Pyranja

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Pyranja
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
In a circle
  DE 83 02/12/2001 (3 weeks)
Never again
  DE 87 02/24/2006 (1 week)

Pyranja [ ˌpyˈraːnja ] (* 1978 in Rostock , bourgeois Anja Käckenmeister ) is a German rapper . She gained a greater degree of popularity outside of the hip-hop scene mainly due to her participation in the Bundesvision Song Contest 2006 , in which she competed for her home country Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and was able to achieve eighth place.

Her stage name is a play on words from Piranha and her real first name Anja. Occasionally she uses the alternative name Christiane Latte , which represents her alter ego .

biography

Youth and early career

Pyranja grew up with her brother in Rostock, where she graduated from high school in 1998. She began to be interested in hip-hop at the age of twelve , initially in the form of breakdancing . At 16 she wrote her first rap lyrics; The first appearance followed just a year later. After a one year stay in Boston (USA), during which she got to know the hip-hop culture in her country of origin, she moved back to Berlin , because there she saw the best opportunities for her further development in the rap industry. Early supporters and trailblazers were the rap group friends DCS and the Underdog Cru . In 1999 Pyranja recorded her first demo tape with Schattenmann in Berlin . The new musical contacts resulted in various feature contributions for other artists, including with Joe Rilla .

Roots & Wings (2001-2003)

In 2001 she went on the so-called fire water tour together with Curse , DCS, Tefla & Jaleel and Lenny , with which she was able to attract more attention within the scene. Together with this artist, she then formed the Swinger Club project , which released a single of the same name that same year. She also performed in July 2001 at the Splash hip-hop festival .

The label Def Jam Germany showed great interest in the aspiring rap artist and so it released Pyranja's first EP called Im Kreis in the same year . Although it did not receive much promotion, it reached number 83 in the German single charts. After the album Roots & Wings was finished in 2002 and was about to be released, the business partners broke up because their contract was not extended as a result of Def Jam's merger with Urban / Universal. Their debut album was released a year later on Dachshund Enterprise, but that didn't affect their success.

Pyranja in Hamburg (1999)

“Of course you cry sometimes or you want to stop completely. And then you hear a new beat and immediately want to write another rap on it. If you look at it from the outside, it's amazing how often I had to get up again. But it's just inside me, it's about passion that you don't give up again so quickly. "

- Pyranja about her career

In 2002 she also appeared in the ZDF documentary Will once to go to the sun, directed by Petra Mäussnest, together with Cora E. and Brixx .

Women & Technology (2004/2005)

In 2004 Pyranja founded her own independent label Pyranja Records in order to be able to operate more independently from now on. Her second album Frauen & Technik , which was originally planned as a mixtape , was also released there, as well as the single lines for you . In the same year she founded the rap formation Ostblokk with her East German colleagues Joe Rilla, Dra-Q , and Jamie White. The name refers to the East German origin of the members. Their album once around Blokk , on which every rapper is represented in equal parts, was released in the same year; The quintet's singles were Samba and Yeah . In late 2004, Pyranja also had a supporting role in the movie Status Yo! , on whose soundtrack she was also represented by individual guest contributions.

In summer 2005 she met the producer Holger Laudert and the singer Lukas Fröhlich. Together with them the EP Pyranja vs. Laudert & Fröhlich , which included the artist's pieces in new versions.

Loud & Quiet (since 2006)

The year 2006 began with the release of the single Never Again , which reached number 87 on the singles chart. The album Laut & Leise followed on February 10th, which was more varied than its predecessor both musically and lyrically. In addition, she represented her home Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with the piece Never Again at the Bundesvision Song Contest by Stefan Raab and achieved eighth place.

On September 15, 2006, two days before the state election of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, she took part in the event Laut gegen Rechts in Schwerin, together with musicians such as Silbermond , Brothers Keepers and others, at the event against a looming - and subsequently actually carried out - Entry of the NPD into the local state parliament was demonstrated, as was May 1, 2007. From October 27, 2006 to the end of 2007, she also presented the nightly program “Nightflight” on Radio Fritz every two weeks , and since 2008 she has been the editor and presenter of the program “ Soundgarden ".

