Kaliber 44

Kaliber 44 is a hip hop band formed at the end of 1993 in Katowice, Silesia, Poland by Piotr Łuszcz ("Magik"), Marcin Marten ("Dab"),Michał Marten ("Joka") and Sebastian Filiks (DJ Feel-X) . The group is dubbed the most influential Polish hip hop band, while their so-called Hardcore Psycho Rap style is the most prominent. It was originally thought that the name of the group came from a gun, but later members revealed that it should be explained differently: first part of the name comes from the calibre of problems the group sings about. The number 44 is a reference to a prophetic poem Dziady written by Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz.

Nad ludy i nad króle podniesiony;

Na trzech stoi koronach, a sam bez korony;

A życie jego - trud trudów,

A tytuł jego - lud ludów;

Z matki obcej, krew jego dawne bohatery,

A imię jego czterdzieści i cztery.

Elevated above peoples and kings;

He stands on three crowns, but himself is without a crown;

And his life - the hardest of hardships,

And his title - the people above other peoples;

From a foreign mother, his blood is of ancient heroes;

And his name forty and four.

"Księga Tajemnicza. Prolog", released in 1996 was the first Polish hardcore psychorap album and the second one where live-scratching technique was used. Their two other albums - "W 63 minuty dookoła świata" (released in 1998) and "3:44" (released in 2000) were completely devoid of psychorap style.