Bomfunk is not that guy

Post from May 2024...

Happy Friday folks. I wish that the you all gonna spend the upcoming weekend in a good flow, no matter what’s outside. Like the little teenager in the Freestyler video of Bomfunk MCs from 2000.

oh gosh, I feel so old sometimes…

I never ever knew that Bomfunk was a Finnish band before I came to Finland. Someone told me it once and I watched the video once again. Indeed, I’ve seen these places in the Helsinki metro. This video and the song were a big hit in 2000, it won a Nordic MTV award and was very popular for a while. It was even banned in the UK (!)

Even though the band itself was alive for about 5 years only (reunited much later) the very word ‘Freestyler’ and some beats from the song became quite popular by themselves. Voice representation of those beats crawled into jokes and everyday talks in Russia.

Back then, I just bought myself a first discman and I had a Bomfunk CD (or pirate mp3 most probably). They had a number of other cool things, which might sound a bit funny now, but back then it was very cool. Back to back, Super Electric… and played. It was played at almost every party around while I was at school.

The fun fact is… everybody considered, that Bomfunk MC is that teenager with dreadlocks from the video. But it’s not true. Bomfunk is a band of 2 people from rap and DJ-ing - Raymond Ebanks (B.O. Dubb) and Jaakko Salovaara (JS16). In fact, more Raymond, because Jaakko was a producer. But the key figure in the video is a white teenage boy of a beautiful appearance. This boy (Marlo) was a Finnish photo model back in 1999. He was taken for the video shoot and made it good! Raymond also filmed there but as a side role. Like all great film directors who take some supporting role, Raymond just sat on a metro bench and provided superpower for dancing kiddo, remote control over people, and hip hop dancing around.

Now when I come to the metro in Helsinki, I recall that video and smile.

By the way, there was a remake of it in 2019 - the same actors (Raymond and other noticeable Finnish folks, who became 20 years older). It’s fun to watch as well.

what happens to the main character of the video? that teenage boy? He has a good life, released some own music, and owns a restaurant in Paris, according to Wiki.

Check out the original video!