People know PETAR ROSANDIĆ as KID PEX, as a rapper who doesn’t mince words, denounces grievances, and is committed to the more vulnerable and marginalized in society. He is someone who puts his money where his mouth is. The Viennese musician with Croatian roots founded the SOS Balkanroute initiative to help refugees stuck in poor conditions at the EU’s external borders. He organized numerous humanitarian transports, built kitchens and day centers, etc. No wonder, then, that one has heard rather little of him musically in recent years. All the more delightful that KID PEX now reports back with his new album “Pexit” (Deine Mutter). In an interview with Michael Ternai, the rapper talks about why it was important for him to make a personal album, about the maturity he has gained and why the new generation of Austrian hip-hop has a special role model to play.
Musically, it’s been quiet around you in the last two years, which is mainly due to your commitment to refugees and your work with the initiative SOS Balkanroute. There must have been little time for music.
Kid Pex: I never planned to set up an organization and approach the whole thing professionally. I had been active in the refugee movement in Austria for quite some time before that. Among other things, in 2013 at the Refugee Protest Camp Vienna, where I made the song “Right to Life” with the refugees who were staying in the Votivkirche (note: Votive Church). For some time I was something like the musical mouthpiece of the movement and occasionally supported refugee soccer teams and basketball teams with my clothes and the “Wien Oida” badges (note: “Oida” is the Austrian expression for “Alter” (dude, mate) in German). I made many friends in the process. In 2015, I then went by car to Röszke on the Hungarian-Serbian border to bring donations there. Then in 2019 we learned about the situation in Bosnia and got in touch with German activists. We started to collect something in our private surroundings and brought the things there in a VW minibus. When I was down there and saw the local population helping the refugees at the border despite their own problems and economic difficulties, I was very impressed. I decided to quit my day job – I had been a journalist at Kosmo for ten years – and throw myself fully into this task. And that’s what I’ve been doing for two years now.
That sounds like a very time-consuming, gruelling and upsetting job. How did it come to the album, then? Did you need a distraction or something else to focus on for a while?
Kid Pex: Things just happened that way. In 2015, I had to deal with some private setbacks. Among other things, I had to have disc surgery and got titanium in my spine. In any case, I was out of action for a longer time and felt like I was on sick leave for a year. I really didn’t play music for the last two years. Before that there was one or the other single or EP. And I also had the album halfway finished. It has just been lying around for two years. I have finalized it then during the first corona-lockdown. I suddenly had a lot of time because of the situation – the borders were all closed, so to speak. Also, I figured if I didn’t get the album out soon, I never would. So I sat down and finished it. And I’m really happy about that now, because somehow I already feel a relief. Also because I think it’s my most personal work so far. Of course, it’s also political, but these two worlds are very blurred for me anyway.
“The tracks on this album mean a lot to me […]”
This album is your most personal, as you say. Your earlier stuff, on the other hand, was mostly overtly political. You’ve never minced your words. Why this turn to a personal level in the lyrics?
Kid Pex: I have simply developed the maturity. Musically as well as on a human level. You just process other topics in your mid-30s. I wanted to make tracks for this album that I can identify with in the long run. Therefore, what I present on “Pexit” is also something deeper and more personal. Political tracks are of course always good and always have their justification. But for me, it’s not enough now to just be political and just call out names in my numbers, which are mostly ephemeral and age quickly in this system anyway.
The tracks on this album are important to me and mean a lot to me, because they partly also deal with my family and friends. A lot of my inner soul comes out in these tracks. And I’m quite happy with that, because when I listen to tracks from ten, fifteen years ago, I can’t identify with some of them anymore, especially because of the lyrics. And I think that’s already a given with this album. It will accompany me in the long run, because it is not ephemeral and does not just depict a snapshot, but really tells a life story.
Now that I’m sitting here across from you and chatting with you, I’m getting the impression that you don’t fit the stereotype of a rapper at all. You seem more thoughtful and somehow more introverted than some of your colleagues appear.
Kid Pex: I’ve aged as well, and I’ve probably aged out of that hip-hop extroversion by now. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t like to get up on stage and start actions that are not ordinary. My videos have also been controversial for some people. Just think of the video for the number “Norbert Hofer”, in which I walk around in public with a mask of Norbert Hofer. That has already stirred up dust. There were definitely some things that probably not every rapper would do. But as I said, I’ve aged, I’ve seen a lot by now. I just see a lot of things more in perspective today. I already have a stake in hip-hop, but I don’t think it’s the most important thing in the world anymore. And it used to be for me for a very long time. Today, I have a healthy love for it. I don’t feel the need to top that extroversion now.
“I don’t just associate in one crowd, and I don’t just associate with like-minded people.”
The album also musically strays from the classic hip-hop framework. It’s very melodic in parts. Also, you have a lot of people from different musical corners as features on the album. You probably don’t know any fear of contact musically either.
