Draft:3xKlan



3xKlan (alternative spelling 3-X-Klan) - a Polish hip-hop band that is one of the few representatives of the hardcore psychorap micro-genre. It consisted of Sebastian "Rahim" Salbert, Mateusz "Matho Radamez" Rajda, Arkadiusz "Bak" Juńczyk, Sebastian "DJ Bambus" Michalski and under an unknown name "Mephiston".

The group released their only album, "Dom pełen drzwi" by the end of 1997 under S.P. Records, and was dissolved the following year. In later years, in the hip-hop music community, 3xKlan, alongside the band Kaliber 44 (with whom they worked closely), gained cult status.

Etymology
The name of the formation comes from the Osiedle XXX-lecia PRL (often written as 3X-lecia), where the founders of 3xKlan came from. The word "klan" is a reference to Wu Tang Clan. The name was originally spelled as "Three X Clan" but Kaliber 44 inspired the members to polonize it.

History
The history of 3xKlan began in November 1994. In one of the interviews, Sebastian "Rahim" Salbert recalled that he became interested in music production and started creating his first beats using an Amiga 500 computer and a home-made sampler. They were made for Mateusz Rajda, known as "Matho Radamez", who was then playing in the underground hip-hop band Boys n the Hood. Later, Rahim also started making music for himself, until he finally decided to start a band with his childhood friend, Arkadiusz "Bak" Juńczyk. In the local hip-hop community, Bak worked as a beatboxer and was considered an extremely popular person. After numerous personnel changes, the final composition was clarified. Matho Radamez (Rahim's friend from primary school) joined the team after half a year.

The young rappers gave their first concert at a friend's birthday, performing for twenty people on a stage made of connected tables.

After some time, Sebastian "DJ Bambus" Michalski, whom Rahim met while playing basketball, joined the group. At first he tried rapping, but, discouraged by the results, he decided to become a DJ. However, he did not have turntables, so until he acquired them and learned how to use them, he served as an acoustician and technician in the group. The last member was an anonymous graphic designer named "Mephiston" who was met in Kielce at the birthday party of Tomasz "Borygo" Borycki.

The breakthrough in 3xKlan's career came thanks to Rafał Wywioł, known as "Gano" (in private, Rahim's friend from the technical school). For some time he was a member of one of the most important formations of the Silesian hip-hop underground, the group Kaliber 44. Gano offered to introduce Rahim and Bak to the members of the band. They agreed, and that's how the young rappers met Piotr "Magik" Łuszcz, Rafał "Jajonasz" Łukaszczyk and Marcin "Abradab" Marten (Michał "Joka" Marten was not supposed to be at the meeting). The musicians quickly found a common language and began to stick together and cooperate, with Rahim and Magik becoming particularly close friends. Kaliber members also helped their younger colleagues improve their beat-making skills. The groups' cooperation resulted in the creation of a collab song "Psychodela", which appeared on the debut album of Kaliber's Księga Tajemnicza. Prolog, released in 1996 (it was also the phonographic debut of 3xKlan). Moreover, the author of the music for the song "Moja obawa (Bądź a klęknę)" was Rahim. Sławomir Pietrzak, publisher of K44 and owner of the S.P. Records eventually became interested in 3xKlan.

In 1996, 3xKlan independently released their first three-song demo titled 3X. The group's first compositions, "Łza wyobraźni", "Pozytywka" and "Bestia w klatce", were included there.

In the meantime, Rahim founded his solo project, a band called MZD, in which he performed with Radosław "Kams" Kamycki, Łukasz "Lelo" Brząkała and under an unknown name "Kew" (Kew, Rahim and another anonymous member known as "Kuzyn" also worked in the eRKa trio). MZD and 3xKlan recorded a collab song "Rymologia".

Ultimately, S.P. Records signed a publishing contract with 3xKlan. In 1997, the single Łza wyobraźni was released, which announced the release of their debut studio album. The album includes the songs "Pozytywka" and "Łza wyobraźni" for which music videos were made. The songs gained some popularity in the country and were listed on the Szczecin Polish Radio Hit List, in 3rd and 10th place, respectively.

The same year, 3xKlan's first (and, as it turned out, also only) album was released, titled Dom pełen drzwi. The recordings were stylistically similar to the debut album of the band Kaliber 44. The release turned out to be an artistic success and was nominated for the Fryderyk award of the Polish phonographic industry in the Album of the year - rap & hip-hop category. However, it had an impact on the financial condition of the band members, on whom the publisher was supposed to pass on some of the costs (including the production of the music video), which meant that the young musicians not only did not earn any money from the album, but also had to pay for it from their own pockets. Dom pełen drzwi did not meet the publisher's sales expectations, selling several dozen thousand copies, which was not a significant number considering the market conditions of the 1990s.

In 1997, the group took part in the project of the R.R.X. music label. "Wspólna scena". For the needs of the compilation bringing together the Polish hip-hop scene. 3xKlan recorded a song titled "Jak to się stało...". (The song also has an alternative, longer title, "Jak to się stało, że przegapiłem swe dzieciństwo". Work has also begun on the second album, the trailer of which, the song "Tunel", was included in the compilation of the Klan magazine. In the same year, the band gave several concerts, and at their December performance in Warsaw, they played as a support band for Warszafski Deszcz, then called Trzyha. In 1998, the song "Olewały go" from "Dom pełen drzwi" was included in a compilation included in the industry magazine, Brum.

Disbandment
3xKlan was already very close to releasing its second album when its disbandment was announced. There were several reasons for the dissolution of the formation. In addition to the financial problems of the members related to the unprofitability of the business, there was also a personal conflict between Rahim and Matho, whom he accused of jealousy, as Salbert had already started working on another project, Paktofonika, in which he worked alongside Magik from Kaliber 44. The band members did not approach Paktofonika with enthusiasm, because although Rahim swore that he would be able to function in two formations at the same time, they gave him an ultimatum: he had to choose 3xKlan or PFK. He decided to cooperate with Magik. Rahim left the band, which continued to function for some time when Salbert was replaced by an unknown member. Shortly thereafter, 3xKlan ceased operations.

DJ Bambus joined Paktofonika as a session and concert musician. Matho founded the band Alkomatyka (including Mephiston and Dariusz "Kipper" Łamacz, who later cooperated as a producer with Paktofonika), which quickly disbanded. Bak, however, remained in good relations with Rahim. He formed the duo EBS with Krzysztof "Żorski" Żur, who failed to release an album and only appeared on a few compilations. In later years, he also formed the group Czerwone Pokoje Projekt, with which he managed to record the album "4", which went unnoticed.

Years later, Dom pełen drzwi gained a reputation as a white raven, and its copies achieved significant prices on the secondary market. For this reason, efforts were made to convince S.P. Records to release a reissue of the album. For several years, the lack of contact with Matho was an obstacle to signing the required documents. Ultimately, Dom pełen drzwi was released again in 2020, both on CD, vinyl and cassette. The reissue of the album reached seventh place on the OLiS chart.

Band members

 * Sebastian „Rahim/Rahim-o-Logus” Salbert – rap, production, lyrics
 * Mateusz „Matho Radamez” Rajda – rap, lyrics
 * Arkadiusz „Bak” Juńczyk – rap, production, lyrics, scratches, trumpet, beatbox
 * Sebastian „DJ Bambus” Michalski – scratches, technical support
 * „Mephiston” – graphic design

Discography
Albums

Singles Other notable works Music videos