1.Your career began in 1992. and ‘Professional Dreamers’ have the twentieth anniversary this year. Are you going to celebrate it in some special way?

Supreme: Yeah, it’s a celebration all year! Actually, our main goal is to get back in the studio and write new material. And we got a few shows this summer, some festivals around Europe. Since we’re not on tour right now, it’s nice to do a few special ones. And we’re doing a big show in our hometown Västerås.

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2.You mentioned in one interview that you are thinking about adding an extra word to the name ‘Looptroop Rockers’ for every album from now on. Do you have some names in option?

Supreme: Ha ha ha, we’re already saying – Looptroop Rockers Outernational! But I think that was more of a joke to add names for every album. We called ourselves Looptroop Rockers since the 90′s. Even our first shirts for Modern Day City Symphony said “Looptroop Rockers” on the print. So that’s the full name of our band. And David Vs Goliath is the name of our label since 1998.

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3.We all know the cure that music brings to our souls in hard times, but it can also inspire us a lot. Have you ever met someone who told you how much your music helps in their survival through today’s madness?

Supreme: It happens every now and then.. It’s the biggest inspiration ever for us! On Professional Dreamers we wrote a song about it called “Joseph” that I’m very happy with how it came out. We aspire to touch people, and when we do – that’s when we can be truly proud of our work.

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4.What about your beginnings? Have you been inspired by other artists?

Supreme: Of course.. We’re fans of music and art. And the artists who inspired us over the years are way too many to mention here! But the early hiphop that we could our hands on in Sweden in the late 80′s is probably what formed our preferences the most. Both music and graf. And since then we’re trying to keep our eyes and ears open, inspiration can be found anywhere.

5.Everybody is ‘Looking for love’. Some find their ‘Bandit queen’/king around the corner, while others are ‘Still looking’. Do you consider that sometimes music can help you in this search?

Supreme: I wish! Maybe it can, I don’t think we’re the right people to tell.. Since a big part of our lives is LTR, of course a lot of other things come about because of music. I met my fiancée who is the mother of my daughter through a friend that I met in the music scene. So there’s a connection for sure!

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6.What do you think about today’s music tendencies? Do you see some changes, and would you make some changes?

Supreme: We’re always trying to bring change to what is out there.. Music, like society as a whole, is full of stereotypes and clichés. I hate the way our culture views women. I hate the way some of it promotes greed and egocentrism. I wish more artists would stand up against the mainstream ideals and actually talk about reality and real emotions, instead of playing the roles they were given. And when you listen to our music, I think our opinions is coming through very clear..

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7.Have you recently discovered some new rap artist or group, whose work you would like to encourage?

Supreme: Well, a lot of Swedish acts rapping in Swedish actually. But we encourage anyone to keep being creative and dream big!

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8.The LTR sound is recognized through all the world and people consider your music as a beginner of hip hop in Sweden. How would you comment the status the music had before & after you came?

Supreme: Well, there was a lot of hiphop music in Sweden before us, but we were the first act to really go outside of Scandinavia and tour more like a punk or a rock group. There were other people rocking in english before us, people like ADL who inspired us and had big songs that were getting spins in the states.

Check ADL – “Daddy” from 1993

But we started doing shows outside of Sweden in the mid 90′s and we worked hard to put our name out there. So from the outside I can see how you might see LTR as an introduction to hiphop from Sweden. But we had guys like Timbuktu who did great stuff way back! Check it here

Hopefully we inspired and continue to inspire younger talents to try to reach a wider audience.

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9.What made you ‘Feel so good’ lately?

Supreme: My daughter! That’s an easy question.. But I also feel good about the shows we did in Greece last weekend, and going to the studio in Gothenburg this Monday.

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10.Looptroops are constantly on some tour. Can the Balkans see you around soon? Coming to Serbia maybe?

Supreme: We’d love to! We’ve only been to Serbia once, that was at Exit Festival looooong time ago. So if we get booked, we’re coming!

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11.What’s cooking in the kitchen of LTR Restaurant right now? What do we have on menu for this year?

Supreme: The plan is to get some work done in the studio and hopefully create some new music! We also have a few shows, but not many. We’ll focus on writing songs together.

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12.Is there something individual preparing in Embee’s, Cosmic’s, Supreme’s and Promoe’s kitchen?

Supreme: We all live in different cities and live different lives, so there’s always individual things going on. But as far as music, nothing is really planned other than getting together in the studio. We’ll see what happens.

