Hoosam

By Steve Peralta
Stockholm-based Hoosam is an endangered breed of hip hop artist - socially conscious, hardcore and Swedish.

Hoosam doesn’t fuck around. U.S. hip hop has sold out, he says. It’s a three-bling circus – a Mardi Gras parade of fly-by-night artists with rented mansions, rented cars and rented gold teeth and he wants no part of it.

But he and the rest of the Swedish hip hop group Highwon are banking on their popularity and huge success in Sweden for the chance at bringing back the old school message to U.S. hip hop and if they can’t, that’s okay with them because the halls of the old school are already filled with European students and teachers bringing back the message in a dozen or so different languages the least of which might very well be English. – Steve Peralta


Hoosam

Steve Peralta: Talk about Highwon.

Hoosam: Highwon as a group formed in early 2001. We haven’t released a full length album yet.

We got me, Fille, Ison, Sambo, Gurmo and Aleks – five rappers and one singer which is Aleks. Ison and Fille (Ison&Fille) started rapping together as a duo back in ‘95 long before the creation of the whole group so they got the record deal.

We all hail from the 127 district in Stockholm, Sweden, except Aleks. The area code consists of four hoods: Vårberg, Skärholmen, Sätra and Bredäng.

We got very diverse heritage. Fille and Pablo are from Chile, Gurmo is Ethiopian, Ison is actually from Queens/Barbados and Aleks is from Serbia.

I’m Palestinian and proud of it.

We’re all different when it comes to styles, flows and attitudes. But that is what makes us so good, besides the fact that nobody in Sweden even comes close to the skills we all got.

SP: Talk about your solo work.

H: I first started writing rhymes at about 16 when 2Pac released All Eyez on Me (1996) and when Nas released It Was Written (1996). Prior to that, I was just memorizing and rappin most West Coast albums that came out. I guess it was that whole Death Row Records era that made me want to start rapping.

SP: You’ve talked before about “ghettoization.” What is that?

H: We got so much segregation in Sweden in a whole number of aspects like housing, the labor market and so on. Discrimination is widespread.

I’ve been through what most non-white youth go through – not being able to find meaningful jobs; being broker than a muthafucka; getting my ass bit by police dogs; racism; seeing the youth getting in deep in the drug game… The list goes on.

It’s about class and the gap between those who got and those who don’t.

Just like Hispanics and Blacks are the lower class in America, in Sweden it’s the same but it’s more like almost all non-white Swedes and most immigrants and children of immigrants fall into the middle and upper class/lower class dichotomy.


Highwon

SP: Political hip hop doesn’t come off in the U.S. It alienates the MTV fanbase which supports many of the more successful U.S. hip hop artists. Do you ever see yourself fitting into that fanbase?

H: If it was the ‘90s I could see myself fitting into it because, conscious or not, almost all hip hop made in the ‘90s was from the streets – reporting from the streets.

But now, no. I don’t have iced out teeth, a candy-painted Cadillac, bitches and hoes, and a fat bank account.

I got more important shit to say. Those who want to listen will and those who don’t won’t.

SP: Talk about U.S. hip hop.

H: U.S. hip hop has sold out. U.S. hip hop needs more substance like it used to have – like it taught European hip hop.

I don’t expect that the U.S. is gonna embrace me. When it comes to the U.S., I got a lot of things to say that I’m sure would be interesting for at least some people in the U.S.

I rap in French because I want to reach out to France and French-speaking countries.

Most of my works right now are in Swedish.

SP: Talk about your influences.

H: Pac wasn’t just a rapper. He was a soldier. I don’t sound like him but he did spark my brain.

I love Nas because he’s a poet.

Saigon came and just blew my mind. He’s a thug and he’s conscious at the same time.

Biggie taught me to flow and Smif N’ Wessun raised me with their style.

The attitude I got from all the West Coast shit out of the mid-’90s. Doggpound, Snoop and all them.

Right now, Immortal Technique is more than a rapper, he’s a fucking rap scholar. Just the teacher – the professor – the streets all over the world need right now.

SP: Is there a Highwon or Hoosam U.S. tour in the works?

H: I wish there was a US tour in the works!

Highwon has a pretty big fanbase in Sweden. We will probably get together soon and drop a new one. If they crave it, we will deliver.

As for me: I’m a struggling man. I’m in school trying to earn a Bachelor’s degree. Shit is hard though because of money problems and a whole bunch of obstacles.

But when I’m done with this shit, I’m gonna let the world know who the fuck I am. Because I was born to do this shit. And I know I got props and respect coming to me even from U.S. rappers if I get the chance.

We’ll see, man. It’s all in God’s hands.

SP: Any final comments?

H: Shoutouts to my muthafucking brothers in Highwon, my brothers in Advance Patrol – the whole VÃ¥rberg-Bredäng 127 area! Malmö Brick City – all the muthafuckas who really and honestly do have skills in Sweden and are on the grind.

Visit Hoosam’s MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/hoosam

Download a Highwon mp3 here (courtesy Hemmalaget Records): http://www.hemmalaget.nu/media/audio/Highwon-SenaNatter.mp3.


  • Photos courtesy of artist.
Steve PeraltaNeoAztlan editor and founder Steve Peralta is a native of Colorado and graduate of the University of Colorado at Denver. He has been creating content for Web, print and radio for nearly 15 years. Past projects include work with the former Sony Interactive, several Internet boom content providers, and Capitol Underground pirate radio, among others. Peralta can be reached at speralta@neoaztlan.com.

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