The Latin Kings (hip hop group)


The Latin Kings, abbreviated TLK, was a Swedish hip hop group from the municipality of Botkyrka in the southern suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden.
The members of the group are the lead rapper Dogge Doggelito and the two brothers, Salla and Chepe. They all have roots in Latin America, which is why they took their name from the gang Latin Kings.
They grew up in the concrete suburbs in Botkyrka where a large proportion of the population are immigrants and refugees and the poverty is more visible than elsewhere in Sweden. The hip hop subculture has a large following in these areas of Stockholm. Their songs reflect life in the less affluent suburbs.
TLK were, in 1994, among the first to release a hip hop album with lyrics in Swedish. Swedish rappers had before that time almost always used English. The debut album was Välkommen till förorten and the very first single was "Snubben". The group felt like they had been ripped off by their record company and decided to start their own label, , on which they have signed a number of hip hop artists in Sweden such as Fattaru, Kalle Kath, Fjärde världen and Ison & Fille.
If their contemporaries Infinite Mass were influenced by the West Coast sound, TLK has more of an East Coast flavor. The Latin Kings has become famous for rapping in the local Rinkeby Swedish, a "multiethnolect language" that is used in areas with many immigrants. This is a form of Swedish with loanwords from Turkish, Aramaic, Spanish, Finnish, Persian, Arabic and other languages.

Discography

Albums and singles