experimental trap-head.
The crew released their first compilation record last year, entitled 56315:launch, and followed it up this year with their first EP Paralela 16. Aside from large projects, Spejs are no strangers to releasing shorter cuts called Spejsd out, produced by each member separately. The collective makes frequent appearances on the Ljubljana alter scene and have been part of major festivals (Tresk, Trnfest, etc.).
