The new S-Class

	Chart positions ; Explanation of the data
	Albums
	The new S-Class
	Singles
	You do not love me
	Do you believe me?
	Only me
	Freedom ; (Introducing Xavier Naidoo)
	Follow the star

chronology
The new S-Class
Studio album by Sabrina Setlur
Publication ; (s)	March 21, 1997
Label (s)	Epic Records , Pelham Power Productions
Format (s)	CD , LP , MC
Genre (s)	German hip-hop , rap
Title (number)	14/15
running time	61:20 / 66:15
production	Moses Pelham; Martin Haas;
March 3, 1997	You do not love me
June 2, 1997	Do you believe me?
September 1, 1997	Only me
November 24, 1997	Freedom (Introd. Xavier Naidoo )
June 22, 1998	Follow the star

The new S-Class is the second studio album by the Frankfurt rapper Sabrina Setlur . It was released on March 21, 1997 on the labels Epic Records and Pelham Power Productions .

production

All songs on the album were produced by Moses Pelham in collaboration with music producer Martin Haas.

Cover design

The album cover shows Sabrina Setlur, who angrily looks at the viewer. The background is kept in white tones and in the lower part of the picture there is the lettering The new S-Class and Sabrina Setlur in black or gray on a white background.

Guest Posts

In addition to Sabrina Setlur, other artists appear on four or five songs on the album. Her label boss and rapper Moses Pelham can be heard on the songs Part II and Gentle . The title Episode Dem Stern is a collaboration with rappers Illmatic and Bruda Sven . Singer Xavier Naidoo is also on the play Do you believe me? as well as the bonus song Freisein (Introducing Xavier Naidoo) .

Track list

#	title	Guest musician	length
1	she lives		0:44
2	Part II	Moses Pelham	4:16
3	You do not love me		5:38
4th	Rödelheim		4:37
5	Do you believe me?	Xavier Naidoo	5:23
6th	Like a mirror		4:57
7th	Only me		4:03
8th	I want to see that		4:45
9	Gently	Moses Pelham	4:11
10	I feel you		4:59
11	Be free		4:54
12	Back then		3:57
13	Follow the star	Illmatic and Bruda Sven	3:23
14th	Machsoweita		5:33
15 (*)	Freedom (Introducing Xavier Naidoo)	Xavier Naidoo	4:55

(*) Bonus song

Chart successes and singles

The new S-Class entered the German album charts at number 19 on April 7, 1997 and reached the top position three weeks later at number 10. Overall, the record stayed in the Top 100 for 44 weeks with one break. In Austria and Switzerland the album reached number 19 and stayed in the charts for 16 and 14 weeks respectively. In the 1997 German annual charts, the sound carrier was ranked 30th.

In particular, the first single Du love me not was very successful and reached number 1 in the charts in Germany and was awarded a gold record for more than 250,000 units sold . The songs do you believe me? (DE # 17), Nur mir (DE # 27), Freedom (Introducing Xavier Naidoo ) (DE # 23) and Follow the Star (DE # 99) published.

Sales figures and awards

For more than 250,000 copies sold, Die neue S-Klasse received a gold record in Germany in the year of its release, making it the rapper's most commercially successful album.

Sampling litigation

The song Nur mir , contained on the album, led to a legal dispute between the band Kraftwerk and Sabrina Setlur's music producer Moses Pelham, who has already dealt with the BGH twice . This song is underlaid with a loop of a 2-second sampling of the Kraftwerk song Metall auf Metall (LP Trans Europa Express ; March 1977). Two musicians from Kraftwerk saw this as a copyright infringement and successfully sued the Hamburg courts for an injunction. After the BGH had overturned the first judgment of the Hamburg Higher Regional Court in 2008 because of incorrect and unclear reasons and referred the matter back (judgment of November 20, 2008 - I ZR 112/06, key word "metal on metal"), the OLG confirmed his decision. At the verbal verdict against this decision in December 2012, the BGH made it clear that even the smallest parts of a piece of music are protected by copyright and can therefore only be removed with the consent of the author. According to the BGH, copyright law provides for an exception to this rule in order to promote cultural creation. According to this, a musician is allowed to take such sound sequences from other pieces if they could not simply be replayed due to their special character (judgment of December 13, 2012 - I ZR 182/11, key word "Metal on Metal II").

Conversely, however, according to the BGH, this means that those who want to use the sounds for their own purposes and are “able and authorized to record them themselves” are not allowed to take them over by way of sampling. Tone sequences that clearly come from another sound carrier and form a melody may not simply be adopted. The point was that in 1997 Setlur had taken a two-second long two-bar rhythm sequence from Kraftwerk Metall auf Metall and assigned its title Nur mir in continuous repetition . The BGH came to the conclusion that it would have been possible to play in the rhythm sequence that was adopted, so that Kraftwerk's rights were violated. The right to free use according to § 24 Abs. 1 UrhG is only available to someone who plays a sequence of notes himself and thus a reproduction is possible for factual reasons.

Pelham lodged a constitutional complaint against this decision. The BGH had inappropriately taken into account the freedom of art. The Federal Constitutional Court accepted the constitutional complaint and dealt with it - according to the Chairman of the First Senate, Ferdinand Kirchhof - for the first time in its history with constitutional questions of copyright. In its decision announced on May 31, 2016, the BVerfG overturned the decision of the BGH. He misjudged the scope of artistic freedom. The use of samples is one of the style-defining elements of hip-hop. In addition, the criterion of "replayability" is unsuitable.

This is the third time that the matter will go to the BGH. According to the BVerfG, a preliminary ruling procedure to the ECJ on the scope of copyright law is not excluded. On April 30, 2020, the Federal Court of Justice ruled that Pelham should not have used the sequence because it "has not been changed, and [it] was easily recognizable".

Individual evidence

↑ The new S-Class on austriancharts.at
↑ The new S-Class on discogs.com
↑ album cover
↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH
↑ Chart tracking The new S-Class at officialcharts.de
↑ DE: Annual charts # 30
↑ You don't love me DE: Gold
↑ The new S-Class DE: Gold
^ BGH, judgment of December 13, 2012, Az .: I ZR 122/11 , full text
↑ Dietmar Hipp: Music sampling before the Federal Constitutional Court: When the lawyer sits with the rapper in the studio. In: Spiegel Online . November 25, 2015, accessed June 10, 2018 .
↑ Federal Constitutional Court, press release on the judgment of May 31, 2016, Az. 1 BvR 1585/13. In: www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de. Retrieved May 31, 2016 .
↑ Judgment of the Federal Court of Justice: Sampling only permitted to a limited extent. Accessed April 30, 2020 .

[1] The new S-Class on austriancharts.at

[2] The new S-Class on discogs.com

[3] um cover

[4] Chart sources: DE AT CH

[5] Chart tracking The new S-Class at officialcharts.de

[6] DE: Annual charts # 30

[7] You don't love me DE: Gold

[8] The new S-Class DE: Gold

[9] BGH, judgment of December 13, 2012, Az .: I ZR 122/11 , full text

[SPON-1064607-10] Dietmar Hipp: Music sampling before the Federal Constitutional Court: When the lawyer sits with the rapper in the studio. In: Spiegel Online . November 25, 2015, accessed June 10, 2018 .

[11] Federal Constitutional Court, press release on the judgment of May 31, 2016, Az. 1 BvR 1585/13. In: www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de. Retrieved May 31, 2016 .

[12] Judgment of the Federal Court of Justice: Sampling only permitted to a limited extent. Accessed April 30, 2020 .