Czech hip hop

Czech hip hop is a hip hop musical subculture in the Czech Republic. Its history began after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Since that time the subculture have started to become an influential urban phenomenon with many bands, clubs and hip hop festivals appearing all around the country.

Czech hip hop bands

Czech hip hop festivals

Hip Hop Kemp

Hip Hop Kemp is an international hip hop festival held every August in eastern Bohemia, Czech Republic. It is one of the biggest hip-hop festivals in Europe with an audience of 20,000. The festival takes place in late August, usually in Festival Park, Hradec Králové, and has been running since 2002.

Originally staged at the areál koupaliště Cihelna in Pardubice, Hip Hop Kemp has become a meeting place for fans of hip hop culture from across the globe. Numerous stages and hangers have a full line up of local and international DJs as well as artists, breakdancers and graffiti artists over the course of three days.

Hip hop

Hip hop or hip-hop is a sub-cultural movement that formed during the early 1970s by African-American and Puerto Rican youths residing in the South Bronx in New York City. It became popular outside of the African-American community in the late 1980s and by the 2000s became the most listened-to musical genre in the world. It is characterized by four distinct elements, all of which represent the different manifestations of the culture: rap music (oral), turntablism or DJing (aural), b-boying (physical) and graffiti art (visual). Even while it continues to develop globally in myriad styles, these four foundational elements provide coherence to hip hop culture. The term is often used in a restrictive fashion as synonymous only with the oral practice of rap music.

The origin of the hip hop culture stems from the block parties of the Ghetto Brothers, when they plugged in the amplifiers for their instruments and speakers into the lampposts on 163rd Street and Prospect Avenue and used music to break down racial barriers, and from DJ Kool Herc at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, where Herc mixed samples of existing records with his own shouts to the crowd and dancers. Kool Herc is credited as the "father" of hip hop. DJ Afrika Bambaataa of the hip hop collective Zulu Nation outlined the pillars of hip hop culture, to which he coined the terms: MCing or "Emceein", DJing or "Deejayin", B-boying and graffiti writing or "Aerosol Writin".

DJ Wich

DJ Wich (real name Tomáš Pechlák) is a DJ who works on the Czech and Slovak hip hop scenes. He started DJing in 1998.

History

In 1993, DJ Wich met Indy and LA4 on a graffiti scene. In 1998 they formed Indy & Wich, where Indy performed as a rapper and DJ Wich as producer. They often work with rapper LA4 in live performances.

In 2002, they released their debut album My3. Their second album Hádej kdo… was nominated on Anděl in 2006. The following year they produced The Chronicles of Nomad with rapper Nironic.

DJ Wich released his first solo album "Time is now" in 2004, which was the first producer album in Czech.

In 2008, DJ Wich released his second solo album The Golden Touch with international stars like Lil Wayne, Talib Kweli, M.O.P, Kurupt and more.

He collaborated with Czech artists, including Orion, Hugo Toxxx, W518, LA4 and from the international Rasco, Rytmus, H16, Vec, and Nironic.

Wich streams live shows from (DJ Wich Live TV) with other rappers, live recording, interviews and chat.