KRAPOEL IN AXE (K.I.A.)

K.I.A. was the commercially most successful exponent of the wave of "Frithop" rappers that hit Belgium in the middle of the nineties.

KIA (which is short for "Krapoel In Axe", that could be translated as "Scum in Action") rap in the dialect of Aarschot.

Their motto : "Springt oemhoëg, springt int rond,
maskes sjeekt me oe tette en zwiert me oe kont !". ("jump up, jump around, girls shake your boobs and swing your ass")

They got their breakthrough in 1997, with the single "Zaterdag krapulekesdag". They performed a few times on "Tien om Te Zien", the music show of the commercial Television station VTM. The single sold over 30.000 copies, the follow-ups "1,2,3" and "'t Sneeuwt" also did well, and their debut album got past the mark of 15.000, a reasonable success for these parts of the globe.

The singles also stirred up a few frowned eyebrows among the elderly community. "They saw us as a symbol of the degeneration of the modern youth, but the fact we rap about vomiting and boozing doesn't necessarily mean we live that kind of life" said Cliffke in an interview with Campuskrant.

Unlike the fellow Frithoppers, KIA doesn't seem to mind it's lack of "Street credibility". Jakke said in The Mix on this : "Maybe we aren't as closely related to Nederhop as the new bands like ABN or 't Hof Van Commerce, but the incrowd is so harsh. Either you are straight, or you're not. Evolution doesn't seem to be possible.
However, we are ready to evolve. We'll find out in what direction, but I would like to go a bit heavier, more in the direction of hardcore. I'm also playing around with some other projects, still into rap, but also with drum'n'bass."

In 1998, they are steadily working on new material and a new album. "We will not be made nervous. They are seriously pushing us to come up with something new, but we don't work very well in stressed situations. We remain faithful to the manner of working we had. That means : going to a bar, in between all the fooling around, to work on the lyrics."
The result came out in October : the new single "silicone tette" (silicon tits). This time around, the guys could not perform on commercial television : due to the explicit lyrics ("wa vuule kik? Tette van Plastik!"), the song was refused on most radiostations and VTM.

In 1999 and 2000 thing remained very very quiet in and aroudn K.I.A., but in 2001 they emerged from nowhere (that's Aarschot for you) with a new single "Geanalizeerd" (about troubled times with the P.M.S. - medical exams during their school days). An eye-catcher was certainly the videoclip to this song, with a leading part for a gummi-glove-wearing, anal-itical examiner dr. Guy Vago, as performed by Jean-Pierre Van Rossem.
In the summer of the same year, the two remaining Krapoel-members Cliff & Vjeeke (Jakke had opened a bar) started recording a new full-CD, which they hope to release in a few months time, on EMI-Belgium. Or as their bio says it: "They both are responsible now for not only the lyrics but also the accompanying beats, and have - after two years of silence - found a style that dates back to their roots: oldschool-hiphop without compromise, served with (black) humouristic lyrics." Another surprise came when the band got nominated for a TMF-award, in contention with ABN and Starflam in the category "R'n'B - hiphop".

Band members :
- Cliff 'Cliffke' Vrancken
- Olivier 'Vjeeke' Hennes
(- Jan 'De Jakke' Wouters)

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- Zaterdag (CDS, 1997)
- 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 (CDS, 1997)
- Zomer (CDS, 1997)
- Zonder Boe of Ba (CD, Krapoel/ARS, 1997)
- 't Sniejewt (CDS, 1998)
- Siliconentetten (CDS, 1998)
- Geanalizeerd (CDS, 2001)

Websites :
- Vjeeke maintains a site about Krapoel in Axe himself.
- a cyberbabble with the members of K.I.A. can be found at The Rage Page. (Dutch only)
- an interview with the Campuskrant can be found here.