They shook hip-hop music scene in their native Iceland and now they are heading to Europe. Reykjavíkurdætur form a very unique female rap collective. The group name translates as Daughters of Reykjavik. They are not afraid to express their political views. They are fighting especially for women’s rights, protection of the environment and the prohibition of weapons. Twenty-one young women meet and share one goal: to express their opinion through rap. Some people consider their music as art, others criticize their controversy. We had the opportunity to ask them a few questions.
They shook hip-hop music scene in their native Iceland and now they are heading to Europe. Reykjavíkurdætur form a very unique female rap collective. The group name translates as Daughters of Reykjavik. They are not afraid to express their political views. They are fighting especially for women’s rights, protection of the environment and the prohibition of weapons. Twenty-one young women meet and share one goal: to express their opinion through rap. Some people consider their music as art, others criticize their controversy. We had the opportunity to ask them a few questions.
Yes we get endless criticism for absolutely everything so in the end it doesn’t really matter what you do, what matters is to do what you want.
We are not 21 anymore we are fifteen now. We used to be more of a collective than a band where people could come and go and we have never performed all 21 together but after we started getting booked for festivals abroad we needed to have more commitment and since then we have been around 15 in the band with usually 10-13 performing though. No each one probably doesn’t have enough space to stand out but that is also the beauty you have to control your ego. But a lot of the girls have their own projects going on too whether it is with other bands or performing in duos and trios.
Yes it is very difficult but when we are all excited about something we all show up. The good thing about it is that you also have a lot of hands doing the work and they often come up with ideas that I would never think of and vice versa. Very often I have stars in my eyes when they create something and then I get to take the credit.
Nobody ever came up with that idea. The idea was to have a rap womens night, a safespace where you are allowed to suck. The small basement bar was completely full of guests more than we ever expected so the Icelandic people were longing for women to rap. We had a second event and even more people showed up for the third event we decided to make a song together mainly to advertise the third event. That song is our first one called Reykjavíkurdætur and after that everybody viewed us as a band except we didn’t. That is how the name of the song accidentally became the name of the band and then we had to figure out how to perform it and that is what we have been doing ever since..
We probably have more fans abroad than in Iceland. Although we have a lot of fans in Iceland we also get a lot of hate and there doesn’t seem to be much space for women in the Icelandic hip hop scene. For the last year we have been playing more abroad than in Iceland.
The ones that have been announced already are G-festival in the Faroe Islands, Zomerparkfeest and Noorderzon festivals in Holland and Nuuk Nordic Culture Festival inGreenland but keep posted on our facebook or twitter account.
I think we have 12.000 likes! I guess foreigners find us through the media and at the festivals we play at. Here in Iceland we have been through a few “social scandals” and then we always get more likes as well.
It’s always difficult to answer questions like this because we are fifteen different people with fifteen different ways of finding inspiration. Some of us only think about the music others think about the content and concept and then we have different styles. I can only speak for myself and I guess my inspiration is often shame, that is something that I have felt shame for and that is my way of getting rid of it I guess. But sometimes I want complete freedom to make songs about nothing and that is important too because we have felt a lot of double standards where people put more pressure on us to save the world with our lyrics than boys.
I absolutely love Icelandic music. It is truly amazing how many good artists we have and how successful they have been compared to the fact that only 330.000 people live in Iceland. The Icelandic music scene is definitely something I recommend for people to take a look at.
No it’s not really about the image it’s more about coordination. It adds to the show when we all match in some way and it makes us more of a whole but what kind of clothes we wear varies in styles.
We have already released an album last summer that you can listen to on Spotify or buy on our website rvkdtr.com. We are also planning on releasing an EP soon.
Dcéry Reykjavíku rapom bojujú za práva žien
Hip-hopovou hudobnou scénou zatriasli na ich rodnom Islande a teraz mieria do Európy. Reykjavíkurdætur tvoria veľmi unikátny ženský repový kolektív. Možno na prvý pohľad krkolomný, ale výstižný názov skupiny v preklade znamená Dcéry Reykjavíku. Neboja sa vyjadriť svoj názor na politiku. Bojujú najmä za práva žien, ochranu životného prostredia a zákaz zbraní. Pätnásť mladých severaniek sa združuje a zdieľa jeden cieľ: vyjadriť svoj názor prostredníctvom rapu. Niektorí ich tvorbu považujú za umenie, iní kritizujú ich kontroverznosť. My sme mali možnosť položiť im pár otázok.
