Swiss hip-hop
Swiss hip-hop is not a genre of hip-hop , but a term that covers all of Switzerland's hip-hop music in all its languages and dialects .
Beginnings
The first Swiss German rappers initially wrote their lyrics in English , but after the bilingual song "Murder by Dialect" by P-27 and Black Tiger , the rappers switched to their native Swiss-German dialects. Rappers from the French-speaking part (where the traditional dialects mostly died out) and from the Italian-speaking part (where dialects and standard Italian are usually freely mixed) rap in the standard languages.
Ever since the Graubünden music group Liricas Analas appeared in 2004, the fourth national language, Romansh, has also been firmly anchored in Swiss hip-hop. The three albums they have released so far show that rap music - even in a language that few Swiss understand - can find a large audience.
particularities
The special thing about German-Swiss hip-hop is that it is not rapped in a “fixed” language, but in the dialect or the language that the rapper speaks. This is an advantage for the rapper, as he can use his own words, e.g. B. better rhyme. In French-speaking Switzerland, rapping is usually done in French (e.g. stress ), in Ticino in Italian. Rapping in High German is rather uncommon, but the Basel pioneers P-27 also used the standard language in addition to English and dialect, and Zora even rapped an entire album in High German.
Some also rap in their parents' language, such as Makale , who rap in Turkish; Zako who raps in Italian or the underclassmen who rap in English.
The report by the European Music Office in Music on Europe said that the Swiss hip-hop scene is “partly innovative and advanced”, especially Unik Records (the first European indie rap label).