Amsterdamers - Episode #5

The Manager, Kostijn Egberts

In this episode, we meet Kostijn Egberts. We asked what it is like to manage the most interesting and unique hip-hop group in the Netherlands and he tells us about being a manager.

The interview took place during a walk between The Melkweg and Paradiso. Those are the names of two of the best clubs in the city of Amsterdam. This translates into “The Milkyway to Paradise”.

My name is Kostijn Egberts. I am the manager of the Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, which is a famous Dutch hip-hop crew. We are in Amsterdam, precisely in the dressing room of The Melkweg which is one of the biggest venues in Amsterdam. It is also the place where I played for the first time about 20 years ago. It was here in The Melkweg – In the old hall to be precise: the other hall was not there yet. Where we are now was the main dressing room, so for me, my musical journey in Amsterdam started here!

If there was one piece of music that sums up my passion for this form of art it would be, Dusty Cabinets by Theo Parish. It more or less sums up what my taste in music is. It is simple and straight to the point. It is brilliant. These days I like to be in the background pulling the strings. I am not only the manager of the band I am also the label.

We do everything the best way we can for instance if we think it is best to give away a track for free we do that if we want to make a video for a lot of money we do that. I let them know what I think is the best way to go from a managerial point of view and most of the time we go with that. The flexibility is very important but that is also because we are such a close group of friends and we trust each other so that worked well. Of course, it would be nice to have a band that can do an international thing. But it’s is weird because they come up with language themselves, but still, if you tell that to an English person or an American we don’t even understand them, they look at you – what do you mean it’s Dutch – right no it’s not it’s sort of made-up language.

It’s all about the vowels, and the sounds. So yeah it’s very difficult to break internationally it’s virtually impossible. I think the most interesting person in Amsterdam is Joost van Bellen. He’s a DJ, writer, and producer. He organizes parties and has done so for a long long time and he’s still at the forefront of everything new and happening in Amsterdam and yeah always being very supportive of new talent and he’s just a great guy. We met a long time ago I don’t think he will remember but since then we bumped into each other quite a lot of times I go to a lot of his parties he books quite a few of my artists and he actually released a record on one of my labels and so yeah our paths cross.

Check out Kostijn Egbert’s Label Magnetron Music
Find out more about De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig
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