German hip hop
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| Music of Germany | ||
|---|---|---|
| Popular and modern | Electronic - Rock (Krautrock) - Hip hop - Alpine New Wave - Highlife - Cabaret - Volksmusic - Schlager - Klezmer - Heavy metal | |
| Classical | Chorale - Opera - Baroque - Classical - Romantic | |
| Folk | Lieder - Oom-pah - Volkslieder - Schuhplattler - Yodelling | |
| History (Timeline and Samples) | ||
| Awards | German Music Instrument Prize - German Music Awards | |
| Charts | Media Control | |
| Festivals | Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage | |
| Media | Keys | |
| National anthem | "Das Lied der Deutschen" | |
| Regional music | ||
| Bavaria - Danish-German - Swabia - Sorbia - Northern Germany | ||
| Other Germanic areas | ||
| Austria - Denmark - Flanders - Liechtenstein - Luxembourg - Netherlands | ||
The term German hip hop denotes hip hop music produced in Germany. Elements of American hip hop culture, such as graffiti art and breakdancing, diffused into Western Europe in the early 1980s. The first German hip hop artists emerged in the mid-1980s as part of an underground music scene. Early underground artists included Cora E. and Advanced Chemistry. It was not until the early 1990s that German hip hop entered the mainstream, as groups like Die Fantastischen Vier and the Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt gained popularity. Though some dismiss Die Fantastischen Vier as "pop rappers," it was their music that made hip hop accessible to a broader German audience.
Throughout the 1990s, hip hop groups established local followings, some of them, such as Sabrina Setlur, achieving national prominence. However, it was the rappers of the "Hamburg scene," with their more relaxed (if sometimes banal) sound, who in 2000 led the ascent of hip hop up the German charts. Prominent Hamburg-based groups included Fettes Brot, Absolute Beginner, Dynamite Deluxe, and 5 Sterne Deluxe.
German hip hop, like much European hip hop, is often derided in the United States. RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan said in 2003 that German hip hop was 10 years behind American hip hop.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] 1980 - 1990
Commercialization of American rap and hip hop began in the early 1980s. It soon percolated into Germany through recordings, cinema, and the American soldiers stationed there. Through such films as Wild Style and Beat Street, German youths developed a taste for breakdancing, spraypainting, and freestyling, thus beginning hip hop's first wave of popularity. GLS United was perhaps the first German hip hop group, releasing the first German-language hip hop song "Rappers Deutsch" in 1980.
After this initial wave of popularity, hip hop fans were few and far between. Identifying themselves by their unique clothing, they sought each other out and organized hip hop jams. These parties, hosted at youth centers or at individuals' houses, attracted regional and sometimes national attendance. Early jams were the locus of a nascent German hip hop culture, at which sprayers, breakers, rappers, and DJs convened and exchanged ideas.
Part of the genre's attraction was its foreign origin. Many hip hop fans viewed contemporary German songs, such as those of the Schlager and Neue Deutsche Welle genres, as trite and unoriginal. For this reason, rappers at early jams rapped only in English, and to American beats.
Torch, a member of the Heidelberg-based group Advanced Chemistry, was perhaps the first artist to freestyle in German at a jam. Advanced Chemistry had previously freestyled in English, but they had (unlike other groups) addressed the audience in German between songs. At one jam, Torch, without the prior knowledge of the group, spontaneously began rapping in German. The audience was enthusiastic, not only because they could better understand the rap, but also because they felt more directly addressed. From then on, Torch rapped increasingly in German, writing his first German rhyme in 1988.
After the reunification of Germany in 1990, many Germans saw a growing wave of racism. This became a major theme of German hip hop, partially because many hip hop artists were children of immigrants.
[edit] 1990 - 1995
In the early 1990s, hip hop established itself in the mainstream, and many new rappers emerged on the scene. One such band was Die Fantastischen Vier, four rappers from Stuttgart, whose optimistic sound has brought them fame both in Germany and abroad. They released their first LP Jetzt geht's ab in 1991. Unlike earlier German hip hop groups, Die Fantastischen Vier never played in underground jams, and they did not invoke American "Gangsta Rap" themes. The group was therefore not taken seriously at first. In 1992, however, their single Die Da?! hit the top of the charts. Many in the hip hop community were aghast, because the band had no connection to the jam scene, rapped in German about lighthearted topics, and released their music through Sony/Columbia. The latter asset was particularly controversial, as Hip hop culture, both in Germany and the United States, had developed with a distinctly anticommercial edge. By 1992, however, anticommercialism no longer predominated in the American hip hop, and it has since lessened in Germany.
