I’ve never been a keen admirer of Polish rap.
I wrote this text on the 2nd of October, 2024. It was a day when I saw a video clip of one of the Polish rap squads, not for the first time in my life. If you want to see and hear it, my Dear Friend, type in the YouTube search bar “Waco f. WWO – Tak to wyglada.” This song is from 2001. I moved to Warsaw in 2004, but of course, earlier, I had visited the capital of Poland many times. Warsaw from the “Tak to Wyglada” video clip is the city that I remember from my early memories regarding Warsaw and the turn of the century. Another video clip that provides Warsaw’s atmosphere of blocks of flats of the ’90s is the “Wiedzialem, ze tak bedzie” video clip by Molesta.
Undoubtedly, these video clips visually and indirectly inspired me to explore Warsaw via its unobvious pathways.
Another of my favorite songs from the Polish rap culture is “Zycie Warszawy” by Hemp Gru (in YouTube search bar type: Hemp Gru feat. Koras, Romeo, Pono, Felipe, Ero – Zycie Warszawy. This song is from 2004, so it was recorded precisely in the year when I moved to Poland’s capital. I’m curious about the experiences of watching and listening to these songs from the perspective of non-Polish speakers. I’ve never known that as the Polish is my mother tongue.
Thus, it is hard to be objective regarding this particular linguistic puzzle. For most of my life, I preferred to listen to Polish rock (with the Kult band at the forefront) rather than Polish rap songs. Still, I believe that we can find gems in almost every part of music, whether it was composed in Europe, Africa, or the USA in the XXI century or earlier. For me, such gems are the video clips mentioned above. I believe watching and listening to them is a unique, specific experience.
