Hip Hop Kemp 2017: hanging out with sister ft. Morlockk Dilemma & DJ Access
Already before I departed for Nepal my sister proposed to have a brother / sister weekend in the Czech Republic. Running in its 16th edition, the hip hop kemp in hradec kralove brings together a mix of hip hop music from the visegrad countries, germany, UK and US. They offer more on smaller stages such as b-boy dance offs, freestyle rap battles, a reggae beach corner and the infamous backspin stage.
Friday night: opening act sets the tone
We drove about 2,5h from Königstein to Hradec Kralove in a rather hot day (32 degrees and blasting sun). After a quick check in and a short taxi ride to the festival, we arrived 3.30pm – right on time for the opening act on the main stage: Morlockk Dilemma (Leipzig) & DJ Access (Dresden) who are friends of my sister and had put us on the guest list (thanks man!).
Here a few of their tunes on spotify.
Morlockk knew exactly what he was doing and got the crowd behind him easily and by spitting plenty of solid lyrics at us (in fact, research done in germany suggests he uses by far the most words in his peer group and beyond). I have to say that i haven’t been much involved in german hip since my days at university. In fact, the last hip hop festival i attended with my sister is 17y ago. Anyway, i got pretty quickly back into it.
I struggled a little with some of the acts afterwards – either way too loud volume or rap in a language i don’t speak (polish, czech etc), which i guess kills the point of rap. Given the locals went wild though i guess it was good stuff. We enjoyed ourselves chatting away and getting food.
We spent a fair amount of time with Morlockk and Access before they had to retire to be ready for their early morning ride to their next gig in Dortmund the day after. We stayed and didn’t get home before midnight (fighting the sleepiness) – just in time for a last beer at a local pub where two drunk fiddlers let their tunes fly. Good skills!
Sightseeing in Hradec Kralove
Saturday morning started with an average hotel breakfast before we went on a 1,5h walking tour. H.K. is a small city with some 90k inhabitants an hours drive from Prag eastwards. We could have taken the boat from Königstein given both towns are on the river Elbe (well, not really an option). The outskirts we saw when driving to the hotel looked pretty rough still and in communist fashion. The historic city center, however, is really pretty and well restored.
Highlight on the trip is the 72m tall white tower. Great views once you have mastered all the stairs. There is also a theatre, many churches and squares to be seen. Given it was lunchtime by the time we finished walking, we headed for a traditional czech restaurant. For me beer & goulash, for sister wine & duck. Needless to say, we left the place in good spirits!
Saturday: less sun, more fun
By 5pm we were back at the festival. Again a german group kicked of the action on the main stage: Mädness & Döll (Darmstadt). They too knew how to rock the crowd and we enjoyed listening & bouncing about. We didn’t return to the main state before 7pm for Rah Digga (USA). Powerful lyrics from New Jersey i believe. By now we had met two german guys (one originally from Russia, the other Kazakhstan). Funny characters to be honest.
Time for dinner! Frances wanted the stir fry we had the day before. Tasty. We chatted with a slovakian guy, admired the sun and met a group of polish girls. Olla liked to talk with my sister and (unsuccessfully) tried to talk her into sharing her spliff.
Highlight of the evening was MC Rene – by now a classic (time flies). He played on the backspin stage and really rocked and gave the whole event a really nice finish. Time was up for us as we had to leave early next day to catch my flight back to Russia.
Next stop Issad. Time to do milk some cows. 🐮👨🌾🇷🇺
