Dutch Hip Hop - Early Days

Early Days

Between 1980-1985 a few Dutch Hip Hop records had already been released, but in 1986 Dutch rap duo MC Miker G & DJ Sven (Lucien Witteveen and Sven van Veen) had a major top 10 hit (often #1) across Europe with their "Holiday Rap", which sampled Madonna's "Holiday". That same year Dutch rapper Extince released his first record: Rap Around The Clock. Another 1980s group was the Osdorp Posse, who first started to record tracks in Dutch. But there is disagreement about who started rapping in Dutch between Blonnie B, Alex and the CityCrew, Dynamic Rockers, Def Rhymes and Osdorp Posse.

Notable in the late '80s were All Star Fresh of King Bee topping charts with: "Back by Dope Demand" in early 1990 and Rudeboy of Urban Dance Squad who, at the time, were arguably more widely known in New York City than the Netherlands. DJ and Producer All Star Fresh Started as a Pro in 1979 made. After winning the Dutch Mixing Championships (DMC) in 1988, he was invited for The World Mix Championships in the London Royal Hall and won third place in a fierce competition. He was invited by Dave Funkenklein to enter the lions hole in New York. He made history in the Big Apple of Hiphop by being the first non -American to fly into the finals of The World Supremacy Battle of DJs. He gained the highly respected second place of this prestigious DJ contest). The impression that he made that year, resulted in many invitations to perform with world known artists like Public Enemy, Stetsasonic, Ice T and Ultra Magnetic MCs.

All Star Fresh. As performer and producer he is very well known as KING BEE.. With his second floor filler Back By Dope Demand he scored one of the biggest hiphop hits. In the Netherlands it resulted in a Top 3 position. Best Dance Product by The Edison Awards in the Netherlands. (The Edison Awards is an award by the Dutch Music Industry.) This also meant that with this title, he was the first black artist to win this highest to win award in the Netherlands. After that he appeared as supporting act for Madonnas show in the Netherlands. All Star Fresh kept entering the dance floors. The last titles mentioned were also world wide hits, selling over 2.4 million copies. He didn't only work within projects like King Bee or Capella, but also was featuring famous production teams like Snap (I Got the Power). This teamwork resulted in the single Lets Get Busy (Clubland Quarts feat Snap introductin King Bee). This record ended up No 01 in the Billboard Dance Charts (USA). Other productions were Deepzone >It's Gonna Be All right", a straight up club anthem even until today. Kellee- my love, Ty Holden- you're my Inspiration and His Royal Freshness- They don't understand are a couple of other productions in this line.

Urban Dance Squad was a Dutch rap rock band formed after what was originally intended as a one-time jam-session at a festival in Utrecht on December 20, 1986. Band members were rapper Rudeboy Remmington (Patrick Tilon), guitarist Tres Manos (René van Barneveld), bassist Sil (Silvano Matadin), drummer Magic Stick (Michel Schoots) and DJ DNA (DoNotAsk) (Arjen de Vreede). The band's music is described as a blend of genres, including hard rock, funk, soul, hip hop, reggae, jazz and ska and is often compared to that of Rage Against the Machine, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone. They are widely known for their hit single "Deeper Shade Of Soul", which charted at number 21 in the United States on Billboard Hot 100. It os well known fact that Rage Against the Machine was inspired by the Urban Dance Squad.

In 1992, Osdorp Posse released their debut album Osdorp Stijl, which was the first-ever Dutch hip hop . They started out translating N.W.A songs to Dutch, though later wrote their own rhymes in Dutch. Their beats, created by producer Seda on Amiga 500 with Protracker, have a familiar heavy sound and are similar to U.S. old-school hip hop. Frontman Def-P describes it as hardcore rap. In the 17 years of de Osdorp Posse's existence, the crew hasn't changed their style and are still making hardcore hip hop.