After this album I will grow into a master

When it comes to the Montenegrin hip hop scene, Budva is one of the cities that has the most to offer in recent times. Previously, the centers of rap music were Bar and Nikšić, but after the collectives Barska stoka and NaVamGa became inactive or less active, the primacy took over by the Budva crew, gathered under the name Radio Katakomba, led by local rapper, producer and poet Nemanja Đorđević Necke.

This group has not stopped its activities in recent years, and especially Necke knew how to serve the audience with interesting, often poetic and musically experimental releases. Now it's time for a new one.

Necke released a new song called "Maler", on which his colleague Wicked from Podgorica, a former member of the Bači rimu troupe, and Stato from Mojkovac, the founder of the Centrum festival, are guests. The track announcing Necket's new album can be heard on Radio Catacomb's YouTube channel. "New year, new album... I've been preparing it for more than half a year and I finally think it's ready for release," Necke begins the story for "Vijesti".

He already announced the new release three months ago with the song "Najljepša jutra", which was accompanied by a video also available on the YouTube service, in which his girlfriend Iva was a guest. In the meantime, he told the audience that he is expecting the screening of the track "Jedan zeton" soon. Shortly before the video for "Najljepša jutra", he completed the promotion of his previous release "Sve trupe..." with a video for the track "Stari ja palim", a double concept album with a dark and experimental sound, from which he has been releasing tracks for a couple of years.

Then he said that it is time for a different form in the future, a little brighter. Necke is one of those whose productivity was not hindered much by the coronavirus pandemic last year.

"Considering the circumstances, when I sum it all up, it seems to me that I managed to maintain continuity with a few enthusiasts. Two music videos, a lot of collaborations and projects, recording and mixing albums. It's not bad considering the circumstances," says the rapper who was also the leader of the crossover band Mazzom u Fugazz, which has since been disbanded and became his solo project on the side.

Earlier, when he talked about how he coped with the situation when the corona hit the whole world, he said that he devoted himself more to his job as an electrician. However, the name "The Last Apprentice" that his upcoming album will bear has nothing to do with his work.

"'The Last Apprentice' refers to multiple levels of my personality and my work. On the one hand, it refers to a strange feeling that I am constantly at the beginning, both on the inner, spiritual level, as well as on the life and professional, and also musical... I hope that after this album I will grow into a master", he said half-heartedly. jokes Necke.

The theme of the song "Maler" can be easily guessed from the title itself, but it is interesting that the local Youth Cultural Center is somehow responsible for it, and the rapper explained how.

"The idea for the song was given to me by Katarina Vukadinović from the Youth Cultural Center in Budva. They had some Balkan competition on the topic of superstitions, and that's where the idea dawned on me that the topic is universal, but poorly addressed. When I wrote the lyrics and made the first version of the instrumental, I immediately 'heard' Wicked and Stat on that groove. And it turns out I wasn't wrong. I've long wanted to do something together and here it finally came true," Necke is pleased to have fulfilled his plan.

In the song, he, Wicked Ras and Stato mention various motifs of superstition, such as black cats, so it was natural to ask how many such things Necke pays attention to in his life, if he believes in them. It was not easy for him to answer.

"I can't clearly define it. Superstition is something we are fed from childhood, even before we remember, so there is that rational part of me that laughs at superstition, and also the irrational part that warns that I should do something or not", he is honest, that in order to then laughingly added that one could say he was intuitively superstitious.

When it comes to "The Last Apprentice", he revealed to some extent what his guiding idea is and why he said earlier that it will be brighter than the last album, which will be a change compared to the last one where the atmosphere was cloudier.

"The thematic content of the new edition goes hand in hand with my maturation as an author, which is somewhat natural. The 'brighter' theme was not planned, nor is it completely dominant on this album, but there is certainly more of it than on previous releases that were imbued with a conceptual form of convulsive struggle," he explains.

As was the case with the previous edition, the same can be expected from "The Last Apprentice" when it comes to the way of publication. Necke will launch one song at a time. In recent years, more and more musicians from this area have decided on such a way of working, so that each song gets attention, because the audience has less and less nerve to listen to entire albums at once.

"It is planned that there will be ten songs on the album, most of which are finished. I don't have a clearly planned publishing dynamic, but I think I will release them no more than a month apart successively. The plan is to shoot the footage for the song 'Jedan jeton' and to release the video in full form soon," Necke revealed, following on from the previous announcement for this video.

The Radio Katakomba collective, which he founded and which initially brought together almost all active Budva rappers and practically raised the local hip hop scene from the dead, gave birth to two mixtapes at one time, after which rappers Jollanda and Dobbla Galiot stood out in addition to Necket, who later released and own studio debuts. Now Necke surprised by announcing the third compilation of this collective, and the audience will be able to get to know some new names that way.

"Along with my album, we are preparing the third Radio Katakomb mixtape in a row, on which, in addition to the standard crew, there will be some new young forces with their own sound. The idea is to continue the tradition that Katakomba is known for, which is to connect and network in collaboration on songs as many people as possible, both established and unestablished. In addition, I am recording songs with Jolanda for the second album of our group, Prvi na crti", announced the Budva rapper.

So, there is no shortage of study material. The only thing missing is the performances, which have been disabled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and Necke and the team from Budva, who previously also organized hip hop festivals, have not performed for a long time because of this. The rapper does not hide that he lacks contact with the audience and hopes to finally achieve it by the middle of this year.

"As for the performance, it is difficult to predict anything. I miss them a lot, because I really like to go on stage and share all that energy and emotion with the audience," he said.