Rap is no longer an exclusively male affair
Beatboxing, drill and dark beats of trap - the west bank of the Vltava in close proximity to the main program on Střelecký Island will be taken over by a rap wave on Saturday, June 11, and women artists dominate. The United Islands of Europe Festival will present several newer names resonating in Czech and Slovak hip hop culture on a special stage dedicated only to this musical genre. These include, for example, Hellwana, the winner of this year's Apollo Award, the pioneers of the Czech drill CMD or the Slovak trap queen Luisa. The entire program of the festival is free for everyone.
A stage dedicated to rap artists from the Czech Republic and Slovakia will be set up in front of Café Savoy on Saturday 11 June. "Rap is the most popular music genre in the world and it's nice to see that men and women are becoming equal in it. This fact was also reflected in the compilation of the music program of this year's Islands. Not far from Střelecký Island, we have prepared a novelty in the form of quite an extraordinary and unusual music stage,” explains the festival manager Kamila Buráňová.
Saturday's rap program will be opened by the multiple winner of the Czech beatbox Tiny Beat. His performance is a combination of beatboxing and stand-up comedy, which he has perfected over the years. Malvina is a trap project by a young Slovak singer and rapper. In her performance on the United Islands she will also present her disco-pop project Magick, which was created in a collaboration with Lukáš Mutňanský. Blueraykoranthug from the legendary Opak Diss label, which has built a securely recognized position on the Czech scene, will also perform on the stage.
Rap relay will be taken over by Luisa, one of the leading trap music personalities on the Slovak scene, whose introspective lyrics in dark beats are undermining the masculine stereotypes of the rap world. Another important name is the rapper, singer and design student Hellwana, who won the Czech Apollo award this year in the Single of the year category with her track Das Leben. The program of the rap stage, which was created in collaboration with Big Shock! concludes CMD, whose members Erne100 and Joshua has became the pioneers of Czech drill, a rap style that is typical for its straightforwardness, roughness and aggression.
Although thanks to the Tebi Rex from Ireland and the Laokoon from the Czech Republic, rap has already been represented in the first wave of revealed performers and is now directly supported by the rap stage, the organizers suggest that the festival will have even more names. "We have a few big surprises up our sleeves for the festival visitors, but we will publish them at the right time," hints Kamila Buráňová.