max peezay - anomi (prod. by matte caliste & pikanen beats)

the return of tom piha aka max peezay on record comes courtesy of his fjärde världen groupmate matte caliste and his producer ep "stadsbild volym 1" ("cityscape volume 1"). "anomi" ("anomie") has been released since the summer but i've heard it one to many times again recently and i really think it's one of the best tracks that piha has ever done. as the title says the track is a questioning of norms and values within the swedish music scene, the world in general and peezay's own life and existance.

piha may sound pissed off and disillusioned with everything in his two verses but that's just on a glance, i think there is a big chunk of optimism hidden in his lyrics. he wasn't happy with how things were then but then again, i think there is a stigmatisation that goes on automatically and swedish rappers feeling sorry for themselves. personally i'm sick of swedish rappers complaining about not getting the recognition when they were actually getting it by all the right people. or thinking the music was ruined by the corporates when the fact that it drove rappers to do better on their own terms without any recorddeal.

however the lyrical aspect of the song is secondary for my liking of the song as caliste & juuso pikanen's beats are amazing. with a bombastic new york meets london type of melodic backdrop the drumbeats changes as the track progresses. it starts with hard thick breakbeats at 80bpm on the first verse and then goes into a modern 160bpm halftime drummachine rejig, this is where the melodic changes a bit as the tr-808 beats are more intricate. on the third verse it goes into 160bpm but fulltime with the melodics being tones down and peezay is rapping ferociously to amen drums.

as his flow and temper may seem at his most angry or most emotional, it eventually reaches a climax and you hear the track change again. this time the beat drops out into a warped bass and some drumstep action for the outro of the track as peezay does his adlibs and shoutouts.

i'd say that i think piha, calliste and pikanen should really pat themselves on their back for this one as "anomi" is without a doubt one of the best swedish hiphop tracks ever done.

buy here (itunes)