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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Polish conductor Radzimir Dębski, better known by his pseudonym “Jimek”, accompanied Snoop Dogg on Monday during a medley of some of the hip-hop legend’s greatest hits at the BET Awards in Los Angeles.
The eight-minute performance, held to celebrate Snoop Dogg winning BET’s ultimate icon award, featured an orchestra conducted by Dębski, who rose to international prominence over a decade ago when he was chosen by Beyoncé to remix one of her songs.
The BET Awards – held annually since 2001 in a televised ceremony, this year hosted by comedian Kevin Hart – celebrate the work of individuals who contribute to black culture.
At Monday’s ceremony in LA, Mariah Carey, Jamie Foxx and Kirk Franklin received ultimate icon awards alongside Snoop Dogg.
The latter’s performance began with Dębski’s orchestra accompanying him on his new track “Unsung Heroes”, before moving on to classic numbers including 1992’s “Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang”, 1999’s “The Next Episode” and 2003’s “Beautiful”.
Dębski, the son of another famous composer, Krzesimir Dębski, and singer Anna Jurksztowicz, graduated from the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and the University of California in Los Angeles.
In 2012, he was chosen from among over 2,000 entries in a competition launched by Beyoncé to remix her song “End of Time”, with the winner decided by a combination of public voting and an expert panel featuring the artist herself.
Three years later, a video of Dębski conducting the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra performing a history of hip-hop became a hit on YouTube, where it has been viewed over 7.6 million times.
It received praise from rapper Prodigy of duo Mobb Deep, whose work features in the medley, and actor Ashton Kutcher, who called Dębski a genius.
More recently, Dębski performed and published a similar tribute showing the history of Polish hip-hop, which he says was inspired by the number of times people expressed surprise that Poland has its own rap scene.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: BETNetworks/YouTube (screenshot)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
