15th-17th July 2011 Joensuu, Finland

Paleface

Paleface's second coming

Social commentary has always been an essential element in Paleface's hiphop. On his latest album, Helsinki - Shangri-La, this pale-faced rapper switched the language from English to Finnish, and for the first time a large Finnish audience received their share of his, sometimes quite bitterly, opinionated lyrics. Apparently the time was ripe for criticism of capitalism and populism: the people heard him and cast their votes in the record stores. The new album hasn't only sold well, it has also been awarded with an Etno-Emma (given to the best world music album), and rightfully so: it features artists like Hilja Grönfors and Wimme Saari, not to mention the Malian desert rock band Terakaft, all masters in their own genres but lesser known to the wider public. Moreover, few albums in any genre have such intelligent lyrics, or such a strong message.

At Ilosaarirock Festival Paleface performs with a band that'll make the songs come truly alive on stage. It doesn't take much of a psychic to predict that Talonomistaja will be one of the greatest single moments in this year's Ilosaarirock. We hear that Paleface will also treat the audience with his older material, which guarantees warm feelings for the fans who, back in 2001, found The Pale Ontologist the best hiphop in English made in this country. It's great to see that a full decade later, after successfully starting anew, Paleface now makes the best hiphop in Finnish. And that's saying something.

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Paleface
 
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