Edo Maajka at Šalata in Zagreb on June 12, 2027 - the Bosnian rapper who made the war into material, not a pose

Edo Maajka performs at Šalata in Zagreb on June 12, 2027, starting at 8 pm. For Balkan hip-hop that is a name which does not translate into any other context: a rapper who made the war into material rather than a pose.

Edin Osmić was born on December 22, 1978 in Brčko. The stage name Edo Maajka comes from Brčko slang in which „majka” denotes someone who commands significant standing and respect among their circle. In 1992, when the war in Bosnia began, he left Bosnia for Zagreb. After the war he returned to study criminal law and in Tuzla became a member of the hardcore rap group Diskord, later renamed Odbrana. He is also a member of Disciplinska komisija. The debut album „Slušaj mater” came out in the spring of 2002.

What makes his discography different from everything else on the regional rap scene is that the subjects are not arranged for the market. Edo Maajka raps about the contemporary political situation and the consequences of the Yugoslav wars, from a Bosnian perspective, but also about the problems of the three main ethnic groups in Bosnia. He treats youth topics, the state of pop music and bad rap with the same sharpness, which is also the main line of the debut's title track.

Šalata is an open sports and recreation centre in Zagreb, a space that makes this show a summer concert rather than a club night. Tickets are 30 euros, roughly 1,848 denars, plus a booking fee, sold through entrio.hr. The date is far off, but for a concert of this size that usually means the tickets go on sale early for a reason.