Scene and heard: Crunkczar.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

The world has already witnessed hip-h op artists experimenting with trance riffs but is this same innocent, naive world ready for the merging of former Soviet bloc trance and gabba with bastardised hip-hop vocals? Probably not. But you're going to have to get used to it because, inspired by the trance-hop from US labels like Alabama's Slow Motion Soundz and Paper Route Records, a scene of Polish producers who add slowed-down hip-hop vocals to harsh, pounding 4/4 tracks has emerged.

The staunchly underground scene, known as Crunkczar, was founded by Ryszard "Crunk King" Kuklinski , the grandson of a renowned cold war spy for the CIA of the same name. Facing danger of discovery, his grandfather, who was instrumental in preventing a nuclear holocaust, was extracted from Poland with his family in 1984 and settled in Florida, where Ryszard Jr would be born. The "Crunk King", as he would come to label himself, moved to Warsaw, Poland with his parents when they believed it was safe, after the fall of Communism in the mid 90s. It is there he resides today -- in a squatted bunker with his crew, Boom Boom Clik.

Squat living is an integral part of Crunkczar. Rival crews, such as Bass Boyz, also live together in illegally occupied spaces. There is intense rivalry between different crews, with extreme measures taken to gain control over prime squatting spots. Squat shoot-outs between opposing crunkczar crews are commonplace. In one gang fight, Ryszard was shot 10 times -- a fact he is immensely proud of because this is more than his hero 50 Cent was sprayed with.

Ryszard's other main obsession seems to be HBO series The Wire. His haircut, a cornrow mullet, was, he informed me, modelled on the locks of Slim Charles from the American TV drama.

Also unique to crunkczar are the drug rituals its ravers take part in. During a squat rave, clubbers first take an extremely potent downer to numb their limbs ...