Islande 2011 by stephane333 at Flickr.com

Icelandic rap scene received some questionable fame last week when a fight broke out at the Secret Solstice music festival: headlines were made all the way to Europe and USA, stating that Bam Margera had been beaten up by three or four “popular Icelandic rappers”.

Basics

To put it in as simple and truthful terms as possible, for some reason a few Icelandic rappers were shown on a video beating up Margera. Originally the news were stating that Bam Margera had allegedly harassed female members of staff and that the rappers had come to rescue. However, soon the story began to take more twists and turns and in the end this is the best summary I think I can give.

Egill Tiny, one of the men seen beating Margera up, says they were not in fact attempting to rescue anyone but themselves. According to an interview by him Bam was harassing people in general, had been doing that for a while and that it was actually him who started the fight (link). Bam’s opinion is that he didn’t harass anyone and that the man he wanted to meet to discuss financial matters with sent his underlings to beat him up instead (link). Margera did originally also state that he wanted to press charges against the rappers (Gísli Pálmi and Egill “Tiny” Thorarensen) but alas, it would seem that Bam decided against it after all… or, as the police put it, was too impatient to do it and left right after talking to the police (link).

Curious details

The above link has another bizarre detail for this story, by the way – an official form for listing injuries in Margera’s name, not completely filled out, that was found tossed on the ground near Leifsstöð. The person who found it assumes it could be possible that since the form is all in Icelandic Bam might have had too much trouble trying to understand it and had flat out given up rather than ask for a translator (in my experience you do always get someone to translate you the forms if you need help with them, but I admit it’s annoyed me a few times that there often is no English option).

Well, it’s not like his Iceland visits have gone that well even before the fight at the festival happened, as upon arrival Bam was briefly arrested for the damages he had caused and left unpaid during his previous visit (link).

Who hit Bam Margera?

So who are Gísli Pálmi and Egill “Tiny” Thorarensen anyway if they’re so popular? Well –  to introduce them it may be best to let their music do it for them.

Gísli Pálmi

Ískaldur (= ice cold)(link). Lyrics here. This one mayyy be done a little bit tongue in cheek, just a hunch. 😀

Set Mig Í Gang (= start me up)(link). Lyrics are included in description.

Draumalandið (= the dream land)(link). Lyrics here.

Egill “Tiny” Thorarensen

Race City (link). By the now broken-up band Quarashi, Egill Tiny was a member and is rapping in this song.

K2R by Halleluwah featuring Tiny (link).

Hulda recommends

Since we’re talking about Icelandic rap musicians I’ll definitely have to push some more of them, so without further ado –

Úlfur úlfur – Brennum allt (= let’s burn all)(link). A brilliant video shot quite near where I live. 😀

xxx Rottweiler Hundar – Í næsta lífi (= in the next life)(link).

Ari Másson & Siffi – Hugargull (= very difficult to translate, but I could suggest “gold of the mind”)(link). Lyrics are included in the description field. It doesn’t get more Icelandic than this, he’s even rapping in a sort of… rímur-ish way (a traditional Icelandic poetry meter)!