La Melodia
The walls of the dressing room in the p60 in Amstelveen are covered with the scrawled signatures and tags of all the bands and artists who have had to while away time there before stagetime. Tonight however they’ve all been overshadowed by a huge mass of electrical tape proclaiming La Melodia – the duo from Eindhoven, MC Melodee and producer INT- who Pete Philly will later anoint on stage ‘the next in line’. Coming from a man who outsold both Kanye and 50 Cent when their albums went head to head a couple of months ago, that’s praise indeed. And it’s spot on. This year La Melodia finally dropped their dazzling debut LP Vibing High in Benelux, toured Japan, supported Talib Kweli, Pete Philly and Perquisite and Amp Fiddler, and were nominated for a TMF award in the Netherlands for their single Time. They’re hot. The night I meet them they’ve got two gigs, so straight after tearing up the stage in Amstelveen, they’re off to do it all over again in Amsterdam. Fortunately they’ve got time in between give me an education in Dutch hip hop. And even more fortunately, Melodee and INT turn out to be really fucking cool. They don’t even mind my garbled and futile attempts to pronounce Dutch names properly and politely overlook my ignorance of most of the artists we talk about.
But we’ll start at the beginning. As you’d expect from a group who have a healthy respect for hip hop’s traditions and perform with just two turntables and a microphone, La Melodia got their first break from a simple piece of vinyl. Though it did have to go all the way to Japan first, as Melodee relates:
"We did our first single, Dough, in 2004, then left to do a tour as support for these guys from Stones Throw. When we got back we got this email from a Japanese label who were like ‘Wow, we found your single, have you got any more music?’ So we sent them some more tracks, and they said ‘This is nice, let’s do an album. It came out in December 2006, and we sold 7000 copies in one month, which was crazy. That was when labels in Benelux started to wake up and wanted to put out the album as well. In fact, everything we’ve reached up to now has come from people approaching us. The same thing happened with TMF. They were like ‘Can we do your video for the Kweekvijver?’ (a feature to break new Dutch talent). We gave them 5 songs, they chose Time, paid for the whole thing and played it 6 times a day for 6 weeks. And now we’re nominated for an award, which is great."
This sort of recognition in their home country hasn’t always been this forthcoming. Although a couple of days after the interview I see a small feature on them in Cosmopolitan (don’t ask) it seems that much of the Netherlands has still to be won over to La Melodia’s charms. Melodee even feels it’s harder to get recognition from her own people
“And that’s weird. When we went on tour we got mad love from all these different people in different countries, people just vibe to that shit. Then in our own country it’s harder to get them to interact. I mean, we’re already happy with the response we get. It’s not bad, but they’re not as enthusiastic as abroad. Or they won’t show that they are. People feel it, they like it, but they won’t dance because they’re too down to earth and think ‘it’s just a crew from around the block'."
This could just be because it’s always harder to get the crowd going when you’re a support act, but INT isn’t buying it.
“When we did Stones Throw, we were a support act too for people like Percee P – it was his first time in Europe, and during our shows, people would be screaming for him and still be dancing to us. In Paris, it was a sold out show, I started the beat, then Melodee came on stage and everyone was screaming like crazy, like 700 people were like ‘Woooaah” – that was a lot of love.”
But Melodee feels their message is finally getting over…
“What’s funny is that when we’ve done these shows recently, a lot of kids tell me they know us, and for me it’s like ‘Wow, how do you know our music?’ It must be through TMF. So there obviously is a demand here for warm, soulful hip hop in the English language…”
INT: “With a female MC…”
Melodee: (laughs) “Yeah, maybe…I mean all these kids know us and support it. Look at Opgezwolle – they were and still are hot and they have a very big, specific and loyal fan base. They’re now on their third album or something, and I heard they’re maybe losing a few fans who are looking for something new. Kids want to be entertained. They don’t want three albums of the same style. They want something new. And for quite a few of them, that’s warm, soulful hip hop.”
This comparison with Opgezwolle is revealing, as it highlights the difference in the Netherlands between the Dutch and English language hip hop scenes. While it’s easier for foreigners to get into the English language stuff, the Dutch language scene, and the origins of hip hop itself in the Netherlands, remain a bit of a mystery to most outsiders. As La Melodia have been part of the scene for over 10 years, they’re well placed to pass down a history lesson.
So how did it start in the Netherlands? With people rapping in English or Dutch?
INT: “English.”
What’s the balance between the two languages now? 50/50?
INT: “Nah, man, it’s like 90% Dutch. 10% or less, maybe even 5%, is in English.”
Is there a real split between the two scenes?
INT: “Yeah. At the start there used to be illegal partying with everyone in the tubes, under bridges, playing straight up hip hop music. The whole scene fell apart a bit when MCs started rapping in Dutch and started to call that style Nederhop, so after that you had two different groups. The crowd was like “Oh, wow, Dutch, now we can understand what’s going on.” With labels like Topnotch signing mainly Dutch hip hop the split became more obvious. Sometimes it looks like there are 2 different scenes in Holland.”
Melodee: “Well for us, we’re getting love from everyone, it doesn’t matter, English or Dutch, I can hang with anyone. But we go way back, we’ve been doing this for over ten years now, so everyone knows who we are, what we do. In the end, it’s all about the music, so if you do your thing well, you’ll get the recognition. I think the split in the scene has more to do with programming. A hall like p60 here, if they book a Dutch hip hop night they get acts like Opgezwolle,Typhoon or Duvel Duvel. They don’t match us or Pete Philly with those kind of acts, because for them it’s a different group of people that like that kind of music. So that’s why we don’t hang out backstage, because they’re not here when we perform, and we’re not there when they perform. At Meet the Streets or other festivals, for instance, everything is blended together, and that’s good, then you can talk to everyone.”
So how long has the scene been going here? Who was the first breakout artist?
INT: “In English? The first album was actually from Eindhoven, where we’re from. The group was called DAMN – Don’t Accept Mass Notion. It was in the Public Enemy era. And 24K, you know them? They were the first English crew to bring out an album officially on a label, in 91 or 92 or something. Way back. I think the dude’s a garbage man now.”
What albums would you say were essential listening for someone trying to get into the scene?
Melodee: “I’d say, Extince’s first album, Binnenlandse Funk, Documents by Postmen and U-niq, Married to Music.”
How significant were these for you as a MC?
“Well, I was just listening to dope hip hop, no matter where it was from. I mean, I was happy we had good artists, and it motivated me to do my thing. Extince had a really smooth flow, and a lot of Dutch MCs look up to him. But as for my style, I always try to flip it up. I listen to Madlib, Dilla, old Wu Tang, I try to keep it simple, rugged.”
But it’s not about looking back for La Melodia at the moment, the future’s looking bright. They’ve got a tour with a live band lined up for next March and perhaps an extended tour in Japan. But whatever they do will be on their own terms. I wondered if they might adopt the Stones Throw approach and tour abroad with like minded acts from the Netherlands, but Melodee’s adamant they’ll do it on their way.
“The thing shouldn’t be that it’s a group from Holland doing warm soulful music and connect that with other Dutch groups doing the same thing. I think we need to plug La Melodia. I don’t think people in France are particularly interested in us because we’re from Holland, you know?”
Maybe not. But they’ve got the tunes and the show to convince anyone how good they are. As the saying goes- it ain’t where you’re from, it’s where you’re at. And La Melodia are most definitely where it’s at.
Vibing High is now available on iTunes or in a good recordshop near you in the Benelux.