Kid Pex: That probably comes from the fact that I am a kind of melting pot as a person. Not only in music, but also in life. I don’t just hang out in one crowd, and I don’t just hang out with like-minded people. I think I go through the world more openly than many others. In terms of the SOS Balkan route, I deal with imams, nuns, punks, lesbian couples, all kinds of people. And it’s exactly the same in the hip-hop scene. It’s always been the case that I’ve chilled just as much with the nerds as with the gangsters, and I’ve tried to be a bridge there, too.
The concert series Gürtelsquad, for example, which I organized two years before corona with EsRAP, Dent and DJ Rosetta Diamond, was such a bridge. The series offered a stage for young Austrian hip-hop, and a lot of different characters performed there. Many of the young girls and boys who had no stage experience at the time have since made a name for themselves. I’m just thrilled to be involved with so many people.
An interesting feature, because it is very unusual, is Bernhard Rabitsch. How did it come to this?
Kid Pex: Bernhard Rabitsch came to a gig of mine in 2018. At that time, we had just released the number “So viel Polizei” (“So much police”), in which we dissed Andreas Gabalier, and which ultimately also led to a lawsuit from said artist. It was a kind of hip-hop state affair. In any case, Bernhard Rabitsch outed himself as a fan of mine at this gig. He said that Stefan Weber would like what I was doing. And he himself likes it too. What I like about him is that he remains eternally true to his Drahdiwaberl roots. In any case, that’s how the whole thing came about. We have met several times and have become friends. I think his cosmopolitanism is very cool and his history with Dradiwaberl and Falco is simply impressive. He is simply down to earth and in no way aloof. And I really appreciate that about him.
Who are the people who produced the tracks for you?
Kid Pex: These are all people with whom I have already collaborated more in the past and who have already produced numbers from me many times. There are two young producers from Serbia and Bosnia. Rope and Drap. They are also responsible for the majority of the tracks. Then there is Albino from Belgrade. I put a lot of emphasis on the talents of the Balkans. On the one hand, because I had a certain name there a few years ago, which was due to the fact that I used to rap in Croatian. There are quite a few connections left over from that time, which have been quite helpful now. On the other hand – and this must also be said – it is simply cheaper to have top quality beats produced there.
Maybe a little bit about you. You are from Croatia and came to Vienna with your parents because of the Yugoslavian war. How was it for you to grow up here?
Kid Pex: In the beginning, when we came here, it was of course a shock. The difference in mentality between the countries is already very big. Then my parents put me in a private Catholic school out of fear, because at that time there were also many people from Serbia and Bosnia here in Vienna. I was supposed to have rather little contact with these people, who were considered enemies at that time. Fortunately, however, I was in that school only for two years. In this respect, the start here was already difficult. This switch from the last days of communist Yugoslavia, which we still witnessed, to the disintegration with all its consequences, such as the flight to Austria, was a very memorable experience. But I must say that in the 30 years that I have been here, I have also become very Austrian in some things. I would say that if I am at home somewhere, then it is probably here. Also because there is a lot of Balkan here, of course, and Austria is in a way the Balkanized part of the German-speaking world. But I also like the way Vienna has developed over the last 20 years. I really like the mix of people who have come here.
Because you just mentioned 20 years ago. Around that time, hip-hop really took off in Austria for the first time. You only have to think of acts like Texta. But what went a bit under the radar of public perception for a long time was hip-hop by people with a migrant background. Fortunately, that has changed. What do you think were the reasons? Have people become more confident?
Kid Pex: I think it has to do, among other things, with the fact that rappers with a migrant background have a much greater social need to share. That’s also the roots of hip-hop. In this respect, migrants are predestined for hip-hop in German-speaking countries, because the music is the mouthpiece for those who have to struggle with racism, exclusion and disadvantage. And it’s just nice to see that there are now many artists with a migrant background who perform with self-confidence and are also noticed. When I released my first album “Gastarbeiterlife” in 2008, there were maybe three or four visible rappers who were present in the scene and who were known. Today it’s a multitude. In addition, these rappers also take on the role of beacons of hope, especially female rappers. Just think of EsRAP, Yasmo, Gazal or Schwesta Ebra. They conquer stages, spaces, they win people over. And not with this completely antisocial rap, which also existed from the migrant corner, but with substance. People like that – and they don’t just have to come from music – give you hope that you can make it in the same way.
You’ve been around for a long time. Since 2008, and you work a lot with representatives of the younger generation. Do you feel like the honorable, wise old man of the scene?
Kid Pex: No, I don’t feel like one, even if Esra calls me “Babo”. Regarding skills, there are certainly far better rappers than me. And also surely some who are more interesting than I am. I don’t put pressure on myself in that regard. I’m releasing the album because I have the feeling that it’s time for it now. I simply want to leave a musical imprint of me with the album. Whatever else will come, will come. I’m not expecting anything big now either, I haven’t put everything on my hip-hop career now. To be honest, it plays only a secondary role in my life at the moment. Although this role is still important because I’ve just been doing hip-hop for so long and the gestures and attitude of this genre are simply mine.
Thank you very much for the interview!
Michael Ternai
Translated from the German original by Itta Francesca Ivellio-Vellin.