As a Swedish D.I.T.C. fanati this is pure magic. LoopTroop (now known as Looptroop Rockers) have been around since the mid-'90s dropping mixtapes and self-released EP:s, consisting of DJ/producer DJ Embee, emcee and frontfigure Promoe as well as Supreme and CosM.I.C. In 1999 they released their official retail debut album, "Modern Day City Symphony", which still stands as one of the finest Swedish hip-hop albums ever created, The atmospheric production by Embee truly embodied a larger city and the verses from Promoe, CosM.I.C. and Supreme performed a sort of reclaim the streets on wax, celebrating graffiti, leftfield politics, the right to smoke herbs while giving an exteded middle finger to the law. Guest emcee Freestytle of The Arsonists appear on two songs back-to-back as well. If you haven't heard the album before, you are definitely missing out as it's a front-to-back listen that never gets old (just for a small preview peep cuts like ""Long Arm of the Law" and "Ambush in the Night").
Unfortunately since that '99 debut with few exceptions it have gone pretty much downhill in my opinion though it's not skills that are lacking. However for their latest single "Another Love", the quartet taps none other than The Funkyman Lord Finesse himself for a remix for the B-side. It's kinda cool when considering that the guys once rocked over Big L's "MVP" for a song ("MVG") from maybe their first mixtape ever, so now wiht an official 12" remixit's almost like things have come full circle. You can buy the three track single @ iTunes while the physical vinyl only seems to be available in Sweden at the moment - through sites like CDON and Ginza.
Freestyle from Arsonists appears on 3 tracks on the Loop Troop debut album and it is an amazing album no doubt!
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work Claaa7, you got the best HipHop blog online!
Peace from Denmark
Søren
many thanks for the props and your comment Sören!
ReplyDeletei haven't listened to "Modern Day City Symphony" in many years but it's a fantastic LP no doubt.. i have the DJ Embee instrumental 12" EP from around the same time too which is another gem and also has the "Magnetism" joint with Promoe which sounds like it could've come straight from "MDCS".
what do you think about Loop Troop's later output though? i bought the 2xLP set of their second album with "LoopTroop Land" on it and Promoe's first solo which was solid but still a step in the wrong direction imo... the later stuff i've heard haven't grabbed me at all
peace
I really like Promoe´s first album but after that, I haven´t spend much time on any Loop Troop or Promoe album but there have been a few nice tracks here & there...
ReplyDeleteI collect cds (got about 1200 HipHop cds from 1990 up till today) so i have not heard many vinyl tracks from Loop Troop!)
Søren