A Brief History of Hip Hop in Athens, Greece." Pp

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Athena Elafros. 2013. "Mapping the Hip Hop Transnation: A Brief History of Hip Hop in Athens, Greece." Pp. 55-69 in Hip Hop in Europe: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows, edited by Sina A. Nitzsche and Walter Grünzweig. Berlin/Münster: LIT Verlag.

-Preprint-

“[...] Hip hop is a world language and it’s not only in the borders of our country or in our continent.” Eversor, MC and producer in Athens

Since the early 1990s, hip hop culture has become a transnational global art form (Potter 10) which has not only spread “from the margins to the mainstream” (Stapleton 219), but across the globe, with hip hop cultures in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Algeria, Lebanon, Nigeria, and South Africa, to name a few examples. Hip hop began as a predominantly African American, Puerto Rican, and Latin American youth culture in the South Bronx and consisted of the four elements of graffiti, break dancing, turntablism and MCing. Hip Hop’s cultural influences may be traced back to numerous African diasporic traditions such as the African bardic traditions, storytelling, and toast traditions, ritualized games, blues, soul and funk music, especially the music of James Brown, North American black churches, the Black Arts Movement, and Jamaican Sound System culture. Hip hop spread to other countries predominantly through flows of popular media such as records, movies, and television as well as flows of people who brought these popular media around the globe. As a result of these transnational flows of media and people, hip hop culture, both in its formation and dissemination, is a “diasporic cultural form” (Gilroy 70). With many of its roots in African American culture, hip hop culture has since become a vehicle for global youth affiliations and a tool for reworking local identities all over the world (Mitchell 2001b, 1-2). Though most US academic commentaries on rap used to be restricted to the United States and African American contexts (Mitchell 2001b, 3), this is no longer the case as there are now a wealth of studies of hip hop culture outside the United States (Elflein, Bennett, Mitchell 2001a, Androutsopoulos and Scholz 2002 and 2003, Fernandes, Somolon 2005 1

and 2009, Condry, Kahf, Motley and Henderson, and others). This contribution seeks to contribute to this literature by offering a broad overview of the history of hip hop in Athens, Greece. In particular, it seeks to understand hip hop culture as a transnational art form that transcends national borders while being simultaneously rooted in specific geographical localities. This brief history of the hip hop transnation is based on twenty three interviews with MCs, producers, DJs, industry professionals, and others involved in hip hop in Athens, and on an analysis of the relevant secondary literature. All of the interviews of hip hop practitioners were conducted in person in Athens from January until August 2009. Interviews were primarily conducted in Greek, though some were conducted in English and a few were conducted in Greek and English. Respondents were given the option not to remain anonymous, so that they could be credited for their ideas on the music-making process. Of the twenty three interviewed, only one respondent chose to remain anonymous.

The Global Recording Industry and Greek Popular Music: Local and International Repertoires The global recording industry is a very concentrated market. In 2009, there were four major corporate record labels: Vivendi Universal, which controlled 31.9% of the global music market, Sony BMG, which held 25%, Warner which held 20.3%, and EMI which held 9.4% of the market. Independent labels accounted for the remaining 13.4% (Rayna and Striukova 212-213). Despite the economic dominance of a handful of major companies, there are very strong indigenous music making traditions in Greece, and Greece has a thriving Greek popular music market. The recording industry in Greece is largely based in Athens, a city that is home to most of the major record labels and some of the largest recording studios in the eastern Mediterranean (Dawe 222). Historically, the sale of Anglo-American music was at its peak from 1975 to 1980 (Papageorgiou 1997, 68), but since that time, Greek music sales have been steadily on the rise. Prior to 1976, Greek music sales accounted for the majority of sales in the Greek popular music market. This changed during the period from 1976 until 1980, when the international share of the music market doubled from 25% to 50% (Papageorgiou 1997, 77). From the 1990s and onwards, Greek popular music has been slowly regaining popularity. For example, in the 1990s, the

