Marko Šelić (born in 1983), also known as Marčelo, is a Serbian rapper known for his socially conscious lyrics and eclectic approach to musical arrangements through hip-hop music. A

Paraćin Paraćin ( sr-Cyrl, Параћин, ) is a town and municipality located in the Pomoravlje District of central Serbia. It is located in the valley of the Velika Morava river, north of Kruševac and southeast of Kragujevac. In 2011 the town had a ...

native, he moved to

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

, where he has had great success over the years, and became one of the most prominent

Serbian hip hop Serbian hip hop refers to all genres of hip hop music in the Serbian language. The term is also sometimes used to refer to any hip hop music made by Serbs, including instrumental hip hop, as well as Rapping, rap songs by members of the Serbian d ...

artists. He has won numerous awards, including two Serbian Oscars of Popularity, two Indexi Awards and an MTV Platinum Award.

Career

Rise

Marčelo started making hip hop music in 1997, though his first significant contributions came out in 1999, with a demo band called Rhyme Animal. In order to pursue his solo career, Marčelo stepped out of Rhyme Animal in 2001, and started to work with Oneya, the founder of Bassivity Music and one of the leading producers on the

scene. Oneya recognized his full potential and Marčelo signed with Bassivity in 2002. The first opportunity for a wider audience to hear and recognize his work came with 2003's ''Bassivity Mixtape Vol.1'', to which he contributed two tracks, ''Definicija'' (feat. Shorty) and'' Snovidjenje''.

Debut album (''De Facto'')

His debut album, ''

De Facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...

'', also released in 2003 on the Bassivity label, came out to both public and critical acclaim, and he was branded as the voice of a generation. The album was full of criticism of Serbian society at the dawn of the new millennium and personal themes, which were delivered in a very sincere manner. In his single and video, ''Kuća Na Promaji'' (''A House On A Range''), he deals with the assassination of Serbia's prime minister in 2003,

police brutality Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to ...

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

and alienation amongst young people in the country. It was the best-selling hip hop album that year in Serbia-Montenegro and the first

post-war In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period ...

record that included collaborations between the new generation of music acts from former

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

Edo Maajka Edin Osmić (born 22 December 1978), better known by his stage name Edo Maajka, is a Bosnian rapper, record producer and songwriter. His popularity brought his group Disciplinska Komisija to the mainstream. He lives in Zagreb, Croatia, with his ...

(

Bosnia-Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and Pars pro toto#Geography, often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of Southern Europe, south and southeast Euro ...

), Elemental (

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...

), Škabo (

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...

), "Bata Barata" ex Shorty (

), Don Trialeon ex Trial (

) and

Disciplinska Komisija Disciplinska Komisija (The Disciplinary Commission) is a Bosnian rap group. Its most prominent member is Edo Maajka, with other members Frenkie, HZA and Moonja and their DJ/producer DJ Soul. Formation Disciplinska Komisija was formed in 2 ...

(

''Puzzle Shock!''

Despite the success of his debut album, Marčelo was unable to settle his differences with the record company, so he transferred from Bassivity to Multimedia Records (

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and it ...

licensee in Serbia-Montenegro) in early 2005. In December the same year, Marčelo released his second album '' Puzzle Shock!'' (Multimedia Records), which featured the singles "Šarada" (''Masquerade''), "Otkucaji" (''Heartbeats''), "Pozerište" and "Novi Vavilon" (''New Babylon''). It topped the

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

upon its release. This time his main collaborator was Dragoljub Marković alias Dr. Dra (ex-member of rock-bands such as Ništa ali logopedi, Block Out, X-Centar), who added some vocal parts, played various instruments and produced the album. Marčelo also did some co-producing and arrangement work. The resulting sound was a hip hop with strong rock,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mi ...

influences, which estranged a minority of fans who loved what they considered to be the pure hip hop sound of ''

'', but it gained the admiration of many people unfamiliar with rap and hip hop. Marčelo toured the country to promote the new album with a backing band Shock! Orchestra, taking part along the way in the EXIT 06 tour of the countries of the

former Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...

