Norwegian hip hop

Hip hop is a cultural movement which originated among African Americans in New York City in the 1970s. It would spread to all of Scandinavia, including Norway, in the early 1980s. With breakdancing and graffiti art growing increasingly popular, a number of underground hip hop musicians gained fame among the genre's limited fanbase in the late 1980s. These included A-Team (later Bolt Warhead) and Tommy Tee, who also put out a prominent hip hop magazine/fanzine called "Fat Cap" and a radio show "Strictly Hip Hop" (later "The National Rap Show").

The early to mid-nineties saw acts like Warlocks, Pen Jakke, Ellers Det, Captain Anarad and Dream Of Utopia struggle for recognition (mostly to little effect). In the late 1990s and into the beginning of the 21st century, performers like Paperboys, Opaque, Darkside of the Force and Gatas Parlament became prominent. Tungtvann, Equicez, Apollo, Klovner i Kamp, Spetakkel, Jaa9 & OnklP, Karpe Diem and other Norwegian-language hip hop crews, achieved some mainstream popularity after the turn of the millennium.

Also, a fairly solid underground of artists has been developed since the time around (and slightly before) the millennium. Recent developments have been a tendency for more music and artists from Norwegian towns excluding the capital, Oslo. Among others, Bergen has emerged with a strong scene, with artists like Tier'n & Lars, Spetakkel, A-laget, Shift, Jave Vågard, and many more.

Creating the hype necessary to justify all the time spent working for an artist, has been hard at times when it comes to hip-hop in Norway. The market may seem like it is just not big enough for this category of music, in a mainstream sense. Hip-hop is still increasing in interest and "penetration" among the target audience in Norway, however. It seems it may be an "acquired taste" that large segments of the Norwegian population has not yet been ready for, or completely understanding of. The prejudice that hip-hop has suffered almost worldwide, as a music of glorification of gangster life, drugs, sex and other explicit content, only, and even more serious accusations (among them, racist remarks), has befallen hip-hop in Norway as well. Even if some of those accusations may, in part, have some truth in it, it is a fact that there are much more intelligent and deeper sides to hip-hop. However these have not been enjoying the success of the gangster version of hip-hop, gangster rap, and radioplay has been likewise.