popular music market in Greece was roughly divided in half, with 50% of the sales for international music and 50% for Greek music (Papageorgiou 1997, 77). The market share of indigenous music has increased even further in the last decade. In 2009, according to Alexandros Patakis, Marketing Manager, International Repertoire, Universal Music in Greece, music sales were divided along the following lines: 63% of sales were of local repertoire (Greek music) and 37% were international repertoire (non-Greek music). Of these sales, a large share of the Greek music market is taken up by Greek pop music, which is an urban hybrid merging Greek lyrics with western pop-rock influences and/or eastern elements (such as Egyptian and Turkish arabesk), and popular music (laiko/λαϊκό), which ranges from what is considered a more authentic style with roots in rebetika (the urban blues), to versions closer to Greek pop (Kallimopoulou 3). When speaking of Greek popular music in Greece, this paper focuses primarily on the 63% of music sales of the local repertoire (which includes traditional and popular Greek genres, as well as North American genres performed by Greek artists, such as rap, reggae, rock, etc.). These genres include rebetika, an urban folk style of music that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in the ports of the Aegean Sea and was associated with ‘disreputable’ elements in society, such as the ‘Greek underworld,’ drugs, hardship, and prostitution (Tragaki 25); laika, a broad-based genre of Greek popular music that originally emerged as a simplification of rebetika in order to make this type of music more broadly marketable (Papageorgiou 1997, 69); entehna, a popular genre of music that combines elements of western art music, Greek musical forms, such as rebetika, and poetry (Kallimopoulou 3); political songs that sought to challenge the status quo of the 1960s and 1970s; new wave laika, such as Greek pop and contemporary folk music, disparagingly referred to as ‘dog music,’ a style of music that merges traditional laika styles with pop music and Arabic and Asian musical forms (Papageorgiou 2005, 121-122) as well as Greek versions of rock, rap, reggae, and other Western genres. It is within this thriving indigenous market of Greek song, spanning the entire spectrum from laika to Greek pop (Kallimopoulou 210) that rap music and hip hop culture need to be situated. Similar to the rebetika, laika, new wave laika, and localized forms of rock, punk, and reggae, rap music had a difficult time gaining legitimacy within the popular music industry

in Greece. This is because rap music was seen as a “foreign brought” (ξενόφερτο) musical form according to Mhdenisths (pronounced Midenistis, which when translated means Nihilist), an MC signed to a major record label. For many artists at the time of my interviews, rap music was still an ‘alternative’ (Stereo Mike, MC/producer/song writer/sound engineer) or ‘independent’ (Diveno) genre, on the outskirts of the Greek popular music mainstream. One of the primary reasons for this alternative status was that hip hop had a difficult time breaking into the Greek popular music industry. For Diveno, a producer/composer from the suburbs of Athens, the reasons for this are simple: Θα ήταν πάρα πολύ εύκολο να γίνει, εάν η Ελλάδα δεν είχε πάρα πολύ δυνατά χαρακτηριστικά σαν μουσική. Η παραδοσιακή μουσική, η οποία εξελίχθηκε μετά σε λαϊκή μουσική, κρατούσε πάρα πολύ πίσω όλα τα ανεξάρτητα ρεύματα. Οποιοδήποτε ανεξάρτητο ρεύμα μουσικής προσπάθησε να βγει στην Ελλάδα, τα βρήκε πάρα πολύ δύσκολα [τα] πράγματα, όπως ήταν το κίνημα του rock to 1980s, το οποίο κατάφερε να φτάσει σε ένα σημείο και να αποκτήσει οπαδούς, αλλά σταμάτησε. Το hip-hop ξεκίνησε με τον ίδιο τρόπο.

It would have been very easy [to enter the mainstream] if Greece did not have very strong characteristics with regard to music. Greek traditional music [παραδοσιακή μουσική], which later evolved into Greek popular music [λαϊκή μουσική], held back all of the independent currents in music. Whichever independent current in music attempted to make it in Greece, it found things to be very difficult, like the rock movement of the 1980s, which managed to get to a certain point and obtain fans, but then stopped. Hip hop began along the same lines. (Diveno, my translation)

This is the background context of the international recording industry and Greek popular music industry that shapes the transmission and formation of hip hop culture in Greece.

Movement: Movies, Television, and People Edward Said once noted that “Like people and schools of criticism, ideas and theories travel - from person to person, from situation to situation, from one period to another” (226). Similar to ideas and theories, music also travels, from person to person, from computer to computer, from one country to another. In this instance, hip hop music and culture have travelled from the United States to many different countries around the world. In Europe, the first traces of hip hop culture go back to the mid-1980s, but the development of national scenes and markets did not occur until the 1990s (Androutsopoulos and Scholz 2003, 464). Hip hop culture spread to Greece through movies, music and people.

