May 17, Norway’s National Day (Syttende mai), seems a good occasion to introduce two of its treasures—and a new export. Meet HC (born Sander Henriksen) and Subaru (Øyvind Kirkhus), the 22-year-old rappers known as Bygdetrapen.

The duo are creating a hypnotic new genre within the trap/SoundCloud subgenre by being a little bit country—which isn’t to say country and western, but rooted in a place where Vikings, not cowboys, once roamed.

Bygdetrapen translates to “rural trap.” HC and Subaru live in Bø, an agricultural town about two hours southwest of Oslo, in the Telemark region of Norway, where skiing is said to have originated. “It’s kind of like the Kentucky of Norway,” Subaru says on a Zoom call. In that area, where the main attractions include a water park, autobody shops, and wooden churches, there exists a local youth subculture based around cars. Known as råning or rægging, it consists of cruising in a ring for hours while blasting music and partying. Yet the most distinctive element of Telemark is the local dialect, which is said to retain elements of Old Norse. Subaru describes it as “a heavy, deep, rumbly accent,” and “the least cool accent ever.”

Bygdetrapen delighted in the idea of applying that sound to a genre so closely associated with urban life. “We thought it would be cool to make this kind of hard hip-hop in, like, this weird dialect that doesn’t really have anything to do with hip-hop at all,” Subaru explains.

HC, who is soft-spoken in regular conversation, gives a driving force to that dialect with a delivery that is staccato and authoritative—part drill sergeant, part machine—though it should be noted that Bygdetrapen do not use autotune, preferring the raw, jagged edges of their own voices. “My father, he has always spoken [the dialect],” HC says. “When I found my voice and how I wanted to rap was when I imagined myself rapping how my dad speaks.” Subaru’s sound, by contrast, is warmer and softer. “You could say my voice is more boyish or less masculine, maybe. For Norwegian people I have a kind of childish tonality.”

The duo, friends since sixth grade, have been making music together for about three years (they both also have solo projects). They started to gain traction in January, with the release of “Arctic Cat.” The song and its relentless, driving beat were inspired by a visit to a gas station in a remote town, where Arctic Cat T-shirts were for sale. (Arctic Cat is a popular snowmobile brand.) “It sparked memories for us,” Subaru says.

Just as Bygdetrapen make use of the local sound, they have adapted the local uniform. “We use a lot of neon reflectors and camouflage because we’re from places where people wear that normally,” Subaru explains. “We really just want to push that because that’s very, like, the opposite of what’s cool in hip-hop, or whatever.” The duo favor Swedish brands Blåkläder and Biltema, and they like shopping at cheap-workwear.com. They’ve also taken to covering their faces with balaclavas and ski goggles.

But even behind masks, Bygdetrapen are quickly gaining renown. They dropped Mixtape, their first album, on the first Monday in May. Subaru is its main producer, though five other talents, including Swedes Gud (Carl-Mikael Göran Berlander) and Woesum (Arthur Carl Nyquist), also made contributions. “They’re doing something new that I’ve never heard before,” Woesum says. “I’m a big fan of their production and the direction they’re taking their music. I think they can go a long way, and when they asked me to work with them it felt like a given.”

The album has a distinctly masculine energy, its broad soundscape evoking different scenarios and emotions. “Vreimsida” has a folkloric, fun-fair air; and the bell-like tinkling in “Ettan Lus” has the sparkling quality of snow. That brightness co-exists with the manic, carnivalesque sound of “Kobra,” which conjures a carousel spinning out of control. Though not initially planned as an album, the songs fit together like a sonic puzzle. “I think the album is very direct—there are no breaks,” Subaru says. “Most of the songs don’t have an intro. It’s kind of like, cut the crap.”

Last weekend, at the invitation of Suieverse, a collective that organizes underground trap hip-hop events, HC and Subaru put on their first show, at the Munch Museum in Oslo. It drew about 500 people. “We chose Bygdetrapen because they have a motion here that no one has seen in the underground scene, ever,” said Suie Le, one of the collective’s three founders. “Rapping in their dialect, rapping about their culture and where they are from, going their own way and sticking to that... People are listening to their songs from all over the world, in Norwegian. The listeners do not even have to understand the words to get that this is legendary.”

In their already signature reflective gear, the duo performed on a set dominated by a life-size, blow-up Toyota Hiace. (“A Toyota Hiace is much cooler than a Porsche; something real from the districts and a car you can use for work etc.,” Le explained in an email.)

In a world flattened by digitization and globalization, HC and Subaru insist on keeping things personal and hyper local, naming songs after friends and weaving inside jokes into their lyrics. “Our stuff is kind of only made to be understood by a couple hundred people who know the area we’re from,” Subaru notes. “Most people from Norway don’t know what we’re speaking about because we’re referencing a lot of small towns and referencing a lot of people that are just from our area. We rap about our experience as citizens of this small, rural place.”

“The whole goal,” he goes on, is to “just make something that doesn’t exist. I think it’s difficult to do something new. You have to be willing to maybe sound stupid or whatever. You have to….”

“Just don’t really give a fuck,” HC interjects. “Like be completely free and forget that there are any rules to do whatever you think is cool and fun.”