Thank you very much for the conversation, Supreme!

Supreme: Thank you! And thanks for the support, hopefully we’ll get the opportunity to visit you guys in the future!

Peace

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INTERVJU: LOOPTROOP ROCKERS

LTR ‘profesionalno sanjaju’ već 20 godina. Prvi su zaspali Promoe i Embee, kojima se nakon dve godine u odsanjavanju istog sna pridružuje Cosmic a potom i Supreme. Debi album ‘Modern day city symphony‘ izašao je 2000. sa koga se posebno izdvojila kao njihova ‘zaštitnička’, pesma ‘Long arms of the law’. 2002. u javnost izlazi i album ‘The Struggle Continues’. Treći album ‘Fort Europa’ izašao 2005. doneo je sa sobom poredjenje Berlinskog zida sa imigracionom politikom, a za njim sledi ‘Good Things’ (2008), i poslednji ‘Professional Dreamers’(2011), album sa parolom ‘Professional Dreamers is an ode to everyone living their dream, and dreaming their lives!’.

Promoe iza sebe ima nekoliko solo albuma ‘Govemment music’, ‘Long distance runner’, ‘White man’s burden’ i jos par albuma na švedskom. Proglašen je za najslušanijeg švedskog hip hop umetnika i jednog od najpoštovanijih repera u Evropi. Embee-jev album ‘Tellings from solitaria’ je odlično prihvaćen od strane kritike i proglašen za najbolji u godini izdavanja osvojivši Gremi. Cosmic pauzira u radu grupe od 2007-2010, kada im se priključuje na albumu ’Professional Dreamers’ i kaže da nakon ovog odmora napokon diše punim plućima! On je pored učešća u stvaranju LTR zvuka saradjivao sa Embee-jem na EP-u ’Casual Brothers’. Njihov drug Supreme koji je postao stalni član ove švedske grupe još 1996. nije izdavao diskove izvan Luptrupsa. Upravo on stao je ispred svoje ekipe da odgovori na nekoliko naših pitanja.

Pred vama su velikani ne samo švedskog hip hopa, nego i evropske rep scene uopšte.

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1. Vaša karijera počinje još 1992. i ‘profesionalni sanjari’ imaju dvadesetu godišnjicu ove godine. Hoćete li da je proslavite na neki poseban način?

Supreme: Naravno, proslavljamo cele godine! Ustvari, naš glavni cilj je da se vratimo u studio i napišemo novi materijal. Imamo i par nastupa ovog leta, neke festivale u Evropi. Kako nismo trenutno na turneji, dobro je da odradimo i neke posebne nastupe. I spremamo veliki show u našem rodnom kraju Vasteras-u.

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2. Pomenuli se u jednom intervju-u kako razmišljate o dodavanju nove reči na ime Looptroop Rockers za svaki sledeći album. Imate neka imena u planu?

Supreme: Ha ha ha, mi već kažemo – Looptroop Rockers Outernational! Ali mislim da je to bila pre šala o dodavanju imena za svaki album. Zovemo se Looptroop Rockers od 90-ih. Čak su naše prve majice za Modern Day City Symphony na sebi imale Looptroop Rockers natpis. Tako da je to puno ime benda. Kao što je David Vs. Goliath nosilac naše etikete od 1998.

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3. Svi poznamo kakav lek muzika donosi našim dušama u teškim vremenima, ali i način na koji nas često inspiriše. Jeste li upoznali nekoga ko vam je rekao da mu je vaša muzika pomogla kroz preživljavanje u ovom ludilu današnjice?

Supreme: Dešava se danas, kao što se i ranije dešavalo. To je ustvari najveća inspiracija za nas! Na albumu ’Professional Dreamers’ smo napisali pesmu o tome, nazvanu ’Joseph’, sa kojom sam ja jako zadovoljan. Težimo ka tome da naša muzika dodirne ljude, a kada to uradimo – to je trenutak kada smo zaista ponosni na svoj rad.

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4. A šta je sa vašim počecima? Da li ste bili inspirisani drugim umetnicima?

Supreme: Naravno… Veliki smo fanovi muzike i umetnosti. A umetnika koji su nas inspirisali godinama je previše da bih mogao da ih sve naborojim ovde. Ali rani hiphop sa kojim smo se sreli u Švedskoj kasnih 80-ih je najverovatnije ono što je formiralo naše sklonosti. I grafiti zajedno sa umetnošću. Od tada pokušavamo da držimo svoje oči i uši otvorene, jer inspiracija se može naći bilo gde.