First, movies were central to the spreading of hip hop culture to Greece. Similar to Germany and other European countries, one of the first encounters of hip hop culture in Greece was through films such as Charlie Ahearn’s Wild Style (1983), Stan Lathan’s Beat Street (1984), Joel Silberg’s Breakin’ (1984), and Sam Firstenberg’s Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984), which were released as Breakdance 1 and Breakdance 2 in Europe (Terzides 2003, 28-32). As a result of the emphasis on breakdancing and graffiti placed in these films, many of the earliest practitioners of hip hop began their careers as graffiti artists (e.g. Artemis of Terror X Crew) and breakdancers (e.g. Michalis Papathanasiou of Goin’ Through, Dimitris Petsoukis and Kostis Kourmentalas of FF.C (Fortified Concept), Efthimis of Terror X Crew) (Terzides 2003, 30-32). Second, television, specifically music videos, also contributed to the spread of hip hop culture to Greece and within Greece. In particular, MTV played a very important role in introducing hip hop overseas. As Mithridatis, MC of Imiskoumbria (Ημισκούμπρια), a rap group known for their comedic style of rapping, notes: “I started to listen to [rap] when this type of music came to Greece through television and MTV. Around 1989. I started to get involved slowly and gradually with this type of music” (qtd. in Terzides 2003, 30, my translation). In addition, from 1997 onwards, MAD TV, a Greek music channel also played a role in transmitting American hip hop. In particular, Nikos Vourliotis, aka Nivo, an MC, producer and DJ, began hosting a television show called StreetBeat. StreetBeat was instrumental in showcasing hip hop music and urban culture from around the world. According to White Dragon, MC and DJ, Ουσιαστικά το MAD TV είναι αυτό που στηρίζει πάρα πολύ και την ελληνική κατάσταση. Το MAD TV, λόγω και ότι ο Νίκος Βουρλιώτης είναι μέσα στο MAD TV και έχει εκπομπή δέκα χρόνια, στήριξε και αυτός το hip-hop με τον δικό του τρόπο και το ελληνικό και το ξένο, για να φέρνει και πράγματα. Ήταν η μοναδική εκπομπή που υπήρχε στη τηλεόραση. Για δέκα χρόνια, τουλάχιστον.

Essentially MAD TV is what supports the Greek scene. [The Greek scene was supported by] MAD TV, because of Nikos Vourliotis and his television show, who supported hip hop in his own way, both Greek and foreign. It was the only [rap music] show on television. For ten years at least. (White Dragon, my translation)

Finally, people also played a crucial role in transmitting hip hop culture to Greece. “While technological changes, marketing strategies and changes in taste and style have been crucial in the geographical distribution of music, other forms of music diffusion are based largely on the movements of people rather than products or capital” (Connell and Gibson 160). In the 5

case of Athens, technology, media products and the movements of people along diasporic routes have played a significant role in the spread of hip hop to Athens. Members of the Greek diaspora were instrumental in bringing records and tapes of rap music from overseas to Greece. Kebzer, a DJ and producer based in Athens though originally from Mitilini (the largest city on the island of Lesvos), recounts how members of the Greek diaspora played a key role in the early formation of hip hop in Greece: Από το 1984 και μετά, υπήρχαν κάποιες εξαιρέσεις, κάποιες περιπτώσεις ανθρώπων, ελληνοαμερικάνων κυρίως, που επισκέπτονταν καλοκαίρια την Ελλάδα - ένας εξ’ αυτών ήτανε και τον ξέρω προσωπικά - είναι αυτός που έφερε το hip-hop στην Λέσβο, στην Μυτιλήνη, το 1986 έγινε αυτό το πράγμα. Ο οποίος ήτανε [στο] Λύκειο και ερχότανε τρεις μήνες το καλοκαίρι από τον Καναδά στην Ελλάδα, σπίτι του, στο πατρικό του και ο οποίος κάθε φορά που ερχότανε, και ειδικά την πρώτη φορά που είχε έλθει, είχε φέρει μαζί του ένα crate με δίσκους και είχε γνωρίσει τον υπόλοιπο κόσμο και κάποια παιδιά που ήξερα από την γειτονιά που ήτανε, τους μύησε σε αυτό το πράγμα. Ετσι έγινε και στην υπόλοιπη Ελλάδα, αλλά ουσιαστικά το hip- hop στην Ελλάδα, άρχισε να αναπτύσσεται από το 1991 και μετά.

From 1984 and onwards, there existed certain exceptions, certain instances of people, Greek-Americans mainly, who would spend their summers in Greece. One of these people I know personally and he is the person who brought hip hop to Lesvos, to Mitilini in 1986. He was in high school and he would come for three months in the summer from Canada to Greece to visit with family, and every time he came, and especially the first time he came, he brought with him a crate with records. He introduced the rest of the world and some kids I knew in the neighborhood [to hip hop], he initiated us in this. The same thing happened in the rest of Greece, but essentially hip hop in Greece began to be developed from 1991 and onwards. (Kebzer, my translation) These mediated representations of American hip hop culture, transmitted through television, movies and people, were some of the first points of contact for Greek youth interested in this cultural form.

