German Hip Hop refers to hip hop music produced in Germany. Elements of American hip hop culture, such as graffiti art and breakdancing, diffused into Western Europe in the early 1980s.
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1980–1990
“Katz Rap” by JaJaJa (1982, Ata Tak- WR 14) was the first rap song recorded by a female in Europe. American Julie Ashcraft A.K.A. Julie Jigsaw wrote and rapped the lyrics to “Katz Rap” after co-founding JaJaJa in Düsseldorf with German drummer, Frank Samba, and Swiss bass player, Wietn Wito. The track was engineered and mastered by Kurt Dahlke A.K.A. Pyrolator at the Ata Tak studio. With the release of “Graffiti Artists International” on JaJaJa’s self-titled LP album (1982, Ata Tak – WR16), Julie Jigsaw became the first rapper to record a song about graffiti in Europe. JaJaJa toured with a large graffiti canvas she spray painted with the band’s name and a giant reptile/dragon/dinosaur. JaJaJa’s “I Am An Animal” video featured breakdancing youths costumed as dinosaurs.
Other early underground artists included Cora E. and Advanced Chemistry. It was not until the early 1990s that German hip hop entered the mainstream, as groups like Die Fantastischen Vier and the Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt gained popularity. German hip hop was heavily influenced by films which led to a strong emphasis on cultural elements such as graffiti and breakdancing, rather than just the music itself.
Commercialization of American rap and hip hop began in the early 1980s and began coming to Germany as early as 1983. The influence of film was critical on German hip hop’s early development, leading to a strong emphasis on the more heavily visual aspects of the culture like graffiti-art and break dancing. It soon percolated into Germany through recordings, cinema, and the American soldiers stationed there. Through such films as Wild Style and Beat Street, German youths developed a taste for breakdancing, spraypainting, and freestyling, thus beginning hip hop’s first wave of popularity. GLS United, formed by three widely known radio moderators, was perhaps the first German hip hop group, releasing the first German-language hip hop song “Rappers Deutsch” in 1980 although they were just a novelty act created for this one song. These movies led the people of Germany to realize that hip-hop was much more than just rap music, but was very much a cultural movement in and of itself. Though at the time of the release of the movie, it did not have a great overall impact, once reunification began in 1990, the hip-hop scene began to flourish.As one German remembers on a visit to the US in 1986, things were much different. There was no thing like MTV in Europe, as the scene was still very much underground. And there aren’t any hip hop only clubs there, as there are in the States.
After this initial wave of popularity, hip hop fans were few and far between.however the fans that did remain would play a role in the resuscitation of the hip hop culture. “…The hardcore hip hop fans that remained after the breakdance craze faded from the media were central to the further development of hip hop in Germany-they supplied much of the personnel for the important rap groups that began to develop in the late 1980s and early ’90s.” “Graffiti and breakdancing came out big but it only lasted for one summer. But hip-hop survived in the underground.” These quotes illustrate that although the first stages of hip hop were driven by the media and quickly died, the true hip hop fans would not let hip hop be a one and done fad. It was the passion and persistence of the underground hip hop scene that allowed it to prosper later on. Unlike most hip-hoppers of other countries, German fans did not identify themselves by wearing specific clothing styles; rather, most knew each other personally, and organized hip hop jams became demonstrations of unity.These parties, hosted at youth centers or at individuals’ houses, attracted regional and sometimes national attendance. Early jams were the locus of a nascent German hip hop culture, at which sprayers, breakers, rappers, and DJs convened and exchanged ideas.
Part of the genre’s attraction was its foreign origin. Many hip hop fans viewed contemporary German songs, such as those of the Schlager and Neue Deutsche Welle genres, as trite and unoriginal. For this reason, rappers at early jams rapped only in English, and to American beats.
The fact that most German rappers, for a time, rapped in English gives strength to the theory that German Hip-hop is a form of ‘cultural imperialism’: Germans emulating the culture of the United States, while relinquishing their own.Even today, there are German videos that look much like hip-hop videos shown in the United States, displaying nice cars and artists wearing huge jewelry and shades. Furthermore, the German dialect used in German hip-hop is a form of cultural imperialism. Because German Hip-hop artists are predominantly of Turkish-German descent (which is the largest minority group in Germany) and are constantly marginalized, they embrace Hip-hop as a music for all minorities to use and create a German “ghetto-style” of rapping when not rapping in English. By using a German form of Ebonics[clarification needed] to rap, Turkish-German Hip hop artists display the common need for minorities, when using rap as a vehicle of protest, to use language that is somewhat vulgar and improper to express their outrage towards the wrongs society has done upon them.In other words, Hip-Hop, no matter what the language, demands a specific dialect that is controversial to speak in public, but understood, in order for Hip-Hop to deliver the minority artists’ message of rebellion, powerfully.
