Let's start the year with the uncrowned king of Pannonian macho hip-hop, Zoli Döglégy and the relentless Kartelle, who kick the door on sadness with their concert in such a way that it takes us away from our surroundings for many weeks. Power, humor, beauty, hotness: Ganxsta and Kartel are coming!
Zoltan Zana, the drummer of the hard rock band Sex Action got his act together in 1995, founding the gangster rap band named Kartel, in which he took part as a leading member, naming himself Ganxsta Zolee. The explicit lyrics of Kartel shocked the local pop-audience, therefore the success of the debut album ‘Egyenesen a gettóból’ (Straight From The Ghetto) was sort of inevitable.
The real breakthrough came in 1997, as the second full length album, Jégre teszlek (I Put You On Ice – a Hungarian pun meaning ‘I take you out’, indicating also Zolee’s fanatic love for ice hockey), had hits not only because of the well done Hungarian paraphrases of the American gangster rap clichés, but the background music as well.
Kartel’s album sales broke records in 1999, with their third LP titled Helldorado. The dirty western styled ‘A jó, a rossz és a Kartel’ (The Good, The Bad And Kartel) led the charts and so did the next two singles, Való világ (Real World) and Blow-feld vs. O.J. Bond.
Ganxsta Zolee & The Kartel switched labels in 2001. Their following album on Private Moon records, Pokoli Lecke (Infernal Lesson) was dominated by guitars and had 3 singles and videos.
The big thing for 2003 was the release of the Gyilkosság RT (Homicide Inc.) album, with an image of the 1930’s in the USA, times of alcohol prohibition. The next LP, ‘Szabad a gazda’ (No More Guesses) was another shocking one around the subject of religion and the institution of churches.