The Formative Years: 1990 to 2003 In the early years of hip hop culture in Greece, after the initial transmission outlined above, this cultural form was a subculture, or a culture within a culture, among urban youth in Athens. In spite of early success with some of the major labels in the 1990s, rap music and hip hop culture in Athens, Greece did not successfully become part of the mainstream musical landscape until after 2003 (when it merged with R&B). As a result of the marginal status of hip hop culture in Greece between 1990 and 2000, there were a lack of venues for artists to perform in and there was a lack of support on the radio and in print (Terzides 2003, 36). What little support existed for hip hop culture was largely based in Athens and the surrounding suburbs, where hip hop culture

first formed. Similar to many hip hop scenes worldwide, the scene in Athens was one which was initially divided into neighborhoods. According to Kebzer, Κοίταξε να δεις, εξ’ αρχής ήτανε χωρισμένα τα πράγματα. Αρχικά ήτανε τρεις περιοχές που υπήρχε το hip- hop στην Αθήνα. Ήτανε Νέα Ιωνία - Νέο Ηράκλειο, όπου το κύριο crew ήτανε το Terrorist Group, ήτανε ο Βύρωνας όπου ήτανε οι FFC και ήτανε το Πέραμα όπου ήτανε οι Active Members.

Look here, from the start things were divided. In the start there were three districts which existed for hip hop in Athens. There was Nea Ionia-Neo Iraklio [Athens], and the key crew was the Terror X Crew, there was Vyronas [Athens] where there was FF.C and there was Perama [Piraeus] where there was Active Member. (Kebzer, my translation)

As a result of the small size of the country, Athens and the surrounding areas, was and still is the epicenter of hip hop in Greece. However, this concentration of hip hop in the suburbs of Nea Ionia, Neo Iraklio, and Vyronas in Athens as well as Perama in Piraeus did not make it any easier for those involved in the formative years of the scene. According to Sparky-T, DJ, producer, and former member of FF.C, “when I first started there was no independent hip hop scene. That is, in the eighties this thing did not exist [...]? maybe there would be a party now and another party after two months, things were that loosely organized.” (my translation) One of the main reasons for this, according to Efthimis, former MC of Terror X Crew and current member of the duo Artemis/Efthimis, is that “there were not any venues which played hip hop from 1992 to 1995, regardless if the scene was blossoming. An exception was Sussex [a dance club] in Glyfada [a suburb of Athens], which due to its American patronage [played hip hop]” (qtd. in Terzides 2003, 37, my translation). In other words, there was little to no support for hip hop in clubs and live venues. According to Stereo Mike, the primary limitation for Greek hip hop in its formative years, as well as currently, is that most of the live venues in Greece cater to Greek popular music. Most specifically, they cater to ‘dog music’ (σκυλάδικα), a denigrated type of Greek popular music (λαϊκό) which draws upon Arabic and Asian elements coupled with synthesizer and electric guitar (Papageorgiou 1997, 72). As Stereo Mike notes: “As you well know, Greece is dependent on ‘dog music,’ or what they call σκυλάδικα. Or the night life is dependent on that quite heavily, so there hasn’t been an organized live scene for anything else but that.” (Stereo Mike) The lack of venues, radio and media support resulted in hip hop culture remaining marginal during its formative years. 7

