N'toko is the stage name of Miha Blažič, a Slovenian rapper, singer-songwriter and MC born in 1980 in Novo mesto, Slovenia. He spends a large part of his youth in Los Angeles and first develops contacts with music while travelling around Europe and collaborating with musicians in Paris.

Moveknowledgement

He co-founds Moveknowledgement with guitarist Uroš Weinberger and bass player and rapper Goran Balog, drawing on French jungle, hip hop and reggae as well as the heritage of acid jazz. The group grows into an eight-piece band, with N'toko's fast rapping set against Sandra Tomovič's slower, dreamier singing. Moveknowledgement releases its debut album Sun Sun in 2003, wins the Boomerang award for best Slovene live band, and plays many of the major festivals in Slovenia, including shows with Asian Dub Foundation and appearances at Exit festival in Serbia.

Solo work

Alongside the band, N'toko builds a solo career through MC work for drum'n'bass DJs, backing reggae selectors, jazz jam sessions and freestyle competitions. His improvisational style and flow make him a notable figure on the Slovene hip-hop scene, and his reputation grows through concerts, jam sessions and a freestyle performance with Sage Francis. After winning the national freestyle championship two years in a row, he signs to Nika Records.

His solo debut, Cesarjeva nova podoba!, presents a more confrontational style, with heavy beats and psycho-analytical lyrics. His second album, Dobrodelni koncert ob koncu sveta, is issued on RapNika/Nika and moves further away from standard hip-hop structures, replacing programmed production with a five-piece band. The release brings together jazz, noise and mutant hip-hop elements, and his more poetic approach to rapping and use of voice as an instrument becomes more prominent. Critics respond positively, although rap purists are less receptive to the shift.

Collaborations and later projects

He also works with multi-instrumentalist and poet Gal Gjurin on a series of projects in Slovenian and English, recording with a number of creative musicians from the country. These collaborations draw on psych-rock, free jazz, noise, minimalism and pop, and some of the material remains unreleased or available only online.

Further releases

Moveknowledgement's album Ant People, released on Kapa, is another later release associated with N'toko.