Croatian Rappers’ ‘Offensive, Sexist’ Record Withdrawn by Label

Fans of Tram 11 have been flooding label Menart's Facebook page with negative reviews after the label announced that it will no longer work with the Croatian hip-hop band and remove their new album 'Jedan na jedan' from the market.

"The Menart label is terminating its contract with Tram 11. We decided to withdraw their recent album 'Jedan na jedan' from sale and all digital streaming services," Menart said on its Facebook page.

"We are sorry the album in question offended a part of our audience. That was not our intention in any way and we are doing everything to correct this mistake," it added.

The company made the move after the album, the hip-hop band's first in 22 years, attracted strong criticism for their lyrics which have been criticised as misogynistic, homophobic and right-wing.

Music critic Zoran Stajcic popular culture website of Ravno do dna wrote that Tram 11 "loaded their album with hate and it's difficult to see it as anything else as a portal into the hell of frustration which would - if set free by any chance - lead us into the savagery of civil war".

Jerko Bakotin from news website Novosti, in an article headlined "Tram Named Hate", described the album as "a cocktail of homophobia and misogyny, chauvinistic Yugophobia and Serbophobia, anti-communism, negation of Ustasa crimes, hate towards the media and liberal civil society, Corona-scepticism, the calling out of 'traitors', and standard sexism".

Journalists targeted on the record include well-known female reporter Danka Derifaj, who is described in the lyrics as "Danka the [Yugoslav] Partisan".

But Tram 11 member Srdjan Cuk, alias General Woo, argued that the band's lyrics are talking about "social disagreements" and "laying bare the political...

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