Áno, nekonečne nás kritizujú absolútne za všetko, takže nakoniec naozaj nezáleží na tom, čo robíte, dôležité je urobiť to, čo chcete.
Už nás nie je 21, ale pätnásť. Boli sme skôr kolektív ako skupina, kde ľudia mohli prísť a odísť a nikdy sme spolu nevystupovali všetci, ale po tom, ako sme sa začali chodiť na festivaly do zahraničia, museli sme mať väčšiu oddanosť a odvtedy nás je v kapele okolo 15 a zvyčajne nás vystupuje asi 10-13. Nikto z nás pravdepodobne nemá dostatok priestoru, aby vynikal, ale to je tá krása, ktorú musíte ovládať svojim egom. Veľa dievčat má svoje vlastné projekty, či už s inými kapelami, alebo v dvojiciach a trojiciach.
Áno, je to veľmi ťažké, ale keď sme všetky z toho nadšené, tak sa všetky objavíme. Dobrá vec je, že máte aj veľa rúk, ktoré robia robotu a často prichádzajú s nápadmi, ktoré by vám nikdy nenapadli a naopak. Veľmi často mám v mojich očiach hviezdy, keď oni niečo vytvárajú, a potom ja mám za to zásluhy.
Nikto s touto myšlienkou nikdy neprišiel. Myšlienkou bolo, aby sme mali ženskú rapovú jazdu, bezpečný priestor, kde by sme mali povolené odsávať. Malý suterén bol úplne plný hostí viac, než sme očakávali, takže islandskí ľudia túžili po ženách. Mali sme druhé vystúpenie a ešte viac ľudí sa zúčastnilo na treťom podujatí, na ktorom sme sa rozhodli vytvoriť jednu skladbu najmä na propagáciu tretieho podujatia. Táto pieseň je naša prvá, nazývaná Reykjavíkurdætur, a potom nás všetci vnímali ako kapelu, ktorou sme ešte neboli. Takto sa názov skladby stal náhodne názvom kapely a potom sme museli prísť na to, ako vystupovať a to je to, čo robíme odvtedy.
Pravdepodobne máme viac fanúšikov v zahraničí ako na Islande. Hoci máme na Islande veľa fanúšikov, dostávame aj veľa kritiky a nezdá sa, že by na islandskej hip hopovej scéne dostávali ženy dostatok priestoru. Za posledný rok hráme viac v zahraničí ako na Islande.
Budeme vystupovať na G-festivale na Faerských ostrovoch, na festivaloch Zomerparkfeest a Noorderzon v Holandsku a na Nuuk Nordic Culture Festivale v Grónsku, ale všetko oznamujeme na našej stránke na facebooku alebo na twitteri.
Myslím, že už máme 12.000 like-ov! Cudzinci nás nájdu prostredníctvom médií a na festivaloch, na ktorých hráme. Tu na Islande sme prešli niekoľkými „spoločenskými škandálmi“ a potom máme stále viac like-ov.
Je vždy ťažké odpovedať na tieto otázky, pretože je nás pätnásť rôznych ľudí s pätnástimi rôznymi spôsobmi, ako nájsť inšpiráciu. Niektoré z nás len premýšľajú o hudbe, ostatní rozmýšľajú o obsahu a koncepcii, a potom máme rôzne štýly. Môžem hovoriť len za seba a myslím, že moja inšpirácia je často hanba, to je niečo, za čo som sa hanbila a to je môj spôsob, ako sa toho zbaviť. Ale niekedy chcem úplnú slobodu robiť skladby o ničom, a to je tiež dôležité, pretože sme cítili veľa dvojitých štandardov, kde ľudia vyvíjali väčší tlak na nás, aby zachránili svet s našimi textmi.
Ja absolútne milujem islandskú hudbu. Je naozaj úžasné, koľko dobrých umelcov máme a ako boli úspešní v porovnaní s tým, že na Islande žije len 330 000 ľudí. Ľuďom určite odporúčam, aby si vypočuli islandskú hudbu.
Nie, v skutočnosti to nie je vzhľade, ale ide o koordináciu. Pridáva to k show, keď máme všetky rovnaký image. Nejakým spôsobom to z nás robí celok. Aké oblečenie nosíme sa líši v štýloch.
Vlani sme vydali album, ktorý si môžete vypočuť na Spotify alebo kúpiť na našej stránke rvkdtr.com. Takisto plánujeme čoskoro vydať nové EP.
