Q. Thank you for the chance to interview you all. Could you tell us who Guerrilla Republik Scandinavia consist of how you all came together?
Capital‑X: Thank you for the opp. OK, there is Lord ForShow from Norway, who is co-founder with me Capital X. There is Jr. Hype who is our Jr. executive, Yenemesis and Sheepy who are bricks in our very foundation. We also have Miss Rocknrolla, Taz, Shorty Doo Wop and Shishko holding down K‑Town (Kristiansand, Norway) with a long list of supporters. We have Fallen, PK, Hege and Elisa holding us down in Oslo Triz and Dano in Sweden, Two Towers in Denmark. What could best explain how we all came together is, it called us all. From different places and different struggles it called us and we came together to help one another under our mission.
Guerrilla Republik’s Mission Statement: Guerrilla Republik draws its inspiration from the first successful slave revolt in Haiti 1794. This rebellion exemplifies unity, strength, determination and will of God. Our mission is to stimulate minds and expand the dynamics of thinking in our inner cities and motivate individuals to take proactive approach to like through education, self-reliance and preparedness. Only the realist feel this.
Q. Jr.Hype what made you decide to work with rappers like Capital‑X, Sheepy and Yenemesis?
Jr.Hype: Well there are a lot of things that made me want to work with these guys. Guerrilla Republik Scandinavia is a big chapter with a lot of Great supporters and talented people, and its just a great thing to be a part of it. They are all very dedicated people to work with, so that kind of gives me more motivation to be a part of this movement – and to do what I love as well. Just to wake up in the morning and know that you got comrades like that around yourself is a new energy. And mark my words, we will continue to rise till we reach our goal, and yes – we will make it happened.
Q. Capital X as you are from New York what lead to your inspiration to set up a chapter of Guerrilla Republik in Norway?
Capital‑X: I was fresh out of prison trying to piece my life together. I was working on my rehabilitation and recovery hard when I met Guerrilla Republik. GR helped me in countless ways; most importantly filling this huge void I had in my life. I was changing people, places and things and even within the hip hop culture I lived in since the late 70’s early 80’s changed so much it wasn’t doing it for me. I needed the golden era back so to speak. GR filled that void and some. I felt like I found my spot. I felt the love and the camaraderie was just what I needed to keep me in line. When the opportunity presented itself to move to Norway the first thing I thought of was to bring GR with me and give it to the people hoping it would do for others what it had done for me. Instead of just building Guerrilla Republik Norway, We chose Guerrilla Republik Scandinavia to symbolize unity. The Scandinavian countries have been pretty much separated forever so we thought uniting the hip hop communities in Scandinavia would be a great start and very beneficial to all including surrounding countries and here we are building with family from the UK today.
Q. Capital X what rappers would you say have inspired you thought your career and why?
First and foremost Grand Master Melle Mel. When Melle Mel along with Grand Master Flash and Furious Five dropped The Message, that was it for me. Till this day, I bump that and till this day I try to implement a message in all my tracks and poems. Also, KRS ONE, Chuck D, Wise Intelligent, Guru, Smooth Da Hustler, Kool G Rap, NAS and Tupac anyone who is saying something relevant. I love a dope flow but if you ain’t saying something what is it good for? All these heads taught me something valuable. They made me run to dictionaries, and to book stores…inspired me to want to do something with my life. They gave me hope. They made me want to be the best I could be unlike today where most rappers be talking about the destructive behavior that ruined my life. Guerrilla Republik stands firm on true hip hop as I feel the above mentioned do. Sorry but I don’t care how dope your tracks are…if you ain’t saying something constructive you gets no plays here.
Q. Sheepy and Yenemesis you both form rap group Lethal Injection and your latest album is called frombloodtoink. Can you tell us what Lethal Injection is all about and what topics your album covers?
Lethal Injection: For us lethal injection describes our music as you see it live on stage or hear it on a record, a deadly dose of beasting music to your ears. The name it self is dark and I think we are both inspired by darkness when we wright. We both have different backgrounds but still have been though a lot of hardship in our life. We can relate to that dark feeling and music is meant to be from the hart and soul so that’s our sound. It is experience and life as we have lived it. With that said if we where to say that we are going to chop your head of and bury it under a tree it don’t mean we are actually gonna do it but believe me we both have been in a place of wanting to inflict pain upon someone so we can relate to that feeling. We are peaceful people now and music is therapy, we all have our demons and lethal injection is all about taking those demons and letting them out on a stage. When it comes to the album name Yenemesis can explain that better than me but for me it is the struggle from when I had nothing to the point where the pen and ink, words etc came to life and gave me something to hang on to when things were ruff. Music is power!
