Clawfinger: The Swedish Rap-Metal Band That Put Its Message in the Title
Clawfinger began in the middle of 1989, when Zak Tell and Jocke Skog met while working at Rosenlund Hospital in Stockholm. In 1990 two Norwegian guitarists from the same hospital, Bård Torstensen and Erlend Ottem, joined them.
Their debut, Deaf Dumb Blind, came out on 21 April 1993, produced by the band together with Jacob Hellner. Its lead single carried the title “N****r” and caused a controversy in Sweden. The title was the shock; the song itself is a blunt, angry anti-racist statement.
The album sold more than 600,000 copies worldwide, and in 1994 the band won a Swedish Grammy. Rap vocals over heavy guitars, aimed straight at prejudice.
A second album, Use Your Brain, followed in 1995. The band announced a split in August 2013, the debut was reissued in 2014 as the 20th-anniversary set Deafer Dumber Blinder, and since 2017 Clawfinger are playing again.
Clawfinger is not in our Exclusive collection, but there is plenty of loud, honest music on the radio in Kalisha.
Photo: Frank Schwichtenberg / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
— Kalisha 🎧
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