Gatas Parlament

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Gatas Parlament (English: Parliament of the Street) is a Norwegian group of rap artists. It consists of the brothers Aslak and Elling Borgersrud, together with the DJ Don Martin. All three have strong left-leaning political views, and make their feelings on many things, including American president George W. Bush, well known through their lyrics.

Elling Borgersrud has stood for national election as a minor political candidate for the Red Electoral Alliance.[1]

Most of Gatas Parlaments music can be downloaded in mp3-format completely free of charge from their official website.

Contents

[edit] History

Gatas Parlament claim to be the first Norwegian rappers actually to rap in Norwegian, although they were preceded by Ståle Stiil, whose album Yo was released in 1992. The pioneers of Norwegian Rap, such as Warlocks or A-Team, rapped in English.

Gatas Parlament started out in 1993, taking the name Kveldens Høydepunkt (Highlight of the Night). Don Martin did not take to the name, however, and thus it was dropped. Later, they attended a public speech by Carl I. Hagen, the chairman of the right-wing party Fremskrittspartiet, where they threw eggs and rotten fruit at Hagen. This caused Hagen to comment that gatens parlament ruled the country, and the three rappers stuck with the name (the riksmål-wording of gaten was dropped for gata, more fitting for their sociolect).

Gatas Parlament's DJ Don Martin is also host of the radio program Goodshit Radio.

During 2007 Gatas Parlament launched a collaboration with Hopalong Knut, a ska band from Trondheim which uses trønder dialect. When the two groups perform toghether, they call themselves Samvirkelaget (English: the workers' cooperative).

[edit] Controversy

The band caused controversy in Norway with their video "Antiamerikansk Dans" (Anti-American Dance) together with the Swedish rap artist Promoe and their website killhim.nu ("Kill him Now"), which claimed to collect money for a bounty on the head of George W. Bush. The campaign caused the American embassy in Norway to react, and the website was subsequently shut down. However, the Norwegian police found that their campaign was satirical, and there was no basis for prosecution.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

  • Holdning Over Underholdning (2001)
  • Bootlegs, B-sider & Bestiser (compilation) (2004)
  • Fred, Frihet & Alt Gratis (2004)
  • Kidsa Har Alltid Rett (2008)

[edit] EPs

  • Autobahn Til Union (1994)
  • Slå Tilbake (1997)
  • Counter Strike EP (2008)

[edit] Singles

  • Naturkraft (1997)
  • Stem Gatas Parlament (1999)
  • Nå om da'n (2001)
  • Bombefly (2004)
  • Anti-amerikansk dans (2004)
  • Spis de rike (2004)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Statistics Norway (2005). Storting Election 2005. Official electoral lists, by county. Storting Election 2005. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.

[edit] External links

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