We've created a new language and we call it Finglish,' says Bomfunk MCs' rapper Raymond Ebanks over a homeboy dinner of salmon, shrimps and salad.

We're sitting in a restaurant an hour before he headlines at the Turku annual electronic music festival in Finland. He's back on home turf and hungry.

Call it what you want Raymond, but it's not too clear what you're on about. One lyric espouses 'rocking his microphone from the top of his dome'. A references to our national monument? No, just his cranium, as he's shaved off his dreads for the arctic summer.

So Finland isn't exactly a breeding ground for rappers: think Helsinki and you think saunas and log cabins rather than gangsta rap and drive-by shootings. It might seem hard to get angry at a nation of cycling rye-bread eaters, but Raymond disagrees. 'We have our problems too over here,' he says.

'OK so it's not as many as the US, but there's AIDS, alcoholism and a big suicide problem. But you have to talk about your own surroundings, so I guess our music is more of a happy vibe.'

With a Jamaican dad and Finnish mum Raymond decided to hang out in Helsinki because 'there's the New York state of mind in Helsinki - no-one gives a fuck'. He started the Bomfunk MCs two years ago with DJ Gismo in 1998, graffiti-ing and playing for mates in Helsinki squats.

It's a sign of the times that one of the squats is now a swanky Nokia office, as is the fact that the Bomfunk MCs have just played on Top Of The Pops here in the UK. The single Freestyler has sold over 1.6 million in Europe and has topped the Australian charts for seven weeks. And it's the first Finnish video ever to be shown on MTV Select: the Finns are proud of their first national homeboy heroes. 'When we come back home it's like when Oasis get back to England,' laughs Raymond. But will Freestyler be a one-hit wonder ? Or will Finns only get better? 'We're just the tip of the iceberg,' says the Arctic-circle MC. 'There's going to be a lot more Finnish bands following us.'

— Anna Wardley 11.08.00

Check out the Bomfunk MCs website at www.bomfunk.net