Poetrix

Keeping it real is a pretty hard thing to do if you're an icelandic rapper. Other types of icelandic musicians can always default to the tried and true icelandic indie clichés of elfin, nature loving, blue lagoon frequenting arty type. If you're a rapper, though, and your inspirations are not rocks and moss and waterfalls and stuff, but Biggie and Tupac and other american Ghetto imagery, you're gonna run into problems when you're writing your bio and telling people of your back story. Poetrix does not have this problem.Poetrix (known as Sævar Daniel Kolandavelu to his mom and the tax office), started working on his debut album four years ago, but his struggles with heavy addiction and frequent run-ins with the law occupied more of his time than finishing lyrics and recording tracks. As with many young artists in his situation, the dreams were big and the results, other than the rather impressive criminal record, pretty disappointing. Apart from occasional gigs, in parties, parking lots, small club nights and as a warm up gig at the 50 Cent concert in Reykjavik, nothing much happened.After his ninth visit to the Vogur detox facility, he checked into a halfway house, and there the work started on the album. As the months passed, the size and scope of the album, modest at first, started growing. At first his aim was to use a studio owned by a relative of a friend to cut an E.P. to distribute in a very limited quantity to the local hip-hop community. As time progressed more people got involved, and as noted Icelandic musicians, such as Gaukur Úlfarsson, the bassist from Quarashi, respected icelandic rock guitarrist Smári "Tarfur", ubiquitous keybordist Davíð Þór and singers such as Rósa Birgitta, Einar Ágúst (from pop band Skítamórall) and legendary rock singer Bubbi Morthens. Many of Iceland's most respected Hip Hop producers got involved too, such as Steve Sampling, who recently supplied tracks to DJ Dangermouse, The prolific M.A.T., Ívar Örn, mastermind behind the notorious Dr. Mister & Mister Handsome, and Maxie, from the groundbreaking Icelandic hip hop band Subterranean.The album, set to drop in the fall, is charged with inspired lyrics about a wide range of topics, including political stories from africa, descriptions of the inner workings of the addict, and socially critical thoughts, spiced with his trademark wry punchlines and witty wordplay. The album brings together the confusion and chaos of his addict past and the soul-searching of his recent sober years. The music clearly bears the mark of the talented line-up behind it. The elephantine soundscape of the album ranges from live funk grooves, to melodic soul, to straight up hip hop, with references to rock and 60's reggae.The ambition and expanse of the project has grown enormously from it's humble beginnings. Poetrix has been promising friends that the album will drop "in two months" for two years, but every month a new collaboration comes up, or an amazing addition to the album. The album is finally meeting the perfectionist standards of Sævar. If he doesn't throw it out and make a salsa album instead.