Gatas Parlament

Gatas Parlament
Elling Batman Zedong, Don Martin & Aslak
Background information
Also known as	Kveldens Høydepunkt
Origin	Oslo, Norway
Genres	Hip Hop
Years active	1993 to present
Labels	Tee Productions
Associated acts	Promoe, Jester, Jon Michelet, Tommy Tee, Crazy Minister, Definite, Hopalong Knut
Website	Homepage

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

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

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 Evening). 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 together, they call themselves Samvirkelaget (English: the workers' cooperative).

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.

Discography

Albums

• Holdning Over Underholdning (2001)
• Bootlegs, B-sider & Bestiser (compilation) (2004)
• Fred, Frihet & Alt Gratis (2004)
• Kidsa Har Alltid Rett (2008)
• Apocalypso (2008)
• Dette Forandrer Alt (2011)

EPs

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

Street records

• Bottlegs, Bsider og Bestiser (2004)
• 93 til Infinity (2007)
• Gateplata (2011)

Singles

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

References

1. ^ Statistics Norway (2005). "Storting Election 2005. Official electoral lists, by county". Storting Election 2005. Archived from the original on 2007-07-02. http://web.archive.org/web/20070702052017/http://www.ssb.no/emner/00/01/10/stortingsvalg/tab-2005-10-27-18.html. Retrieved 2007-04-17. 

External links

• Band homepage (Norwegian)
• Goodshit Radio Show hosted by band member Don Martin