Nonetheless, there were certain key radio shows and venues which contributed to the development of Greek hip hop culture. Dimitris Mentzelos, MC of Imiskoumbria, hosted a radio show called Breathless from 1992 to 1993 on Space FM 93.9. This radio show was significant because it was one of the first shows to play hip hop in Greece and it was also the radio show which showcased many of the first hip hop acts in Greece, such as Terror X Crew, FF.C and Active Member (Mentzelos qtd. in Terzides 2003, 39). In addition, a club called Roxy was central to the establishment of local hip hop in Athens. The Roxy was a roller skating rink where many of the early hip hop enthusiasts would congregate. As Kostis Kourmentalas of FF.C notes, “[t]he Roxy is where we built our kingdom” (qtd. in Terzides 2003, 37). Furthermore, starting in the mid to late 1990s, hip hop culture, and in particular rap music, became noticed by major labels. Many of the early rap groups, such as Active Member, FF.C, Imiskoumbria (at the time known as Tar ’n’ Feathers) and Terror X Crew first rapped in English. As a result of individual choices and label pressures, many of these early rap groups eventually switched to Greek lyrics. B.D. Foxmoor of Active Member was one of the first rappers to start rapping in Greek after he saw a Greek-Canadian rap artist rap in Greek at a music festival in 1985 (Terzides 2003, 48). The first track recorded by Active Member and DJ K with Greek lyrics was rapped over Chaka Khan’s “Ain’t Nobody” (Terzides 2003, 52). FF.C switched to Greek after they approached Sony and EMI in 1989/1990 with demos of their music and the labels requested Greek lyrics (Terzides 2003, 51). It was only after switching to Greek lyrics, from the period of the mid to late 1990s that many of the early hip hop acts signed with major labels. Before the late 1990s, according to veteran DJ and producer Sparky-T, the hip hop scene in Greece lacked support: […] μεσα στα 1990s, μέχρι και το 1997-1998 - το hip-hop περνούσε μέσα από dark ages στην Ελλάδα. Δηλαδή, δεν ήταν μαζικό, σε πολύ μικρά μέρη, μικρές συναυλίες με πολύ λίγο κόσμο, δεν ήτανε όπως είναι τώρα πια που είναι όλοι οι πιτσιρικάδες με τα φαρδιά. Τότε δεν υπήρχε αυτό; όποιος ήτανε με φαρδιά τον δείχνανε στον δρόμο, ήτανε the black sheep… Και τότε μπορεί να ήτανε ένα live, που είχε 50 άτομα και έλεγες ‘ω! πάρα πολύς κόσμος.’ Και από εκεί που κάναμε scratch και τέτοια κόλπα για τα 50 άτομα.

[...] in the 1990s, until 1997-1998 hip hop was in the dark ages in Greece. In other words, it was not massive, it was performed in small venues, small concerts, with very few people, it is not how it is now with all of the youngsters with baggy clothes. That did not exist then, whoever wore baggy clothes was tossed to the street, and they were a black sheep… At that time you would have a live event, there would be fifty people, and you would say ‘wow, a lot of people.’ And we would scratch and do tricks for fifty people. (Sparky-T, my translation)

However, once artists started signing with major labels and releasing albums, there was a shift from the ‘dark ages’ to a ‘golden era.’ The ‘golden era’ is a period in the mid 1990s in American hip hop culture that many artists in Greece drew upon in their own discussion of Greek hip hop. For many, this period in hip hop, from the mid to late 1990s is referred to as the “best moment” in Greek hip hop (Kebzer). Indeed, the 1990s were a great time period for Greek popular music more broadly, given that more popular music recordings were made in the 1990s in Greece than during all the other previous decades (Pennanen 117). During this period, in 1995 Active Member signed with Warner and released Το Μεγάλο Κόλπο (The Big Game), in 1997 FF.C signed with Polygram and released In Another Dimension (Σ'άλλη διάστηση), and in 2001 Goin’ Through signed with Def Jam and Universal and released Συμβόλαιο τιμής (Contract Price). During roughly this same time period, a rap group named Ομήρου Απόγονοι (Hostage Offspring) also signed with Universal and in 1998 released the E.P. Μυρωδιά Kαινούργιας Μέρας (Smell of the New Day) and the full length album in 2000 Nihil Est . Unfortunately for many of these artists, this ‘golden era’ was short lived. By 2000, many of the major record labels were no longer interested in supporting local hip hop talent due to a decline in records sales. In particular, from roughly the period of 2000 to 2003, many hip hop acts in Greece were no longer supported by the major labels. White Dragon notes: “There was a decline in 2000, since there were many hip hop acts until 2000 and suddenly many of them were dropped from their labels.” White Dragon himself, who was half of Ομήρου Απόγονοι (Hostage Offspring), disbanded the band in 2000 after lack of support from Universal (even though their contract called for another album). In reference to his time at Universal, White Dragon states: Κάναμε 2 CDs singles και ένα άλμπουμ, τα οποία δεν έδωσε κανένας στη εταιρεία καμία σημασία για κανένα λόγο. Φαντάσου ότι το συμβόλαιο το κατάργησα εγώ μόνος μου. Πήγα μια μέρα στη εταιρεία και τους είπα ‘Ευχαριστώ, δεν συνεχίζω άλλο.’ Σε καμία άλλη εταιρεία, σε καμία χώρα του κόσμου δεν θα σε αφήνανε να φύγεις έτσι. Αν βλέπανε κάτι σε σένα ή αν τους ενδιέφερε, έστω να σε ρωτήσουνε, να σου πούνε ‘Γιατί φεύγεις? Πας σε κάποια άλλη εταιρία? Μα, το συμβόλαιο δεν έχει λήξει, μας χρωστάς ένα δίσκο!’ Δεν με ρώτησε κανένας τίποτα, ποτέ. Ενώ έπρεπε να τους δώσουμε ακόμα ένα δίσκο, δεν τους δώσαμε κανένα δίσκο; Το συμβόλαιο έληξε έτσι, τόσο απλά!

