Fans of Boca Juniors

Boca Juniors

Club Atlético Boca Juniors is an Argentine sports club based in La Boca neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its professional football team, which currently plays in the Primera División....

 are called Xeneizes.

Xeneizes is an album by the Icelandic hip-hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 group Quarashi

Quarashi

Quarashi was a rap and hip-hop group from Reykjavík, Iceland. It was composed of Hössi Ólafsson , who was the lead vocalist and frontman of the group, Ómar Swarez , rapper and hype man, and Steini a.k.a. Stoney , also rapper and hype man...

, released on October 25, 1999 in Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

 (see 1999 in music

1999 in music

-Events:*January 7**After eight years of marriage, Rod Stewart and supermodel wife Rachel Hunter announce their separation.**Paul McCartney attends the first of his stepdaughter Heather's first housewares collection in Georgia....

). Like Quarashi's self titled debut album

Quarashi (album)

Quarashi is the debut hip-hop album by the group of the same name, released on October 13, 1997 in Iceland . Already popular in Iceland thanks to the EP, Switchstance, Quarashi released their first full-length album with more of the hip-hop infused rock, techno, and funk that brought them fame in...

, Xeneizes was a hit in Quarashi's homeland, topping the Icelandic album charts. 6,000 copies of Xeneizes were made, and once again, all 6,000 copies were sold, making Xeneizes the second Quarashi album to go gold in Iceland.

Xeneizes is also notable for being the album that caught the attention of American record labels. After turning down all offers from several United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

s, Quarashi was contacted by EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

 Music Resources to perform at the Iceland Airwaves Music Festival hosted by EMI in conjunction with Flugleiðir in New York City in the fall of 1999. The group performed two shows to rave reviews. Less than a year later, on August 31, 2000, Quarashi announced that they had signed a six-album deal with Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

, and were now finally going to be able to release their music all over the world.

Xeneizes is named after the nickname given to fans of the Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 football (soccer) team, Boca Juniors

Boca Juniors

Club Atlético Boca Juniors is an Argentine sports club based in La Boca neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its professional football team, which currently plays in the Primera División....

. The album has several South American influenced beats, joining the hip-hop, rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

, funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

, and techno

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 beats from the previous album. This is said to come from Sölvi Blöndal's trip to South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

 in 1998, where he became obsessed with the culture, particularly the passion South Americans have for soccer. The trip to South America heavily influenced Blöndal during the making of Xeneizes.

Track listing

1. "Stick 'Em Up" (featuring Omar Swarez) – 3:49
2. "Tarfur" – 2:43
3. "Punk" (featuring Omar Swarez) – 2:59
4. "Jivin' About" – 3:50
5. "Brasilian Mongo" [Instrumental] – 3:22
6. "Model Citizen" – 3:50
7. "Tambourine Cut" – 2:44
8. "Xeneizes" – 3:08
9. "Mayday" (featuring Úlfur Kolka) – 3:35
10. "Surreal Rhyme" – 4:17
11. "Show Me What You Can" – 3:12
12. "Fuck You Puto" – 3:05
13. "Dive In" – 4:00
14. "Bless" [Instrumental] – 2:24

Personnel

• Hössi Olafsson - Rapper, Singer on "Dive In"
• Steini a.k.a. Stoney - Rapper, Singer on "Jivin' About"
• Sölvi Blöndal - Producer, Drummer, Keyboardist, Percussionist
• DJ Dice - DJ
• Omar Swarez - Rapper
• Úlfur Kolka - Rapper
• Hrannar Ingimarsson - Producer, Engineer, Mixing, Keyboardist
• Gaukur Úlfarsson - Bassist
• Smári "Tarfur" Jósepsson - Guitarist
• Vidar Hákon Gislason - Guitarist

Miscellanea

• Sölvi Blöndal once said in an interview that he used to joke with the group that "Stick 'Em Up" (which, according to Sölvi, sounded like something Limp Bizkit
  Limp Bizkit
  Limp Bizkit is an American rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. Formed in 1995, the group's lineup consists of Fred Durst , Wes Borland , Sam Rivers , John Otto and DJ Lethal . The band achieved mainstream success with their second studio album Significant Other, released in 1999...
  
   would do) would get the group noticed in America. It turned out that "Stick 'Em Up" was the song that got EMI Music Resources attention, and would lead to the group signing with Columbia Records.

• DJ Dice is credited on Xeneizes as the fourth member of Quarashi (as the DJ).

• The Xeneizes CD contains a DVD-ROM link that allows people to visit the official Quarashi website (as it looked in 1999), an a cappella version of "Mayday", instrumental versions of "Jivin' About" and "Show Me What You Can", the music video for "Surreal Rhyme", and two unreleased tracks, "Fly To The Sky" (another song in which Hössi sings), and "Stay Funky" (an instrumental track).

• Omar Swarez officially joined Quarashi shortly after the release of Xeneizes, becoming the third rapper and fourth member of the group.

• There were rumours for some time that Sölvi Blöndal had starred in a South American soap opera during his trip to the continent in 1998. This has neither been confirmed nor denied by Blöndal himself.

• "Mayday" was the first song in Quarashi history that only featured one of the rappers, without the other rapper doing background vocals.

• "Surreal Rhyme" is the only music video that was made for a song on Xeneizes. It was directed by Gaukur Úlfarsson, who played bass for Quarashi during their live performances.

• "Stick 'Em Up" was the first single from Xeneizes, and was released in June 1999.

• "Dive In" looping four-chord piano arpeggios are sampled from a recording of "Claire De Lune" from Debussy's Suite Bergamasque.