Kapitlu Tlettax have been releasing great tracks for years now, and the Maltese rap duo have been known to perfectly go from serious themes to witty satire in a heartbeat. Now, the guys are back with a new track, Battibekk.

It only takes a second to realise this track is going to be one of their satirical numbers, with dramatic panoramic shots being instantly undercut by the hip hop crew’s ridiculous DIY costumes.

“To write, I just sit down alone for about four hours and I start writing,” rapper Joseph Calleja told Lovin Malta of Kapitlu Tlettax’s inspiration process. “For this particular song, we talked about all the times we faced obstacles in Malta because of the people who don’t like hip hop. It’s also a reference to some rappers who we would’ve never thought would actually been a part of these obstacles just because we’re doing well.”

If you didn’t quite catch that during the first listen, don’t worry; Kapitlu Tlettax want to keep it light. “We even talk about young people who bum off their mothers and fathers instead of work, but as a whole it’s a satirical track, and we wanted to amuse our listeners. We weren’t so direct with our words because we didn’t want to hurt anyone. After all, Malta’s a very small country and we want to help new rappers.”

The track is extremely catchy, and it didn’t take long for the accompanying music video to go viral. In just a couple of days, Kapitlu Tlettax’s latest offering got over 52,000 views and a staggering 350 shares. The rap group’s fans came out in the hundreds to not only share their video, but also leave their comments on the song. 

Kapitlu Tlettax pulled out all the stops for this song, also enlisting the bars of Digby, one of Malta’s most popular and loved rappers. Some of Digby’s greatest accomplishments came with bands like the hip-hop-metal ClubMurder, who fuse very heavy music with Digby’s rhyming skills. On Kapitlu’s latest song, though, Digby’s going back to basics… and this time, he’s rapping in Maltese!

Many Maltese fans not only congratulated the rapper on the epic collab, but also expressed their wishes that he’d continue rapping in the language. Digby had good news for them; an album in Maltese is in the works and set to be released in Summer 2018.

“We wanted to honour the old Maltese poets with our rhyme and use of metaphors and idioms,” Joseph continued. “We wanted to make sure that these continue to live on for years to come.”

Battibekk was recorded at Malta’s Tune D Studio, and features music by Base de Rep. The music video was filmed by Christian Schembri, and it keeps being shared every couple of hours. 

Some fans compared the song to a classic Eminem track, and what with the duo not taking themselves seriously (at all) and the frequent bouts of satirically stopping themselves from saying swear words in a rap song, it’s easy to see why Kapitlu Tlettax received such a flattering comparison. Less than two months ago, in fact, the duo shared a quick freestyle to Eminem’s iconic Real Slim Shady beat.

Earlier this year, Kapitlu Tlettax released a much more serious number; Aħna X’Nistgħu Noffru, which saw the duo collaborating with Dominic Cini and Ina Robinich. Here’s hoping there’s more of the group’s satirical and serious tracks in store for us in the near future.

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David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).