We have released two CD singles and an album, which no one at the label paid any attention to for any reason. Imagine that I had to abolish the contract myself. I went to the label and I said ‘Thank you, I cannot continue any longer.’ In no other label, in no other country in the world, would they let you leave like that. If they saw something in you and they were interested, they would say to you, ‘Why are you leaving? Are you going to another label? But your contract has not expired and you owe us a record!’ No one asked me 9

anything. Even though we owed them a record, we did not give them one. The contract ended just like that! (White Dragon, my translation)

DJ Everlast, former member of FF.C, mirrors the sentiments of White Dragon. He believes that record companies dropped many hip hop acts during this time period because they were not profitable. He notes that “from the moment that they [the record companies] saw that not everyone was selling, it was logical that the doors [at the labels] would start shutting.” (my translation) Nonetheless, it is during these formative years, marked by limited venue exposure, limited radio airplay, and limited success at major labels, that many of the founding groups of hip hop in Greece were first formed. These groups include FF.C (Fortified Concept), Imiskoumbria (Τα Ημισκούμπρια), Active Member, Terror X Crew, and Goin’ Through. Though some of these groups are now defunct (such as FF.C and Terror X Crew) and others have undergone significant changes in membership (such as Active Member), many of the members of these groups are still active in a variety of ways in Greek hip hop. In addition, Ζωντανοί Νεκροί (The Living Dead) also known as ZN, is another group which greatly influenced the Greek hip hop scene. ZN is significant in that they provided the first example of Greek gangsta rap with the release of their album -Ο Πρώτος Τόμος (The First Volume) in 1998. Moreover, female rapper Sadahzinia, who is part of Active Member,has also played an important role in the formation of hip hop in Greece. Sadahzinia is considered by many to be the first female rapper in Greece, and since 1994 she has been involved in Active Member and the Low Bap movement, a movement aimed at promoting leftist social and political change. Sadahzinia is married to B.D. Foxmoor, the founder of Active Member, and she is the most famous female rapper in Greece. She is also active in the production and distribution of independent hip hop in Greece. In 2003, Sadahzinia and B.D. Foxmoor founded their own label 8ctagon, which releases their albums as well as those of other artists who are part of the Low Bap movement. Each of these groups contributed to the Greek hip hop scene in important ways (Terzides 2003, 11-17). FF.C was the first Greek hip hop group in Greece which was formed in 1987; Active Member released the first Greek language hip hop album in 1992 called Διαμαρτυρία (Protest) on Freestyle Productions; Terror X Crew is considered the rap group which linked hip

hop with punk and they also rapped in ancient Greek; Imiskoumbria pioneered the sub-genre of comedy rap and MC Dimitris Mentzelos played a significant role in promoting hip hop on Greek radio; Goin’ Through is currently the most commercially successful hip hop group in Greece and Nikos Vourliotis plays a significant role in promoting hip hop culture on MAD TV; ZN is the first gangsta rap group in Greece; while Sadahzinia is the first and most successful female rap artist in the country.

Entering the Mainstream: 2003 to the Present Despite these early difficulties, from roughly 2003 until 2009, Greek hip hop successfully entered the Greek popular music mainstream. According to Christos Terzides, the manager of Goin’ Through, one of the most successful hip hop acts in Greece, the reason for this is that “From that period, from 2003 and after, R&B became massive in the clubs, and hip hop is twinned, at least in the minds of Greeks, with R&B. And the public, who never listened to hip hop, started to buy the records of Greek hip hop groups.” (2009) For Diveno, the reason that the Greek public began to buy and support Greek hip hop is simple: Ο τρόπος πού άλλαξε είναι ότι μετά από κάποιο σημείο, ξεκίνησαν κάποια hip-hop συγκροτήματα και ξέφευγαν από τον κλασσικό hip-hop ήχο, που θέλανε όλοι να έχουνε, σαν hip-hop atrists, και έβαζαν μέσα ελληνικά στοιχεία, το οποίο φυσικά αυτό φαινότανε σε πολλούς ότι δεν είναι σωστό, από το hip-hop κοινό. Αυτό, όμως, ήταν σωστό για το mainstream κοινό της Ελλάδας, δηλαδή ήταν πιο εύκολο για αυτούς να ακούσουν αυτό το τραγούδι, παρά να ακούσουν ένα πιο hip-hop τραγούδι.

