History

The first major hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 crew from Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

 was Quarashi

Quarashi

Quarashi was a rap and hip-hop group from Reykjavík, Iceland. It was composed of Hössi Ólafsson , who was the lead vocalist and frontman of the group, Ómar Swarez , rapper and hype man, and Steini a.k.a. Stoney , also rapper and hype man...

, who were inspired by the rock hybrid music of Beastie Boys

Beastie Boys

Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....

 and Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...

. Around the same time Quarashi released their first album, several rap groups were formed such as Subterranean which are considered to have released one of Icelandic hiphop's biggest classics, Central Magnetizm. Other groups included Team 13 (which later became Twisted Minds), Multifunctionals, Bounce Brothers and Hip Hop Elements (later named Kritikal Mazz). They all rapped in English except for one song from Multifunctionals called "Númer 1." During that time the first crew rapping entirely in Icelandic came forward with aggressive radio singles: that band was Sækópah and consisted of the rappers BlazRoca and Sesar A. Shortly thereafter, they formed SupahSyndikal along with members of Subterranean and Tríó Óla Skans. BlazRoca and Sesar A were vital to the second generation of artists that defined itself by rapping in Icelandic. XXX Rottweiler (formerly known as 110 Rottweilerhundar), along with Sesar A, published the first all Icelandic hip hop albums in Iceland in 2001. In 2002 a new wave of rappers had followed their lead by rapping exclusively in Icelandic: Bæjarins bestu, the freestyle battle champs of Iceland in one unit, Móri

MORI

Ipsos MORI is the second largest market research organisation in the United Kingdom, formed by a merger of Ipsos UK and MORI, two of the Britain's leading survey companies in October 2005...

, a gangsta rap

Gangsta rap

Gangsta Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths. Lyrics in gangsta rap have varied from accurate reflections to fictionalized accounts. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word...

per who uses Icelandic

Icelandic language

Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...

, Afkvæmi Guðanna (The Offspring of the Gods), Bent og 7Berg (Bent and 7Berg), Skytturnar (The Marksmen), Hæsta Hendin (The Highest Hand) and Forgotten Lores. Icelandic lyrics are usually very direct and aggressive, with battle raps forming a sizable portion of Icelandic hip hop.

Forgotten Lores released their debut album "Týndi Hlekkurinn" in 2003 and their second album "Frá Heimsenda" in 2006. The albums are two of the most critically acclaimed Icelandic rap albums and "Frá Heimsenda" received a 5 star rating in the national newspaper Morgunblaðið

Morgunblaðið

Morgunblaðið is a newspaper published in Iceland, founded by Vilhjálmur Finsen & Olaf Björnsson, brother to the first president. The first issue, only eight pages long, was published on 2 November 1913. Six years later, in 1919, the corporation Árvakur bought out the company...

.

One of the largest hip hop events is Rímnaflæði in Miðberg, a freestyle competition where young MCs and rap bands (usually ages sixteen and younger) compete by rapping a single song on stage. The first jury was made up of Sesar A, BlazRoca (XXX Rottweiler hundar) and Omar Swarez (Quarashi).

Breakdance

Element Crew is the leading B-boy crew (since 1998) under the leadership of b-boy Gretski. Breakdancing was first seen on Iceland around 1983. It grew wildly popular in a short amount of time, but by the beginning of the 90's it had all but faded out. Around 1997 breakdancing began to grow more popular, with Shakers Crew.

Graffiti

The Graffiti scene first took off in Iceland around 1991 with writers such as ONE, Pharokees, Atom, Sharq, Kez and Youze. Crews such as SR (Stash Riders) and LCF were the first big influentials. Then around 1997 TMC (Twisted Minds Crew) broke out with members Senze and Natur being the most active. In the same year CAN Crew (Can Armed Ninjaz) was formed by Sketz (later known as Ciphah of Kritikal Mazz) and Sare One. Sare One (who has had many names such as Sar, Ser and Kam) is known today as Nores and is now a member of the TMC. With his arrival on the scene the style took a big step forward and he's the most potent individual for Icelandic Graffiti. Foreign artists who've temporarily lived in Iceland have also made a huge impact; for example, Kegr and Jiroe.
A few other notable artists who've been influential in Icelandic Graffiti include Short, Lopez, Noem, Mint, Starz, Barok, Soda, Trek, Does, Wyh, and Kyte.