Even for those of us from Europe there are countries sort of overlooked when it comes to Hip Hop - not surprising considering most overlook what is in their own hometowns, one of those countries being Hungary Pluside's country of origin.

Pluside have emerged from the Hungarian underground and hooked up with Slamjamz, but go back a bit to the origins of the group and the story Tom D tells is probably the same as most artists wherever they come from:

"1986 was the first time when I heard rap music from such artists as Run-DMC and Beastie Boys. Then I was a child and I liked rap, but I was not a rapper. My so-called "real rap period" had began in 1990 with Public Enemy. PE songs influence me up to now. In 1998 I obtained a level where I wanted to make rap music, not only hear it".

I guess that is testament to the universal appeal of the culture. But these origins aren't the only universal aspect of the group or their country, Hungary is also in the grips of the current mainstream rap trends, "The dominant style in Hungary, like in most places, is so-called "party rap" and "gangsta"", Tom reveals, adding, "I think it's not wrong, but I miss political messages in lyrics. People think Hip-Hop represents only girls, guns, drugs, etc., so I try to break from these stereotypes. PLUSIDE music has never been pretty, nor does it cater fully to popular tastes. We struggle for a better World, with rhymes and beats". I guess the world over rappers are sick of the same old same old MTV version of Hip Hop.

"I invented the name PLUSIDE which is a mixture of PLUS and SIDE. It means Positive Side", he states, further emphasising his point.

Whilst it is obvious that Tom is not new to the rap game and Pluside has been around in some form for a long while as a duo they are still in the early stages, "In the beginning I tried to carry out my plans alone, but in 1999 Pidzse joined me and PLUSIDE became a group".

That line-up created the underground album 'The Revolution of Common Sense' released in 2000, but because Pidzse was already a member of another group the partnership was dissolved in 2001. But Pluside wasn't a single member group for long, "In 2001 an independent MC named KILO joined me", Tom reveals and the new partnership sounds like it is just what was needed, "Now we're together and PLUSIDE is stronger than ever".

Even before Pluside became a duo Tom was laying the foundations for the eventual signing to Slamjamz, communicating with Chuck D in 1998 who, in 2002, contacted Tom to see if he was interested in coming on board - I guess the answer to that is obvious. With three songs already available for download on Slamjamz and a fourth, 'Battle of Colours' (an anti-racism song), on the way the relationship between label and artist is proving fruitful.

Pluside are not only using the internet to release their music, in a move that resembles the formation of labels mates The Impossebulls; they have also made use of the medium for collaborations. Which is how Undertaker came to appear on their Slamjamz released 'Stop me if you can', "Undertaker is a young MC from Cegled, Hungary. He lives near our hometown Szolnok", Tom starts when telling how the collaborations happened, "In 2000 I uploaded the lyrics and the instrumental of "Stop Me If You Can" to our web site, and he downloaded them. He did his own vocals and sent it to me via the Internet, so he could appear on our song. It's like PE and Paris on Revolverlution".

The Pluside story is one many artists can probably relate to, but I doubt that they would have got this far without Tom's never say die attitude and uncompromising stance that kept the name going even if their wasn't a full compliment of members. His uncompromising attitude was revealed to me when I asked him about the language barrier (if you haven't heard their music Pluside rap in Hungarian), "The message of PLUSIDE is universal, but I'm Hungarian so I think I must rap in Hungarian because we're not on an international level. I hope we can do a song in English, it is a plan".

'Battle of Colour' will be released on Slamjamz in September, with lyric translations available via the Slamjamz newsletter service (To Subscribe to the www.slamjamz.com newsletter - send an e mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

---