Prospekti – BIĻETE UZ VIENU GALU (Album Stream)

I said many times how hip-hop is globally universal, but every now and then I bump to something from places that don’t cross your mind every day. With the culture being so widespread it’s really hard to keep up with all the releases around the globe, even with the benefits of streaming services with which everything is more accessible compared to 20+ years ago. But hey, when you’re a digger of quality ish as I am, eventually you’ll cross path with dope releases, one way or the other. One is this here debut album by the Latvian group Prospekti. So let’s get down to it, but lemme introduce y’all to the crew first.

The group was originally founded around 2011, when a few homeboys from Salaspils, Latvia, teamed up in writing lyrics. Throughout the years the number of members kept rising and today they’re counting a crew of 10 people, some MCs, some beat makers. However, the thing that gave birth to the whole thing was way back, when the rapper Kaizers dropped his first track “Salaspils Prospekti”; a song that first line inspired the very name of the album I’m talking about today: “this ticket is for one way – Salaspils prospekti.”

Therefore, the project name is “BIĻETE UZ VIENU GALU”, meaning “a one-way ticket”, which roughly symbolizes their approach in hip-hop and probably in life; no regrets, no backing down, just having a good time and not caring abound expressional boundaries set by external fractions. That’s also shown by their freedom in self-created slang to improve their style of expression, no matter what’s the topic at hand. However, topic-wise, there ain’t nothing fancy about their music but raw, gritty, and uncensored expression of the life on the streets, every day ish in the hood with detailed observations, but very little introspective stuff, as well as how to make your surroundings better as they’re not really that interested in such serious matters. You can easily think of this as a violent spit to the face with all the unfiltered messages of the reality of today, and a display of dark corners of their wild imagination, combined with witty humour and self-irony.

The album took a few years to be recorded, and since it’s counting a lengthy number of 24 tracks, it would be weird to claim that all of the tracks are the same. For instance, there’s a number of tracks that glorifies the long friendship between the members, describing the whole crew as a close brotherhood, while the track “PŪZNIS” is the most introspective one which is, ironically, one of the group’s favorite tunes on the album. But, as said before, these examples are a few of the exceptions that are distanced from the overall flow of the album. That being said, when you put aside the expected language barrier, if you’re in search of dark, raw, and authentic hip-hop act, Prospekti definitely should be on your playlist.

Skill-wise, considering there’s a 10 of ’em, the rapping styles vary from member to member, but they all share similarities that are a key to their sound and attitude. However, there’s not a single bad MC in the group and everybody provides more than enough to keep you awake throughout the 1-hour-and-half long album. The main noticeable difference between all of them is the number of years of experience in the rap game, as some of them go a long way and are familiar with performing on big stages, like xantikvariāts and Kaizers. On certain occasions you can hear some flow flips, depending on the instrumental, but generally MCs flow in a ‘classic’, boom bap-ish way with a modern touch to it.

Same as the lyrics, the beats are something that needs to be analyzed as well. To support such heavyweight lyrical punches, beats cannot go with light descriptive adjectives. What you can expect are semi-hard to very dark and often slow-paced instrumentals that really set the right mood. Considering there were 7 different in-house producers working on the album’s sounds, it’s an interesting fact there were some external beat makers on the album as well, but as same as with a few featured rappers, I reckon the reason to do so was to expand the diversity with styles outside of the group’s main core.

I must admit, when I saw the project features 24 tracks, I was sceptical at first as I assumed I’ll get bored or daze off half-way. However, after finishing up with the whole thing I ‘rewind the tape’, and went through the whole album the second time. Now, this might be a subjective thing as for some the number of tracks would be too much too swallow, especially nowadays with the short attention span, ADHD’s, and whatnot, but as for myself, I had a good ride with this project. The question that could be dropped is why so many tracks, but considering that the crew exists for so long, I suppose they didn’t want to drop some of the tracks as those probably mark some moments in their life. If nothing, you should give props to the whole crew for keeping the brotherhood alive for so long and not getting derailed from their one-way train of a common goal, no matter the trials and tribulations they might’ve experienced along the way. Not many crews can boast with such an achievement.

I would rate “BIĻETE UZ VIENU GALU” a solid 7 out of 10 as there’s still room for improvement, and some songs do feel a bit like fillers, but altogether it’s a good one. Since it’s counting 24 tracks, most of ’em flowing mainly in the hardcore style, you’ll need to gather up enough time and focus to vibe with it the whole time as there’s not many changes in the general tempo of the album. However, considering their shown attitude throughout the album, and as they have highlighted the fact they had a very particular way of making their debut, I can understand why they chose such a work ethic. After all, Prospekti clearly won’t care what you think about it, so there’s that.

For the time being I’m unsure who produced which track, so with the link to the whole album I’ll leave a tracklist with only the track names.

TRACKLIST:
01 • BRICKS
02 • KOKA LAPĀ feat. HOTTE
03 • VAI TU ZINI, KAS IR PROSPEKTI?
04 • DARBARĪKI
05 • VIENTUĻNIEKS
06 • KARAVĪRS
07 • RASTAKLĀDS
08 • ZEN G feat. HOTTE
09 • PASTARĀ TIESA
10 • PEREKLIKS feat. Steps
11 • SIEVA DUSMĪGA
12 • ŠŅABIS UZ POHĀM
13 • PAJEBAĶ
14 • PILNA APTVERE
15 • 2121 KONSPEKTI
16 • PŪZNIS
17 • KUR IR NAĻIKS?
18 • SHTIRĪ feat. HOTTE
19 • UZMANĪGI
20 • SIENĀM ACIS UN AUSIS
21 • KRĒJUMS SKĀBAIS feat. HOTTE
22 • LAGANA CIRVIS
23 • GAISMA TUMSĀ
24 • POHUJ