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5. Svako traga za ljubavlju. Neki pronadju svoju srodnu dušu iza ugla, dok je ostali još uvek traže. Misliš li da ponekad muzika može da nam pomogne u ovoj potrazi?

Supreme: Voleo bih! Možda i pomaže, ne znam da li smo pravi ljudi da to kažemo. Kako veliki deo naših života sačinjava LTR, naravno da su druge stvari dolazile zajedno sa muzikom. Ja sam upoznao svoju verenicu, koja je majka moje ćerke, preko prijatelja koga sam stekao u muzičkim krugovima. Tako da sam siguran da tu postoji neka veza!

6. Šta mislite o današnjim muzičkim tendencijama? Da li vidite promene i da li biste uveli neke promene?

Supreme: Uvek se trudimo da unesemo promenu u svakodnevici. Muzika, kao i društvo uopšte, puna je stereotipa i klišea. Mrzim način na koji kultura gleda na ženu. Mrzim svaki način kojim se promoviše pohlepa i egocentirzam. Voleo bih da veći broj umetnika ustane protiv mainstream ideala i počne napokon da priča o realnosti i realnim emocijama, umesto što igraju uloge koje su dobili. A kada slušate našu muziku, mislim da naše mišljenje sasvim jasno proizilazi iz stihova.

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7. Da li ste skoro otkrili mladu hiphop nadu čiji biste rad želeli da ohrabrite?

Supreme: Mnogo švedskih repera, ustvari. Ali mi podržavamo svakoga ko je kreativan i ko veruje u svoje snove!

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8. LTR-zvuk se prepoznaje širom sveta I ljudi smatraju vašu muziku začetnikom hip hopa u Švedskoj. Kako biste prokomentarisali status muzike pre I posle vašeg dolaska?

Supreme: Pa bilo je dosta hiphop muzike u Švedskoj i pre nas, ali smo mi prvi koji koji smo otišli van Skandinavije i imali turneje kao što su to radile punk ili rok grupe. Bilo je i drugih ljudi koji su snimali pre nas, ljudi poput ADL, koji nas je dosta inspirisao i koji je imao velike hitove. Čekirajte pesmu ADL-Daddy iz 1993. Počeli smo da nastupamo izvan Švedske sredinom 90-ih i pomučili se kako bi se naše ime prepoznavalo širom sveta. Mogu da vidim kako vi sada smatrate LTR kao predstavnike hiphopa Švedske. Imamo momke koji su poput Timbuktu-a odavno stvarali odlična dela! Na sreću, mi smo inspirisali i nastavljamo da inspirišemo mlade talente da dosegnu do šireg auditorijuma, veće publike.

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9. Šta je učinilo da se osećate dobro u poslednje vreme?

Supreme: Moja ćerka! To pitanje je lako… Takodje nam je odlično bilo na nastupima koje smo održali u Grčkoj prošlog vikenda, i ono što nas raduje je odlazak u studio u Gothenburg ovog ponedeljka.

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10. Luptrupsi su konstantno na nekoj turneji. Hoće li vas Balkanci čuti uskoro? Planirate li da svratite u Srbiju?

Supreme: Vrlo rado bismo došli! Bili smo samo jednom u Srbiji na Exit Festivalu jaaaako davno. Ako uspemo da se organizujemo, naravno da dolazimo i kod vas!

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11. Šta se to kuva u LTR Restoranu trenutno? Šta imamo na meniju za ovu godinu?

Supreme: Plan je da se odredjeni poslovi privedu kraju u studiju i da naravno napravimo i neke nove stvari! Imamo i par nastupa, ali ne puno. Fokusirani smo na pisanje pesama zajedničkim snagama.

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12. Da li se nešto posebno kuva u Embee-jevoj, Cosmic-ovoj, Supreme-ovoj i Promoe-voj kuhinji?

Supreme: Svi živimjo u različitim gradovima i živimo drukčije živote, tako da se uvek nešto posebno zbiva kod svakog. Ali što se tiče muzike, ništa sem zajedničkog okupljanja u studiu nije planirano. Videćemo već…

Hvala puno na razgovoru, Supreme!

Supreme: Hvala tebi! I hvala na podršci, nadamo se da ćemo uskoro biti u mogućnosti i da vas posetimo!

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Pripremila: Jelena Mitić