The way that things changed is that after a certain point, certain hip hop groups moved away from the classic hip hop sound that everyone as a hip hop artist wanted and placed Greek elements, which however natural this seemed, many within the hip hop community felt that were not right. This, however, was right for the mainstream public in Greece, that is, it was easier for them [the public] to listen to this type of song, instead of listening to a more [traditional] hip hop song. (Diveno, my translation)

These musical changes to the sound of hip hop music in Greece contributed to the increased popularity of certain types of Greek hip hop, specifically those types of hip hop that had crossover appeal. The first hip hop group that reached mainstream and crossover appeal was Imiskoumbria. For Diveno, this was because they mixed rap with humorous lyrics that resonated with a broader public: Οι πρώτοι που κάνανε επιτυχία και τους άκουσαν όλοι, εκτός από hip-hop, ήταν τα Ημισκούμπρια. Ηταν διαφορετικό, ενώ υπήρχαν συγκροτήματα πριν από αυτούς, οι οποίοι κάνανε ωραία hip-hop κομμάτια, τα Ημισκούμπρια βγήκανε με το χιούμορ, με αστείους στίχους οι οποίοι το άκουγε κάποιος, ο οποίος δεν τον ενδιέφερε το hip-hop και δεν ήξερε τι είναι hip-hop, αλλά συνδεόταν μαζί του όχι λόγω της μουσικής, αλλά 11

λόγω της κωμωδίας. Ήταν κάτι με το οποίο μπορούσε να κάνει relate. Οπότε του άρεσε και αυτό. Δεν ήταν mainstream ακόμα, αλλά ήταν κάτι το οποίο κατάφερε κάποιος, ο οποίος δεν ήξερε από hip-hop, να το ακούσει. Του φαινόταν αστείο, ωραίο.

The first group that had success, and everyone listened to them, outside of hip hop, were Imiskoumbria. It was different, although there were groups before them who did hip hop tracks, Imiskoumbria used humor, with comedic lyrics that when someone listened to them, even if they were not interested in hip hop and did not know hip hop, they bonded with them not because of the music, but because of the comedy. It was something you could relate to. Something that you liked. It [hip hop] was not mainstream yet, but it was something which succeeded in making those who did not know hip hop listen to it. They found it funny and nice. (Diveno, my translation)

However, the hip hop act that was the most successful in collaborating with Greek popular artists, such as Γιώργο Μαζωνάκη, Στέλιο Ρόκο, David Lynch, Peter Andre, among others, by fusing Greek hip hop with R&B, and bringing rap music into the Greek popular music mainstream was Goin’ Through.

Στο σημείο που έφτασε η δισκογραφία hip-hop σήμερα στην Ελλάδα, είναι εξ΄ αιτίας των Goin’ Through, γιατί αυτοί ήταν πάντα μέσα στο mainstream το δισκογραφικό, προσπαθούσαν να βγάλουν διάφορα κομμάτια, καταφέρανε βγάλανε κομμάτια που κάνανε επιτυχία, και ανοίξανε τις πόρτες, δεν το κάνανε μόνοι τους, αλλά ανοίξανε ένα δρόμο στην δύσκολη μέχρι τότε – να το πω κλίκα – των δισκογραφικών, και για άλλους καλλιτέχνες, να μπούνε μέσα και αυτοί μέσα και να κάνουν την δουλειά τους. Από ένα σημείο και μετά βέβαια αυτό, άρχισε να αναπτύσσεται και έχουνε βγει πάρα πολλοί οι καλλιτέχνες τώρα, οι οποίοι έχουν κάνει το ίδιο πράγμα, έχουν κάνει συνεργασίες με λαϊκούς τραγουδιστές και έχουν κάνει γενικά το hip-hop να είναι accepted από όλους.

The point that hip hop has reached in the music industry in Greece today, is due to Goin’ Through, who were more mainstream, who attempted to release tracks which were successful and opened doors. They did not do it alone, but they opened a path which was difficult – due to the music industry clique – but which allowed others to enter the music industry and release albums. From that point on, it [hip hop] became developed and many artists have done similar things, they have collaborated with popular singers and they have made hip hop accepted by all. (Diveno, my translation)

Since the success of Goin’ Through many hip hop artists have followed suit, such as Stereo Mike, who in his 2007 album entitled XLI3H (Evolution), collaborated with artists such as Haris Alexiou, the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra, Sandman, Ghetto Priest and many others.