Yenemesis add: The album tittle means from pain to words, feelings to lyrics, blood to ink. To turn something bad to something good by any means necessary.
Q. Lethal Injection what rappers would you say have inspired you both thought your career and why?
Lethal Injection: Oo man we kinda hate that question because there are so many. We are fans of immortal tech no description needed there and we both love 90’s hip hop, so Wu Tang, King Tee, Mobb Deep, Big l, Pun, 2pac the list keeps going.
Sheppy also add: Also I’m a big fan of grime. Why I am inspired? I don’t know, that’s what quality music does to a person. Some tracks help you trough times when no one will listen, you put that music on and feel good. A lot of the cats I mention here have done that for me.
Q. At the moment you are on tour around Europe. How did you find the hip hop scene in London and do you plan to come back?
Capital‑X: The hip hop scene in London from the view I got was great. We were well received with mad love and we gave that love right back which is what it’s all about. There is so much unheard of talent in London we are definitely going to return and we hope to bring some London talent to Scandinavia. Our tour has nothing to do with making fans LOL, it has everything to do with meeting family, building with family and making bigger and better things manifest in the near future.
Q. What can we expected from Guerrilla Republik Scandinavia, Jr.Hype, Capital‑X and Lethal Injection next?
Lethal Injection: L.I plans? To keep grinding, pushing our brand bringing the music to the people and stay humble doing it. Appreciating every moment when we get to meet new people that have love for hip hop and build relations with dope mcs when possible. If the future brings it, make tables turn of music, support our families and keep growing. We will also be in the studio through summer and are already half way through our second album O.T.R.F.T (Only the realist feel this). There is going be some dope people on it to reveal. We got Sean Strange and his man buddy on a c‑lance production and our visit to London made us some new contacts that we deffo wanna build with and have as features.
Capital‑X: From Guerrilla Republik Scandinavia, you can expect growth. Lots and lots of growth. Get used to hearing the name Guerrilla Republik. London Street Cypher 2 is coming up so keep your ears to the streets. As far as me personally, I have my sophomore album in the works which I hope to drop this year. Got some dope features on it…artists I have looked up to over the years so yea, looking to get that out and just keep healing the hip hop culture. Hip hop don’t need saving, but it sure needs some healing as do we all.
Guerrilla Republik is a grassroots under ground hip hop groovement built on the original foundation in which hip hop was founded. It’s all about peace, unity, love and having fun. There are a lot of misconceptions about GR just as there is in hip hop as a whole but if you take the time to do your homework it is easy to see what we are truly about. The brand, the apparel go hand in hand with our mission which comes first.
Jr.Hype: Yea X said it, We have a lot of plans for Guerrilla Republik Scandinavia. Different hip hop shows in Kristiansand. Free Cyphers in both Kristiansand and Oslo. Also we will continue our Recon Tour – we just had a hip hop show in Denmark for the Recon Tour, the crowd there was awesome so we will definitely go back there when we can. We also have a show in Germany for the Recon Tour. Which is a birth of a new chapter of Guerrilla Republik in Germany. Poland is also on the list for the Recon Tour, so yea – Europe will see us on the move this year. We also have a lot of Great stuff for the summer and after the summer. We will be at Hip Hop Kemp in Czech Republic in August carrying the message of Guerrilla Republik to the people
For more info on all things GR make sure you check out:
www.grepscandinavia.com
www.g‑rep.com
www.guerrillarepublik.org

Arash Sharifi

Latest posts by Arash Sharifi (see all)
- PODCAST ALERT | ARASH THOUGHTS (@Arashthoughts ) — DISCUSSING RACISM, STRESS, HOPE AND MORE. — March 12, 2018
- Interview: Who is Salome MC? — December 9, 2016
- Interview: In Conversation With Soweto Kinch (@sowetokinch) — October 13, 2016