Oliver: The new Loop Troop album is being released by an independent punk rock label, Burning Heart Records. How come you ended up on them?

Promoe: We had some other labels contacting us. But their offerings were no good for us since they wanted like option deals and stuff. So we ended up on Burning Heart. I think they stepped to us because they heard of us, liked our stuff and we said, ‘Okay, let’s try it, see how it works.’ I don’t even know if it’s good, you know? We have to see. So far the album is only out in Scandinavia. It’s coming in Europe on the 28th of June.

But regarding the contract itself and the people at Burning Heart, it’s cool?

It’s good; it’s really good. The have a lot of punk/hardcore bands with a lot of say. Not all groups but many of them know what they want, how they should be promoted and stuff. So they know that they can’t f*ck with us either, trying to tell us our music is supposed to sound like this or that. Besides, they might not even know what real hip-hop sounds like or is about. So they have to take it anyway. They can’t say do this, do that, because they don’t know. So I think it’s positive. There’s no other label in Sweden anyway that knows anything about hip-hop. They might front like they do but they don’t.

So can you relate to punk rock in any way? Do you like other music besides hip-hop?

I mean I can relate to the messages and stuff but I don’t listen to it really. I listen to reggae music mostly.

So what can people expect from the album, Modern Day City Symphony?

It has fifteen songs, all new except for “Ambush in the Night” and “Heed the Warning” [featuring the Arsonists] that came out on the single. We’ll also drop single called “The Long Arm of the Law,” also through Landspeed. We release the singles through another label, or better say a distributor from the States called Landspeed. The album comes as you said on Burning Heart Records and is distributed in Germany by PIAS (Play It Again Sam), from Hamburg. I think they put out Public Enemy, Jurassic 5, etc.

What about America?

In America we don’t have anybody yet. At least the singles come out worldwide, but Landspeed can’t really do much promotional stuff. They were also interested in putting out the album and we were really hesitating; we didn’t know which way to go. Then we said let’s do the album on Burning Heart and then I’ll drop my solo joint, the Promoe album, on Landspeed to compare and see what’s best, so we can do the right thing in the future. So we’ll see what happens. I never like dealing with other people about my music, but still we have to get it out. Since we’ve been selling records in Sweden for a long time, you know, distributing it ourselves and just promoting it with just our shows. But you can only get in known in Scandinavia doing that. Maybe you could even take it further, but it’s too much work.

There’s a very lively hip-hop scene in Sweden and many of the artists are rappin’ in English. Are there many people with American/English origins, or how does that come?

I don’t think it’s because of that. We, and probably also the others, rap in English cause that’s all we heard, you know? Maybe the first German groups that came probably rapped in English as well. And then they took the step to it in German. A lot of people in Sweden are doing that now as well, like Ken, Petter [to be heard on the awesome Swedish compilation Sidewalk Headliners] and so on. That’s cool. We’re going to do stuff in Swedish as well, but we do stuff in English because we want people in others countries to understand what we say. That’s what some Swedish artists miss out, standing here on stage and having people understand them. Maybe it’s gonna happen in the future but I don’t think it would really work now.

But do you think it is necessary to rap in English to be universal, since the French artists rappin’ in their mother tongue are at least kinda famous over here too, like IAM for example?

But French is a much bigger language than Swedish, you know?

Still when I hear Ken or Petter I can feel that they are good, got the flow or whatever.

Yeah, I know what you’re saying. I think it is good that a lot of people rap in Swedish. But I’ve been doing it in English since ’91 and so I think I’m a lot better in doing it in English than in Swedish. Of course I’m better in actually speaking Swedish and I guess I could work it out and rap in Swedish too. And that’s like I said what we are also planning to do, but mostly for the underground market in Sweden. And if people here [in Germany] will like it, that’s cool and they can buy it. But I don’t think they will understand anything. Of course it’s going to be good music anyway…Actually we had the plan to maybe put out one album in English and then one in Swedish with similar music and similar topics, just translating it for fun. It’s kind of a strange thing to do though.

Do you think German hip-hop or anything has a chance on the Swedish market?

Maybe in the future. But as I see it now maybe some people there listen to French hip-hop, but probably more because it’s popular than because of anything else I guess. Not to diss the French hip-hop because it’s really good! Still, there’s not a lot of people listening to it. They are mostly into Swedish and American rap now. But who knows about the future? What I feel is that Swedish hip-hop people are a bit too “ignorant” now. I only have to look at myself! But then again I don’t listen to that much hip-hop because I personally think that not too much good stuff is coming out. I never listen to Swedish hip-hop either. I mean, I hear it but I never buy the records; I bought couple in the past but not anymore. There will come some really good stuff soon. So far most of the stuff has been a bit too mainstream for me. I mostly listen to reggae an ragga. I love hip-hop too, but as I see it there’s not a lot of good stuff.

Of the hip-hop that you listen to, what have you been buying or feeling lately?

I like the Rawkus stuff, Mos Def and Black Star, Organized Konfusion and Pharoahe Monch…I mean Organized Konfusion don’t even exist anymore [Laughs]…There’s a lot of other good stuff coming out but mostly on 12-inches. And I don’t wanna buy every 12" because it gets too expensive.

Definitely! We just talked about it when looking at the merchandise tables here. For the normal listener not being a DJ, it is simply too much to pay 15 DM [or about $7.50 US] for one or two songs.

If I had a friend doing mixtapes with all the good 12-inches on them that would be cool. But I don’t have any…

Fortunately we got lots of DJs doing mixtapes here. Anyway, you talked about a solo project. Is there an album coming up?

Yeah I’m going to do an album. I’m working on it now. I don’t know exactly when it’s coming out because I don’t really wanna stress it. If we’ll go touring a lot then it will be hard to write stuff for me. So it’s gonna take a while, maybe this winter. And I’m working on another project with a guy called Timbuktu [also to be heard on the Sidewalk Headliners compilation]. [Listen to "Naked Lunch" by Timbuktu featuring Promoe.] We will put out an album together as well, which should come a little after my solo project cause he’s doing his solo thing as well. So we’re focusing on the solo efforts and come out with our joint a little afterwards. I think we’re gonna do it through Landspeed but that’s not sure yet. They want to promote that one over here too, not like most of the singles. I think it might be a good thing to come with this stuff via the States, ‘cause Landspeed has put a lot of work into the “Off the Record” 12" and it did really well.

Yeah, it was on some German mixtapes too. Okay, anything else you wanted to say, to the German audience maybe? Do you maybe have a homepage with some further info?

Not yet. We want a homepage but none of us is putting any work into it yet. But we wanna come down to Germany as much as possible. I really dig stuff like this. Something like that could never happen in Sweden. Hip-hop might be big in one way but it’s not big in this way [referring to the festival]. This is kind of underground. There’s a war going on against graffiti in Sweden. This could never happen! There’s good rap as well, so I really like Germany in that way. These summer jams, open air stuff…it’s crazy. I wanna come down again!

So thanks a lot and enjoy the rest of your stay.

Thanks!