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Members
1 Male
Origin
Oslo
Genre
Hip-Hop
Style
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Mood
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Active
2002 to Present...
Cutout
Alternate Name
Jo Marstein
1 Male
Origin
OsloGenre
Hip-HopStyle
---
Mood
---
Active
2002 to Present...Cutout
Alternate Name
Jo Marstein
Most Loved TracksNo loved tracks found...
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Jo Almaas Marstein — known simply as Marstein — is from Kampen in Oslo, born in 2002, and has been rapping since he was seven years old. In his mid-teens he became part of the rap group Undergrunn, six boys from Gamle Oslo who quickly became one of the biggest names in Norwegian hip-hop with tracks like “Italia” and “Peroni & Perignon”, five Spellemann nominations and two P3 Gull nominations. When the press discovered that several of the members had well-known surnames — Marstein is the son of authors Bjørn Esben Almaas and Trude Marstein — they were labelled “children of the cultural elite”. It is a label Marstein has since turned on its head with self-aware humour. In 2022 he debuted as a solo artist with the EP Medici Marstein and the single “Frida Kahlo”, which went straight to the top of the singles chart and now has over 17 million streams. In the summer of 2023, “Sommerhus” took the country by storm. In October 2024 came debut album Frihet i lenker on Def Jam Recordings Norway, and at the Spellemann Awards 2024 he was named Spellemann of the Year, in addition to winning the hip-hop category and TONO’s Lyricist Prize.
Frihet i lenker marks a shift. Instead of delivering another summer hit, Marstein slows the tempo, lets the lyrics take centre stage and dives deeper into himself. The production, made in close collaboration with the duo Kastel, moves between quiet beats, floating backing vocals, warm guitar lines and violin parts from jazz violinist Tuva Halse — closer to Cezinando than Undergrunn in expression. The lyrics blend references from politics, philosophy, literature and pop culture with a self-examination that is unexpectedly mature for a 22-year-old. Marstein embraces highbrow references and linguistic precision in a way that has never been a given in Norwegian rap, and combines it with a playful self-irony that keeps it from ever tipping into pretentiousness.
Live, Marstein has already proved that he stands firmly on his own two feet outside of Undergrunn. P3’s reviewer wrote of his solo appearances at the Øya Festival that “everyone who is, has been, or is going to be someone wants to see Marstein — and the rapper courts them all.” He is an artist who at the age of 22 has already won Norwegian music’s most prestigious awards, but who seems far more concerned with what he can say than with what he has already achieved.
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Last Edit by Petter
15th Feb 2026
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