In 2007 she performed at the Karlsruhe open-air event Das Fest . In the same year the books Krasse Töchter appeared. Girls in youth cultures. and female hip hop. Realness, roots and rap models , for which she was the author of individual chapters. She also completed her diploma at the Berlin University of the Arts after studying social and business communication for several years. Her diploma thesis was published by VDM-Verlag in 2008 under the title Why so little women rap . Since then she has been writing for several magazines and starring in films.

Pyranja Records

The founding of their own independent record company Pyranja Records happened in July 2004 on the occasion of the release of their second album Frauen & Technik . It is distributed by groove attack and is solely responsible for the artist's publications. Other partners are Raptaster and Premium Blend . In 2004 she said in an interview about her label:

“When I was with the major, everyone I wanted to work with asked about the money first. Now I can achieve so much more, even though I have no money at all. [...]
Besides that, I'm a label boss, marketing boss, promo chick, controller, product manager and A&R in one. I started very small and divided everything up. At some point, however, the time came when all of this could no longer be done alone. And by chance I got more and more people on board. Of course the Ostblokk boys help me wherever they can. A friend supported me with the promo, a friend booked me for the tour with Planet Asia, I was with the people from Status Yo! on the go, others just shot a video like that for me - everything is created. And all the people wouldn't do this for me either if they didn't feel it. That's the beauty of it. Sometimes it is also nice not to have any money, because then you recognize the truth in people and you realize who you can rely on and whom you can trust. In addition, I am the type of person who is difficult to hand over to tasks. That's why it's also a good lesson for me to say that I have to delegate something because otherwise I won't be able to do it. [...]
If you have a normal job or are still going to school / university, then you can close the door behind you in the evening and maybe forget the problems. But you can't do that if you have your own company. You think about it 24 hours a day. Difficult for me are the things that have to do with accounting, accounting and taxes and things like that. Everything that has to do with numbers. "

- Pyranja, 2004

Discography

Albums

Singles and EPs

  • 2000: Swingers Club , Phlatline Records
  • 2000: Foreign body / identification D Pt.2 , Def Jam Promo
  • 2000: In the circle / night flight , Def Jam Promo
  • 2001: Im Kreis (EP), Def Jam Germany
  • 2002: Just a matter of nerves , Def Jam Promo
  • 2003: No matter what you say , Dachshund Enterprise
  • 2004: Lines For You , Pyranja Records
  • 2005: Pyranja vs. Laudert & Fröhlich (EP), Pyranja Records
  • 2006: Never Again , Pyranja Records
  • 2017: Overkill , Springstoff

Ostblokk

  • 2004: Once around Blokk , Ostblokk Plattenbau
  • 2005: Samba , Ostblokk Plattenbau

Others

  • 2001: Special Broadcast (with Fiva MC ), Beatz aus der Bude
  • 2006: Guess who's back , Juice CD Vol. 61, Juice Magazin
  • 2011: Retro Tape 1 (mixed by DJ Easy), Pyranja Records

Works

literature

  • Angelika Baier: "I have to write my name in the sky": Narration and self-constitution in German rap . Francke Verlag, Tübingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-7720-8467-6 (analyzes songs from the albums Wurz & Flügel and Laut & Leise ).
  • Eva Tuchscherer: Images of women in German rap: Between subversion and affirmation of male-dominated roles . Archive of Youth Cultures Verlag KG, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-945398-14-2 , chap. 4.1.2.2 and 4.2.2.1.

Web links

Commons : Pyranja  - collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ Chart sources: DE1 DE2
  2. ↑ Self -name for her alter ego in the songs Blondes Gift and Ab 18 .
  3. ↑ Bumbanet Magazin - Interview with Pyranja and Schattenmann Bumbanet Magazin Accessed on May 29, 2020.
  4. ↑ cineastentreff.de ( Memento from February 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Oda also so is a new version of the piece So oda so by Women & Technology .
  6. ↑ Interview Pyranja ( Memento from February 10, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Review: Roots & Wings ( Memento from January 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Review: Women & Technology ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Review: Laut & Leise ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Pyranja
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anja Käckenmeister (real name); Christiane Latte (stage name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rapper
DATE OF BIRTH 1978
PLACE OF BIRTH Rostock