Gangsta rap in Germany

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The gangsta rap in Germany has its roots in the 1990s and has been making 2003/2004 a successful sub-genre of German hip-hop shows. Content and musically it is to the French and American gangsta rap and battle rap ajar. Gangster rap is not to be confused with street rap, the content of which only partially overlaps with gangster rap.

history

The rappers Kool Savas , Bushido and Azad , who have been active since the 1990s, are considered to be important pioneers of gangsta rap in Germany . They shaped the genre with their extremely explicit, brutal and sometimes aggressive texts, which in the early days still contained many English text elements. This rap style was adopted by many gangsta rappers in Germany even after the turn of the millennium and is now very much appreciated among them. In retrospect, however, Savas distanced himself from these explicit texts. For the first time in 1997, Charnell from Berlin addressed growing up in a socially disadvantaged area in Mein Leben ; he is also considered one of the fathers of the genre. Although albums of the Rödelheim Hartreim project based on gangsta rap from other countries were commercially successful, only a few artists in this genre were active in Germany up to the year 2000. From then on, various rappers were able to establish themselves in Berlin's underground hip-hop, who exhibited extreme lyrical harshness and clichéd portrayed the lifestyle of a criminal. These include, in particular, Bass Sultan Hengzt , Fler , MC Bogy and MOK . In Frankfurt am Main , rapper Azad helped make gangsta rap better known. In his music he addresses, among other things, the rough life in the north-west of Frankfurt.

Logo of the label Aggro Berlin

From 2003 onwards, the genre was commercialized. This had its starting point in the album Maske by the Berlin rapper Sido , who was the first to popularize a variant of gangsta rap in Germany with his rap about gangs, drugs and violence. The album was the first of the genre to be awarded a gold record for over 100,000 units sold . The two follow-up albums Sidos Ich und Ich und Meine Maske can also have sold over 100,000 records and build on the success of the debut album.

Next to him, Bushido , whose music came closest to gangsta rap in the classical sense, was the most important representative at this time. The albums by the two artists, published by the Berlin label Aggro Berlin , established gangsta rap in Germany from 2004 as the second, heavier genre of German hip hop. The album Carlo, Cokxxx, Nutten (2002) by Bushido and Fler and Bushido's debut album Vom Bordstein bis zur Skyline (2003) are considered classics of the genre . Both albums are characteristic for their dark melodies and the hard, aggressive style in which the lyrics about drug trafficking, prostitution and gun violence are performed, but were not very successful commercially.

The continuous success of the two artists meant that numerous up-and-coming artists, partly with the support of major labels, tried to establish themselves in gangsta rap and to build on the successes of Bushido and Sido. The main media attention was the rapper Massiv , who was under contract with Sony BMG and was supposed to be established by his label as the German counterpart to the rapper 50 Cent . However, this did not achieve the commercial success of 50 cents. Other artists in the genre are Baba Saad or Kollegah . Since 2009 newcomers such as Farid Bang , Nate57 , Majoe & Jasko and Haftbefehl have had certain successes in the German charts.

Musical style

Gangsta rap in Germany is musically based primarily on the Queensbridge rap of the 1990s and on French gangsta rap. Characteristic of this style are melodies that appear melancholy, dark or threatening. Often piano, strings or choir singing as well as various synthesizers are used, and samples (e.g. from classical / neoclassical or from film soundtracks) are often used. The range of arrangements varies from minimalist to complex and orchestral.

Target group and public discussion

Although gangsta rap in Germany also criticizes social grievances and questions crime, the texts are dominated by the glorification of criminal acts and the fascination with social impoverishment and violence. In conjunction with the use of vulgar language , this content has caused the indexing of sound carriers in the past , e.g. B. Electro Ghetto by Bushido and all albums released by Bass Sultan Hengzt (as of 2014) . A possible risk to young people (they are the most important target group of the music genre), e.g. B. by glorifying violence should be prevented.

Meanwhile, more and more gangster rappers come from the western regions of Germany, including Majoe & Jasko , Kollegah , Farid Bang and Summer Cem .

literature

  • Marc Dietrich, Martin Seeliger: German Gangsta-Rap - Social and cultural studies contributions to a pop phenomenon , Transcript, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 978-3-8376-1990-4 .
  • Martin Seeliger: German Gangstarap: Between Affirmation and Empowerment (Writings on Pop Culture) , Posth Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-944298-01-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ From stabbers to moral apostles? The change in street rape (Part IV) In: 16bars.de
  2. ^ Marc Dietrich, Martin Seeliger: German Gangsta Rap: Social and cultural studies contributions to a pop phenomenon . transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-8394-1990-8 , pp. 48 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed February 12, 2017]).
  3. ↑ Gangster Rap in Germany - No more kindergarten, but pure seriousness ( Memento from February 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Deutschrap Classics: 4 4 Da Mess - Mein Leben (1997). Retrieved February 12, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Johannes Gernert: The penis length as a measure of freedom. April 29, 2008, accessed February 12, 2017 .
  6. ↑ A monster learns to love. In: Spiegel Online. March 23, 2009, accessed December 4, 2014 .
  7. ↑ Outgrown the faxes. In: Spiegel Online. June 8, 2008, accessed December 4, 2014 .
  8. ↑ Martin Wittmann: "Badly tolerant". In: faz.net. July 21, 2007, accessed December 7, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Bushido In: laut.de , accessed on January 23, 2019.
  10. ↑ Stefan Johannesberg: "From the curb to the skyline" by Bushido In: laut.de , accessed on January 23, 2019.
  11. ↑ Matthias Gebauer: Shots on massive were reported minutes later on the Internet. In: Spiegel Online. January 15, 2008, accessed December 4, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Malte Großmann: Constructions of masculinity in German-language rap texts: a qualitative study of the texts of the rap acts Bushido, Prinz Pi and KIZ In: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Philosophical Faculty III, Institute for Social Sciences (Ed.): Stups-Journal: Quality or Sensation? 2010 ( abstract ).
  13. ↑ Accompanying teaching material for teachers on the subject of "Violence in music videos - gangster rap from a media pedagogical perspective" In: filmabc.at (PDF; 1.2 MB)
  14. ↑ Peter Richter: German gangster rap, Can you leave it stuck. In: FAZ.NET, features section. January 20, 2008, accessed April 26, 2013 .