Hip-hop is a carny business. And a travelling fair is always looking for young men to join them on their travels. Nepomuk aka Knowsum has consistently proved to be a good pick in this regard. After all, he invariably delivers snappy, deranged low-budget funk to the rap fairground. He has just released an album on the Hamburg label Growing Bin, under his real name Nelson Brandt. It’s called »Knalleffekt«. Admittedly, it pops unheard like a champagne cork next to a goods train, but that’s what Nepomuk is known for. On the record, the Offenbacher by choice kicks his heavy lounging routine into touch and presents eleven tracks full of bumbling funk somewhere between Bootsy Collins, Manfred Krug and Knarf Rellöm. The result is something like Die Atzen for Sichtexot-ists and kindred spirits, with a lo-fi p-funk impresario who boils his raps down to one-liners between punchline and suntan oil. Or, to paraphrase the German-rapping Nelson Brandt, »Are you single? Or a record? With your groove, you sound like candyfloss. The bags under our eyes are only goss. And I dig you«. That’s something you can only say back. No wonder Nelson Brandt even made it onto ARD breakfast television – as an expert on body hair or something. He simply cuts a good figure everywhere.
Knalleffekt
