Jimek: Polish hip-hop is one of the best in Europe, and I won’t even apologize for saying that

Jimek Brings a Hip-Hop and Classical Music Trilogy Back to Warsaw

Usagevpn.com – Jimek – Radzimir Dębski, better known as Jimek, is preparing to bring a wide-ranging group of Polish rappers together in Warsaw for the latest chapter of a project that joins orchestral music, sampling and hip-hop. The September 12, 2026 performance in Bemowo follows the June release of his album Études for Piano, Sampler, Orchestra and Friends, a record created with 12 rap artists.

The date is part of a striking pattern in Dębski’s career. Twelve has appeared repeatedly in his artistic story: he won Beyoncé’s remix competition in 2012, the new record arrived on June 12, 2026, and its live presentation is scheduled for September 12. The album’s structure also reflects that number through its 12 featured rappers.

A return shaped by home and identity

Although Jimek’s work has taken him far beyond Poland, he is choosing Warsaw as the setting for this major new undertaking. He has appeared in countries including Japan, Germany and Kenya, while his command of classical and symphonic forms has helped his music travel across borders. Yet the pull of home remains central to his current creative direction.

“First of all, being at home, meaning going back to where you’re from, is something that’s become a need for me, and at the same time a way of searching for my own balance. If my own identity gets warped, that’s something dangerous for me. But at the same time it’s also an enormous pleasure and relief. Being yourself in Warsaw in the summer… There aren’t many places in the world I like more. And I don’t just mean Warsaw, but Poland in general.”

For the composer, producer and conductor, that attachment is not merely sentimental. He describes these as practical, “down-to-earth” motivations, but they also feed directly into the music. His new album represents the culmination of a process that began with an exploration of American hip-hop and developed into a similarly ambitious examination of Poland’s own rap tradition.

From logistical experiment to new material

The Bemowo concert is the third part of a hip-hop-classical trilogy. Its roots reach back to 2022, when an earlier event in the district tested whether a large number of rappers could realistically be assembled for one stage production. The following year, the concept grew further with the National Symphony Orchestra of Polish Radio at Silesian Stadium.

Those earlier productions demonstrated that the scale could work. The new edition shifts the emphasis toward artists Jimek encountered during the previous projects, with songs written together from the beginning rather than simply reinterpreted for the occasion.

“This concert will be different in that, having had all these opportunities, we also recorded a new album — new tracks came out of it, which might give this whole story its best possible punchline.”

The result is intended to combine familiar songs with newly created material. The orchestra does not function as decorative accompaniment: it is part of the project’s musical language, linking rap voices and beats with piano-led compositions, arranged passages and sampled sound.

Building each collaboration around the artist

Études for Piano, Sampler, Orchestra and Friends, originally titled Etiudy na pianino, orkiestrę, sampler i kolegów, places the piano at its center while allowing each collaboration to develop on its own terms. Jimek approaches the 12 featured performers individually, shaping the musical setting around what a particular artist brings to the recording.

That flexibility is evident in Étude No. 3 with Bedoes 2115, where guitar enters the arrangement. Such choices underline the project’s broader aim: not to force hip-hop into a fixed orchestral template, but to make room for different creative instincts within the same large-scale framework.

“When you’ve spent 20 years sitting alone in a basement with a computer, at some point you also want to meet another human being and see what different creative decisions get made in someone else’s company.”

“So I went looking for exactly that — a situation with another person that changes our decision-making process right from the start, just to see where it would take these tracks.”

The comments point to the collaborative engine behind the record. Rather than treating classical music and rap as separate worlds, Jimek uses the encounter between performers as the source of the arrangements. The process allows piano, orchestra, sampler, guitars and rap delivery to influence one another from the earliest stage.

An international career with a Polish focus

Jimek has long moved between Polish and international music scenes. In 2012, he won the remix contest for Beyoncé’s “End of Time,” surpassing more than 3,000 creators from 25 countries. He was in Berlin when Beyoncé called personally to tell him he had won.

“I wanna congratulate you because you are the winner.”

The victory opened the way to a growing list of overseas engagements. His recent collaborations included appearances with Snoop Dogg at the BET Awards 2025 in Los Angeles and later that year at Snoop’s Holiday Halftime Party in Minneapolis.

His 2015 collaboration with Miłosz “MIUOSH” Borycki also gained significant international attention. Recorded during a concert at the headquarters of the National Symphony Orchestra of Polish Radio in Katowice, the album 2015 attracted the interest of Deutsche Grammophon. Clips from the concert were shared by figures including Ashton Kutcher, Mobb Deep and Nicki Minaj.

Despite that international visibility, Jimek’s newest work makes a clear argument for Polish hip-hop as a creative force worth foregrounding at home. He is unapologetically enthusiastic about its standing in Europe.

“This is completely biased, and I won’t even apologize for it. Polish hip-hop is one of the best in Europe.”

The September performance in Bemowo will therefore serve as more than an album showcase. It is the live conclusion to a trilogy built around collaboration, a celebration of Poland’s rap scene, and another example of Jimek’s effort to make orchestral music feel connected to the sounds and artists shaping contemporary culture.