- country:Czechia
- style(s):Gypsy, Pop
- label:Indies Production
- type:Band
- gender:male
- artist posted by:Indies Scope Records
Line up
- Gipsy (lead vocal, rap)
- Jan Surmaj (bass)
- Peter Surmaj (accordeon, guitar)
- Vojta Lavicka (violin)
Links
n 2003 Gipsy.cz exploded on the Czech music scene. With roots firmly in Hip Hop, Gipsy developed a vision for Romano Hip Hop, recruited the best Czech Roma musicians and created a new explosive mixture.
To Hip-Hop he added violin, accordeon, acoustic guitar, double bass and cimbalon. He drew influence from Roma rythms, Roma language and culture and the 200bpm music played by Balkan Roma brass bands. Developing a partnership with top Czech gypsy violin player Vojta Lavicka (ex Alom, Deep Sweden...), they made a unique creative tandem., bringing together with young brothers Petr Surmaj (gt, accordion) & Jan Surmaj (double bass, up-right bass) fresh new air to the music.
Radoslav Banga, aka Gipsy, was born in Prague and lived on the street from the the age hide
of 13, when he got in touch with Hip-Hop and Rap. Apart from American Hip-Hop his music shows the influence of Prague's genius loci in his music, a mixture of Slavic, Jewish and German culture mainly represented by Jaroslav Hasek or Franz Kafka.
Gipsy has colaborated and performed with various well-known artists. He has played as a guest with the Boban Markovic Orkestar, shared the stage with GZA, played the main Czech festivals, the Karneval der Kulturen in Berlin and several concerts in Berlin's Kaffee Burger. In addition, he is a regular guest on Radio Multikulti/Funkhaus Europa. Mondomix magazine referred to him as a new talent about to be discovered for the wider public. The song Romano Hip Hop has been in the fifty songs of the official Czech radio chart IFPI (International Federation of Music Industry) - TOP RADIO 2007 and in the end of April 2007 Romano Hip Hop occupied position No. 1 in Czech Top 50, in international Top 100 hits the 6th position. For many weeks and the album also appeared in the sales chart IFPI - TOP 50 (top -8th position). The recording Romano Hip Hop is successful abroad, too. It spent 3 months in the World Music Charts Europe (top - 8th position) . In March, the song Jednou (Once) of this album appeared on the compilation Gipsy Groove of the famous American label Putumayo. The song Romano Hip Hop will appear on the compilation GYPSY BEATS AND BALKAN BANGERS 2 (Atlantic Jaxx).
Gipsy.cz won of Angel awards 2006 in the categorie Best New Artist of the Year. "Angel 2006" - Awards 2006 of the Academy of Popular Music (the Czech variety of Grammy).
