Harlequin (album)

harlequin
Studio album by Favorite
Publication (s)	2007
Label (s)	Self-made records
Format (s)	CD
Genre (s)	German hip-hop
Title (number)	18th
running time	53:22
production	Joshimixu, Jimmy Ledrac, Rizbo u. a.
chronology Rapping Can Kill (with Jason) (2005) harlequin Anarcho (2008)

Harlekin is the first solo album by the German rapper Favorite . It was released on January 26, 2007 on the independent label Selfmade Records and was largely produced by hip-hop musicians Rizbo and Flipstar.

background

In 2005 the first sound carrier of the rapper Favorite appeared with Rappen kann tödlich sein via the label Selfmade Records . Subsequently, the work for Harlequin began . Favorite found out that he could not concentrate on writing texts in his hometown of Essen and was then, according to his own statement , "locked up" by Slick One, the founder of Selfmade Records . The work on Harlequin then took two months.

The title of the album refers to the Italian theater character the harlequin . In an interview, Favorite explained the reasons for choosing the album name: “ Harlequin is a clown with a sad side. The harlequin also has a rather vicious sense of humor. Since I'm mostly in a good mood, but still have a very negative past, this is simply the perfect title for my first album. "

Track list

Rapper Favorite

#	title	producer	length
1.	Intro	Rizbo	0:52
2.	One rapper is enough	Joshimixu	3:52
3.	index	Jimmy Ledrac	4:06
4th	Shotgun ( feat.Kollegah )	Rizbo	4:37
5.	You are just like Fav	Rizbo	3:26
6th	Over and over	Rizbo	3:21
7th	Hotline Skit		1:51
8th.	Self-made millionaire	Rizbo	3:21
9.	For a good cause (feat. Jason)	Flipstar	3:48
10.	Favorite Insane Skit		0:15
11.	Bossrap (feat. Kollegah )	Rizbo	3:45
12.	Against the Lord	Rizbo	3:21
13.	Fuck You Symphony	Mayer & Rizbo	1:22
14th	SR is coming (feat. Slick One)	Rizbo	3:29
15th	Advertising Skit		2:07
16.	Scheme F	Rizbo	3:31
17th	Sister heart	Flipstar	4:05
18th	Outro	Rizbo	2:09

Texts

On Harlequin , in contrast to the album, rapping can be fatal to hear some personal songs. In these, Favorite deals with his own experiences and strokes of fate. For example, in the play Against the Lord , the rapper takes up the loss of his parents ( "Why is this world so hurtful? And why did strangers have to replace my parents? What rights do you have and take people we need" ). At the end of the piece, Favorite says that he hates God.

“That is [...] a kind of charge. God doesn't exist for me, so it's more about people and their faith. “God is in each one of us” and so on - something is just wrong, everything sounds so hindered. I think people believe in God because otherwise they couldn't explain the world to themselves. [...] But I don't need that, I'm more of a natural scientist. "

- Favorite about the background to the play Against the Lord

Participating musicians

Kollegah (left) and Slick One

Guest musicians are represented on four tracks on the album. Slick One, the founder of Selfmade Records , was involved in the creation of SR comes . Two songs were created with the collaboration of the rapper Kollegah . The musician, who has also been contractually bound to Selfmade Records since December 2005, can be heard on the titles Bossrap and Shotgun . Jason is represented as the third guest rapper, with whom Favorite had recorded the album Rappen kann födlich two years earlier .

Slick One is the executive producer of Harlequin . The beats of the sound carrier were largely contributed by Rizbo. He has the songs intro , Shotgun , As Fav you are also , It's all over , self-made millionaire , Bossrap , against the Lord , comes SR , formulaic and outro produced. The hip-hop musician also appears as a co-producer on Fuck You Symphony , a track produced by Mayer. Joshimixu contributed the beat of the piece A rapper is enough . Two other songs were produced by Flipstar . These are For a good cause and sis . In addition, the production for the title index was contributed by Jimmy Ledrac.

illustration

The cover of the album is black. Favorites head can be seen in the middle of the picture. This is divided by color. The left half of the face, visible to the observer, is white. A red liquid oozes out of the eye. The other half of the face is red and covered with some white symbols of anarchism .

The intention when designing the cover was to show both sides of the favorites, which are also reflected in the pieces on the album. The focus is on the one hand the personal tragedies that in songs like against the Lord and sis are taken, and on the other hand, the humorous component of the character of Favorite, which contributes to the numerous puns and the "anarchist style" of the title.

The photos for the cover were shot by Frederic Thelen. Selfmade Grafix designed the booklet.

marketing

As part of the release of Harlequin , videos were shot for two of the songs on the album. The first was created for the piece Just like you are Fav . It was shot under the direction of Ruben Pogany. Shotgun was processed as the second title in a video.

criticism

Favorites debut album received four out of a possible six "crowns" from the German hip-hop magazine Juice . The editors highlight the shotgun piece as positive . This is known as the “skills manifest”. In addition, the review acknowledges that Favorite can also exist alongside Kollegah, who is represented with a guest contribution on the cover.

“Favorites tone still seems a little tiring over the length of the album, and the obvious Slim Shady moments are still a long way from the master's timing. But Harlekin always shows an extremely charismatic and not least entertaining rap approach . There's still something going on. "

The e-zine Laut.de awarded the sound carrier three out of a possible five evaluation points. The rapper's lecture is praised as “technically high-quality” and “so fluid” that Favorite is one of the best rappers in Germany in this regard. Favorite seems to be sympathetic to Laut.de editor Philipp Gässlein, because it is not evident in the pieces "when the self-portrayal stops and when the parody of other rappers begins". On the other hand, the beats of the album, despite professional production, are highlighted negatively. From Gässlein’s point of view, the best components of the album are the personal songs Sister Heart and Against the Lord . Overall, however, Favorites Debut contains “too few pieces that will be remembered for a long time”.

The brevity of the album is criticized in a review on the Rap.de website. On the other hand, the combination of the flow with word games and the respective topic in the songs is positively noted. The piece Gegen Den Herrn is used by Rap.de as proof that Favorite masters personal, profound songs.

credentials

1. ↑ Favorite from Essen in an interview ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ HipHop-Jam.net: Favorite Interview
3. ↑ Lyrics: Against the Lord ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ January-February issue of Juice - page 33
5. ↑ ^{a b} booklet of the album
6. ↑ Mzee.com: Interview ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Video for You are like a fav too
8. ↑ Video for Shotgun ( Memento from November 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
9. ^ April issue of Juice (2007) - page 104
10. ^ Laut.de: Evaluation of the album
11. ↑ Rap.de criticism of Harlequin ( Memento of the original from October 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.