Conclusion This chapter has aimed to offer a brief history of hip hop in Athens, Greece in order contribute to the broader dialogue surrounding the hip hop transnation in Europe, a global cultural phenomenon rooted in specific social and historical realities. The transition of hip hop culture in 12

Athens ‘from the margins to the mainstream’ mirrors the co-optation and assimilation of hip hop culture worldwide. What began as a youth subculture has largely become a widespread and mainstream youth culture, not only in Greece, but across Europe such as in Germany, France, and Italy. Hip hop culture was largely adopted and adapted to Greek realities through movies, television, records and people (in particular the Greek diaspora). Similar to the early days of hip hop in the South Bronx, hip hop culture in Greece originated as a largely male and largely urban youth movement. Hip hop in Greece began as a subculture in the late 1980s with many early rappers first rapping in English. Artists such as Active Member, Terror X Crew, Imiskoumbria, and FF.C originally started their careers by rapping in English, though as a result of pressure from record labels these early rap groups switched to Greek by the 1990s. By the middle of the 1990s, many of the founding hip hop groups had switched to rapping in Greek and had signed with major labels, such as Warner and FM Records. In the early 2000s many of these hip hop groups were dropped from their major labels due to a lack of record sales. Finally, from 2003 and onwards rap music and R&B gained large scale commercial success, largely due to crossover collaborations between hip hop artists such as Imiskoumbria, Goin’ Through, Stereo Mike and others, with Greek popular music artists. Hip hop gained large scale commercial success through its assimilation of Greek popular music elements, such as Greek lyrics and Greek instrumentation. Since the interviews for this research were conducted in 2009, rap music and hip hop culture have become even more accepted in the Greek musical mainstream. For example, the mainstream acceptance of this fusion of rap music and Greek popular music elements is most evident in Greece’s 2011 submission to the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2011, Greek fans voted for “Watch My Dance,” a song by Cypriot singer Loucas Yiorkas featuring Stereo Mike, as Greece’s entry. “Watch My Dance” is a laiko song, performed in Greek by Yiorkas with Stereo Mike rapping the refrain in English. Though the song did not win the competition, it does signal a level of acceptance and popularity for Greek hip hop that a decade ago would not have been imagined possible.

However, this mainstream success is not without its critics. For example, Active Member and members of the Low Bap movement are quite critical of the commodification, commercialization, and depoliticization of hip hop culture by major labels. Arguably, the future of hip hop in Greece depends largely on whether more commercially viable variants of rap music and less commercially viable variants of rap music are able to co-exist and flourish. What is certain, however, is that certain variants of hip hop culture and rap music have been successfully integrated into the Greek popular music industry. What remains to be seen are the advantages and disadvantages for the maintenance and success of the larger hip hop transnation. Are these patterns of commodification, commercialization, and depoliticization to be found across Europe? Or, are other countries better able to challenge these tendencies? Only time will tell.

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Filmography

Beat Street. Dir. Stan Lathan. Story by Steven Hager. 1984. Edel, 2008. DVD. Breakin.’ Dir. Joel Silberg. Story by Charles Parker and Allen DeBevoise. 1984. MGM, 2003. DVD. Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. Dir. Sam Firstenberg. Story by Jan Ventura and Julie Reichert. 1984. MGM, 2003. DVD.

Discography Active Member. Διαμαρτυρία. Freestyle Productions. 1993. LP. Active Member. Το Μεγάλο Κόλπο. Warner. 1995. CD. FF.C. Σ'άλλη διάστηση. Polygram. 1997. CD. Goin’ Through. Συμβόλαιο τιμής. Def Jam/Universal. 2001. CD. Mentzelos, Dimitris. Breathless. Space FM 93.9. Stereo Mike. XLI3H. Minos EMI. 2007. CD. Vourliotis, Nikos. Streetbeat. MAD TV. Yiorcas, Loukas (feat. Stereo Mike). “Watch My Dance.” Eurovision Song Contest. 2011. Minos EMI. Digital Download. Ζωντανοί Νεκροί. Ο Πρώτος Τόμος. 1998. 1998 Ηχοκρατορια / FM Records. CD. Ομήρου Απόγονοι. Nihil Est. Universal. 2000. CD.

Ομήρου Απόγονοι. Μυρωδιά Kαινούργιας Μέρας. Universal. 1998. E.P.