DVSG & NINETOFIVE®
Exclusive beat set from the DVSG (David vs Goliath)
Looptroop Rockers have been doing this since 1992, out of Västerås, Sweden, a spot you wouldn’t necessarily expect a hip hop crew of this caliber to come from. Embee and Promoe started it as teenagers, CosM.I.C. joined not long after, and Supreme rounded out the lineup by the mid ‘90s. No shortcuts, no hype machine behind them, just cassettes and vinyl pressed and distributed on their own terms for the better part of a decade before anyone outside Sweden was paying attention.
That independence shows in the music. Dense, sample heavy production paired with sharp, thoughtful writing, built entirely on their own label, David Vs Goliath. Fort Europa, released in 2005, is the record that put them on the map internationally, but by then they’d already built four albums worth of catalog on their own terms.
A huge part of that sound comes down to one man: Embee. From beats rooted in that grimy late ‘90s New York sound he was chopping up on his MPC early on, to the more modern, genre bending productions he’s known for today, Embee never let the crew get stuck in one lane. You can hear the Blue Note jazz influence running through his catalog, mixed with swing and more contemporary touches, which is exactly why the sound has been able to evolve across decades without ever losing what made it Looptroop in the first place. His range goes way beyond hip hop too, soul, jazz, pop, rock, electronic, it’s all in there, and it’s part of why he’s picked up Best Producer at the Swedish Hiphop Awards two years running plus Swedish DJ Awards in both 2004 and 2006.
Outside the group, Embee built out his own studio, The Wax Cabinet, and used it to put out his solo debut “Tellings From Solitaria”, a Grammy winning album stacked with features from José González, Timbuktu and more. He’s taken that same ear on the road too, DJ residencies across Tokyo, tours through China, production work for artists in Japan, always adding new influences back into the sound he brings home to Looptroop.
His process is no joke either. Embee treats songwriting like a discipline, not a waiting game. When inspiration isn’t flowing, he digs into the massive vault of beats and half finished ideas he’s built up over the years, a bank so deep even he forgets what’s in there, which means he gets to rediscover his own work with fresh ears. He’s talked about setting himself strict time limits to force ideas out, sometimes an hour, sometimes a full twelve hour session, and says that pressure ends up being far more productive than people expect. He’s even gone back and remixed entire albums using that same method.
They’ve picked up a Swedish Grammy, a spot in the Swedish Music Hall of Fame, and more than thirty years of output that never really chased a trend.
01. Embee - Transional Area
02. Embee - On My Way There
03. Looptroop 21 Grams
04. Looptroop - Last Song
05. Looptroop - Musical Stampede
06. Promoe - Money (instrumental)
07. Looptroop - Long Arm Of The Law
08. Promoe - Positive & Negative
09. Embee - Another Poor Lonesome Homeboy
10. Looptroop - Who Want It
11. Promoe - Primetime
12. Looptroop - Fly Away
13. Looptroop - Chameleons
14. Embee & Jonas Filling - Stay up Late
15. Isak’sSon - Snagg
16. Embee - Envisan
17. Isak’sSon - Bara Damm Kvar
18. Looptroop - Fly Away
19. Looptroop - Focus
20. Embee (Friendly Fire 2) (Bonus)
21. Looptroop - Ambush In The Night