, and sold out a venue

's capital,

. At his gigs, he is supported by several big names on the

scene: Wikluh Sky, Ministar Lingvista (Real Skllz) and Nancy. With the addition o
DJ Raid
a talented DJ based in Switzerland, this is the line-up of The Filter Crew. His first novel "Zajedno Sami" (Together Alone) was published during February 2008.

''Treća Strana Medalje''

His third album, '' Treća strana medalje'' (The Third Side Of The Medal), was released in December 2008.

''Deca i Sunce''

His fourth album, '' Deca i Sunce'' (Children and the Sun) was released on 24 December 2010, under the moniker "Marčelo & Filteri". Album was released in parallel with his novel "Zajedno sami" (''Together Alone'') and poem collection "O ljudima, psima i mišima" (''About men, dogs and mice'').

''Napet Šou''

On 31 October 2012 Marčelo released a song called "Čep" (''

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

'') within campaign of the non-governmental organization ASTRA, targeted towards raising public awareness and encouragement of competent authorities to be involved in fighting against human trafficking and work exploitation. In 2013, he was cast in the Serbian-language version of ''

Turbo In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pr ...

'' as the title character, starring in the dub alongside prominent actors including Radovan Vujović and

Dragan Mićanović Dragan Mićanović ( sr, Драган Мићановић; born 30 September 1970) is a Serbian actor. He had roles in the films ''Layer Cake'' (2004), '' The White Countess'' (2005) and ''RocknRolla'' (2008). Mićanović played his first role ab ...

. On 9 October 2013 it was revealed that Marčelo and his crew are working on new book-album titled "Napet Šou" (''Tense Show'') and that release date is expected on 1 October. 2014. The album will have 18 tracks which are being recorded with contribution from over 30 artists. Three songs are confirmed to be singles from the new album "Laž" (''The Lie'') i "Pegla" (''Flatiron'') and "Komplikovani" (''Complicated''). Book-album was released on 1 October 2014. The Album contains 19 tracks while book contains lyrics, photos made during the album's conception. Along Marčelo, authors of texts in the book are theater director Kokan Mladenović, writers

David Albahari David Albahari (, ; born 15 March 1948)Biography
at Petar Janjatović, columnist Draža Petrović, peace worker Milan Colić, psychologist and psychotherapist Vladan Beara and ex NGO Astra coordinator Elena Krsmanović. Following the release of the album, along with his ''Filter Crew'' collaborators, Marčelo formed a touring band to follow them in promotion of the album. Napeti Quintet (''Tense Quintet'') consisted of experienced Jazz musicians, Violinist Filip Krumes, Pianist Aleksandar Jovanović Šljuka, Bassist Marko Fabry, Drummer Aleksandar Cvetković Drama and Saxophonist Max Kočetov.

''Nojeva Varka''

On 30 December 2019, through his official Facebook page, Marčelo announced the title of his next album, ''Nojeva Varka'', with release date in 2020. The album will have 13 tracks written and performed by his Filter Crew and Napeti Quintet.

Discography

*''

'' (Bassivity, 2003) *'' Puzzle Shock!'' ( Multimedia Records, 2005) *'' Treća strana medalje'' ( Multimedia Records, 2008) *'' Deca i Sunce'' ( Multimedia Records, 2010) *'' Napet Šou'' (Lampshade Media (album); Laguna (book), 2014)

Literary works

*2008 ''Zajedno sami'' (novel) *2009 ''O ljudima, psima i mišima'' (short story collection) *2010 ''Zaglavljeni'', a play based on ''Zajedno sami'', with Branislava Ilić *2012 ''Malterego, knjiga prva: Rubikova stolica'' (novel) *2014 ''Napet šou'' (collection of columnist-essayist works) *2017 ''Malterego, knjiga druga: Higijena nesećanja'' (novel)

Awards and nominations

MTV Europe Music Awards

Serbian Oscars of Popularity

External links

Multimedia Records

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcelo 1983 births 21st-century Serbian writers Living people Serbian rappers Serbian novelists People from Paraćin Serbian hip hop musicians University of Belgrade alumni Indexi Award winners