Marčelo

For a basketball player nicknamed "Marčelo", see Šarūnas Marčiulionis

Marčelo (Serbian: Mарчело), born Marko Šelić (Марко Шелић) is a Serbian Hip-hop artist and writer, known for his socially conscious lyrics and eclectic approach to musical arrangements. From Paraćin, he moved to Belgrade, where he has had great success over the years, and became one of the most prominent Serbian hip hop artists. He is also a student of Serbian language and literature at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology.

Musical career

Rise

Marčelo started making hip hop music in 1997, though his first significant contributions came out in 1999, with a demo band called Rhyme Animal. In order to pursue his solo career, Marčelo stepped out of Rhyme Animal in 2001, and started to work with Oneya, the founder of Bassivity Music and one of the leading producers on the Serbian hip hop scene. Oneya recognized his full potential and Marčelo signed with Bassivity in 2002. The first opportunity for a wider audience to hear and recognize his work came with 2003's Bassivity Mixtape Vol.1, to which he contributed two tracks, Definicija (feat. Shorty) and Snovidjenje.

Debut album (De Facto)

His debut album, De Facto, also released in 2003 on the Bassivity label, came out to both public and critical acclaim, and he was branded as the voice of a generation. The album was full of criticism of Serbian society at the dawn of the new millennium and personal themes, which were delivered in a very sincere manner. In his single and video, Kuća Na Promaji (A House On A Range), he deals with the assassination of Serbia's prime minister in 2003, police brutality, corruption and alienation amongst young people in the country. It was the best-selling hip hop album that year in Serbia-Montenegro and the first post-war record that included collaborations between the new generation of music acts from former Yugoslavia: Edo Maajka (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Elemental (Croatia), Škabo (Serbia), "Bata Barata" ex Shorty (Serbia), "Don Trialeon" ex Trial (Serbia) and Disciplinska Komisija (Bosnia-Herzegovina).

Puzzle Shock!

Despite the success of his debut album, Marčelo was unable to settle his differences with the record company, so he transferred from Bassivity to Multimedia Records (Universal Music licensee in Serbia-Montenegro) in early 2005. In December the same year, Marčelo released his second album Puzzle Shock! (Multimedia Records), which featured the singles "Šarada" (Masquerade), "Otkucaji" (Heartbeats), "Pozerište" and "Novi Vavilon" (New Babylon). It topped the charts upon its release. This time his main collaborator was Dragoljub Marković alias Dr. Dra (ex-member of rock-bands such as Ništa ali logopedi, Block Out, X-Centar), who added some vocal parts, played various instruments and produced the album. Marčelo also did some co-producing and arrangement work. The resulting sound was a hip hop with strong rock, jazz and funk influences, which estranged a minority of fans who loved what they considered to be the pure hip hop sound of De Facto, but it gained the admiration of many people unfamiliar with rap and hip hop. Marčelo toured the country to promote the new album with a backing band Shock! Orchestra, taking part along the way in the EXIT 06 tour of the countries of the former Yugoslavia, and sold out a venue Serbia's capital, Belgrade. At his gigs, he is supported by several big names on the Serbian hip hop scene: Wikluh Sky, Ministar Lingvista (Real Skllz) and Nancy. With the addition of DJ Raid, a talented DJ based in Switzerland, this is the line-up of The Filter Crew. His first novel "Zajedno Sami" (Together Alone) was published during February 2008.

Treća Strana Medalje

His third album, Treća strana medalje (The Third Side Of The Medal), was released in December 2008.

Deca i Sunce

His fourth album, Deca i Sunce (Children and the Sun) was released on December 24, 2010,^[1] under the moniker "Marčelo & Filteri". Album was released in parallel with his novel "Zajedno sami" (Together Alone) and poem collection "O ljudima, psima i mišima" (About men, dogs and mices).^[2]

Napet Šou

On October 31, 2012. Marčelo released a song called "Čep" (Cork) within campaign of NGO ASTRA, targeted towards raising public awareness and encouragement of competent authorities to be involved in fighting against human trafficking and work exploitation.^[3] Song is available for free download from ASTRA's website. Video for the song can be seen on ASTRA's YouTube channel.

On October 9, 2013. it was revealed that Marčelo and his crew are working on new book-album titled "Napet Šou" (Tense Show)^[4] and that release date is expected on October 1. 2014. The album will have 18 tracks which are being recorded with contribution from over 30 artists.^[5] Three songs are confirmed to be singles from the new album "Laž" (The Lie) i "Pegla" (Flatiron) and "Komplikovani" (Complicated).

Book-album was released on October 1, 2014. Album contains 19 tracks while book contains lyrics, photos made during the album's conception. Along Marčelo, authors of texts in the book are theater director Kokan Mladenović, writers David Albahari, Mihajlo Pantić and Pavle Zelić, aphorists Dalibor Đorđević, journalist and music critic Petar Janjatović, columnist Draža Petrović, peace worker Milan Colić, psychologist and psychotherapist Vladan Beara and ex NGO Astra coordinator Elena Krsmanović.^[6]

Discography

• De Facto (Bassivity, 2003)
• Puzzle Shock! (Multimedia Records, 2005)
• Treća strana medalje (Multimedia Records, 2008)
• Deca i Sunce (Multimedia Records, 2010)
• Napet Šou (Laguna, 2014)

Awards and nominations

See also

Serbian hip hop

External links

• Multimedia Records

References