No new Deutschrap (German-language rap) albums made the charts from 1992 until 1995. Underground rap continued to develop, splitting into two the Neue Schule and Alte Schule ("new school" and "old school"). The members of the Alte Schule--many of whom had rapped in the early jams--accused the Neue Schule of not taking hip hop seriously. The Alte Schule, which included Cora E., the Steiber Twins, and Advanced Chemistry, had a more political focus that the Neue Schule did not share. One example of politically charged Alte Schule hip hop is Advanced Chemistry's 1992 Deutschrap album Fremd im eigenen Land, which concerned widespread racism and the plight of disadvantaged immigrants. Another example is the Absolute Beginner song K.E.I.N.E. which criticized the police for being everywhere but where they were needed.
In contrast, the Neue Schule, which included the Fantastischen Vier, Fettes Brot, and Der Tobi und das Bo, sought mainly to produce fun, accessible music. They rapped about less weighty topics, injecting a liberal dose of humor and irony into their songs.
Despite criticism of the Neue Schule, it arguably paved the road for wider acceptence of the Alte Schule. Nonetheless, members of the latter continue to regard the former with disdain.
[edit] 1995 - 2000
The years from 1995 to 2000 were a golden age for German hip hop, as the demand surged, and the market was flooded with new records. Hip hop scenes formed in larger German cities, most notably Hamburg, Stuttgart, and Berlin.
Among the bevy of new Hip Hop releases, new styles emerged that were not easily classifiable as Alte Schule ("oldschool") or Neue Schule ("newschool"). These included Bambule by Absolute Beginner (1998), Fenster zum Hof by the Stieber Twins (1997), Quadratur des Kreises by Freundeskreis (1997), and later Deluxe Soundsystem by Dynamite Deluxe (2000).
Battle Rap and Battlefreestylen emerged as a popular hip hop genre. These were based on the Freestyle Battle that had long been popular in the United States, in which rappers competed in self-aggrandizement and hyperbolic mockery. Though battle rap was at first strictly a performance art, German hip hop CDs soon included battle rap tracks, many of them directed at unspecified or imaginary foes.
Another genre of hip hop was Polit Rap, which sought to expose social problems both in and outside of Germany. This often blended with Gangsta Rap, which narrated the exploits of thugs in a largely imagined urban ghetto, modelled on inner-city US neighborhoods such as Compton and South Bronx. Many took a dismissive attitude toward German Gangsta Rap, as the sort of ghettos it concerned were a pure fiction in Germany.
[edit] 2000 to present
The late 1990s saw a dramatic increase in both rappers and fans, the music itself underwent little innovation. The boom ended around 2001, as the rate of new releases sank. The underground scene has once again become a dominant force in German hip hop culture, as it had been in the 1980s. Young aspiring rappers compose beats and texts in their homes, often sharing them over the Internet.
Battle rap has become more popular, led by explicit rappers like Kool Savas and Azad. Rap on political and social themes has continued with groups like Freundeskreis, Advanced Chemistry, Samy Deluxe and Curse.
Several bands have emerged under the Aggro Berlin label. The new "Berlin scene" has a harder, more serious sound than the more established "Hamburg scene." Sido's debut album in 2001 was hailed by many critics as the first real German hip hop album, as it seriously addressed social problems in the violent, anti-authoritarian, and often sexist style that has typified US Hip Hop.
The Frankfurt-based rapper Azad has ascended into the top 10 with his album Der Bozz. Immigrants like Azad have become increasingly dominant in the German hip hop scene.
Currently the most successful rappers in Germany include Bushido, Sido, Samy Deluxe, Kool Savas, and Azad. The "beef," a form of highly publicized, extended rivalry between rappers, has become a prominent feature of German hip hop, as it was several years earlier in the United States. Azad, for example, once accused Sido of insulting his mother, for which, after considerable media fanfare, Sido apologized on TV. As the commercialization of German hip hop solidifies, new artists must balance their creative efforts with market competitiveness.
*List of German hip hop musicians
[edit] Further reading
- Sascha Verlan, Arbeitstexte für den Unterricht. Stuttgart: Reclam, 2000 (Extended Edition 2003)
- Sascha Verlan, Hannes Loh: 20 Jahre HipHop in Deutschland.
Hannibal Verlag, 2000
- Hannes Loh, Murat Güngör, Fear of a Kanak Planet, Hannibal Verlag, 2002
- David Toop, Rap Attack, Hannibal Verlag, 2000
[edit] External links
- GermanRhymes.de - German Hip Hop Online Magazine with Hip Hop News, Interviews, Specials, Reports, and Links.
- Hiphop.de - German hip hop online magazine and community with a lot of hip hop & rap music blogs and podcasts.
- Rap.de - German hip hop online magazine and community with a famous forum.
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