This one’s back from 2003, Șuie Paparude were the most innovative Electronica act in Romania at the time (and for many years after, tbh!)
Edit: to be perfectly frank, this one doesn’t really fall under Rap in terms of what else is available around here, Șuie Paparude came as a response to the MC’d Jungle which was really popular back in the '00s (D’n’B was pretty big around here as well), which is why they fell into my lap as well. I don’t really have any pertinent Rap examples to offer, as I don’t mich consume the local variety.
To add a bit of rambling (which you can safely skip for the next paragraph), this was an interesting period in Romanian music, as our main influences were from the UK and from Europe/Russia rather than America, and it could be felt in pretty much everything. We had shades of Spice Girls, Depeche Mode’s influence was felt throughout basically any “serious” internal turmoil song, there was even a lot of UB40 in our pop. Our Electronica was massively influenced by the British D’n’B and the Techno scenes.
As for the message, it’s basically a highly articulated jumble of metaphors and Cool™ technobabble expressing a general sense of “lose yourself with us, ours is next-level shit.”
I’ve attempted a very, very rough translation below - started with an automated translation which I’ve edited for accuracy and tried to account for language-specific idioms, so it’s close-ish, sorta’:
“Level I is passed from the start The starting block’s only for those who dedicate themselves to a new wave Digital, transient-ambient, vibrato-fatal For those who do not have mental agreement With two-zero-zero-three subliminal Come here so I can teach you not to forget To differentiate between sitting in and participating To what, to what is heard, to Paparude, to Șuie His is the sound that forms the soul from white to black From white to integral, integral or better said Ready for a dream a bit too real, not at all subliminal Nothing is accidental, it’s a digital exercise Eloquent, insane, super-elastic Straight from the world of music drawn on plastic. Straight from the world of music written on plastic Junkyard and Șuie intervene technico-tactically You have 10 seconds to start moving If you don’t do that, it’ll suck for us. Straight from the world of music written on plastic Junkyard and Șuie intervene technico-tactically You have 10 seconds to start moving If you don’t do it today, it’ll suck tomorrow.”
For further context, Junkyard’s the dude providing the vocals, and Șuie’s the dude who does the track.
You’re very welcome! Word of warning, though, the rest of their stuff varies greatly. They do have a couple of songs I like a lot though!
In addition, if you’re looing for something similar to this song in particular, I recommend checking out Subcarpați - Pe Deal, În Văi, for instance. They follow that dark, heavy beat and the trippy progressions closer than most of everything else produced by Șuie. They also base a lot of their lyrics, structures and sampling on folkloric music from around our parts, can find something from each region!