Torch, a member of the Heidelberg-based group Advanced Chemistry, was perhaps the first artist to freestyle in German at a jam. Advanced Chemistry had previously freestyled in English, but they had (unlike other groups) addressed the audience in German between songs. At one jam, Torch, without the prior knowledge of the group, spontaneously began rapping in German. The audience was enthusiastic, not only because they could better understand the rap, but also because they felt more directly addressed. From then on, Torch rapped increasingly in German, writing his first German rhyme in 1988.
Die Fantastischen Vier (the Fantastic Four) are another important German hip hop group, who also began to rap in German around the same time as Advanced Chemistry. Die Fantastischen Vier saw English rap in Germany as meaningless loyalty to “surface elements” of U.S. rap, and devoid of any German political or social context. They sought to appropriate hip hop from its foreign framework, and use it to bring a voice to historical and contemporary problems in Germany.The shift of rapping from English into German increased hip hop’s appeal to the German people, Gastarbeiter (guest workers) included. Growing self-confidence among Germany’s immigrant population coincided with the use of the German language in German hip hop, and provided them with a vocal outlet in line with the plight of poor African Americans, out of which hip hop had originally emerged.
The Group Advanced Chemistry originated from Heidelberg, Germany. As they were one of the few early hip hop groups to rap in English, they were extremely influential in promoting the hip hop scene in Germany. More importantly however, Advanced Chemistry was a prominent hip hop group because of the ethnic diversity of the members. Torch, the leader of the group for instance is both of a Haitian and German ethnic background.Advanced Chemistry exploded onto the German hip hop scene in November 1992 with their first mixed single entitled “Fremd in eigenem Land” (Foreign in Your Own Country). This song was immensely popular because it directly addressed the issue of immigrants in Germany: “In the video of the song, a band member brandishes a German passport in a symbolic challenge to traditional assumptions about what it means to be German. If the passport is not enough, the video implies, then what is required? German Blood?”.
After the reunification of Germany in 1990, many Germans saw a growing wave of racism. Because many hip hop artists were children of immigrants, this became a major theme of German hip hop.
During the 1980s Germany first saw a wave of second generation immigrants coming into the country. Immigration became a big issue is hip hop albums at this point. The German synonym for an immigrant is Gastarbeiter which means ‘guest worker’, and these ‘guest workers’ were rapped about often. Immigrant teenagers commonly use rap and hip hop as a way to defend themselves in their new countries. “Since honour cannot be gained, but only lost, a permanent readiness to fight is required. Thus social approval is acquired by actually defending one’s honour or by exhibiting abilities such as the willingness to face physical encounter, talkativeness and humour… According to the rules of the game, the first one to whom nothing clever comes to the mind is the loser. This concept is quite similar to ‘dissing’ in rap.”
1990–1995
In 1991, the German music label Bombastic released the record “Krauts with Attitude: German Hip Hop Vol. 1”. The album featured fifteen songs – three in German, eleven in English, and one in French. The album was produced by DJ Michael Reinboth, a popular hip hop DJ at that time. Michael Reinboth moved to Munich in 1982 and was the first DJ to introduce garage-house and old school hip hop music to the Munich club scene.His compilation “Krauts with Attitude” is considered one of the first German hip hop albums, as it features Die Fantastischen Vier. The title refers to N.W.A (Niggaz with Attitude), one of the most controversial hip-hop groups of the time in the United States. “Krauts with Attitude” was the first album to nationalize German hip hop, and its album packaging reflected this. “The cover was designed in the colours of the national flag (black, red and yellow), and the linernotes read as follows: ‘Now is the time to oppose somehow the self confidence of the English and the American.’” Overall the album played a significant role in promoting and nationalizing hip hop and hip hop groups in Germany.
In the early 1990s, hip hop established itself in the mainstream, and many new rappers emerged on the scene. One such band was Die Fantastischen Vier, four rappers from Stuttgart, whose optimistic sound has brought them fame both in Germany and abroad. Apparently, original crew members Smudo and Thomas D, were inspired to begin rapping in German following a six month visit to the United States. It became apparent that they had nothing in common with U.S. rappers and their essentially middle-class upbringing was foreign to that of the cultural environment of U.S hip hop. “The group subsequently decided to concentrate on issues they saw around them, using their own language, rather than aping American styles.” They released their first LP Jetzt geht’s ab in 1991. Unlike earlier German hip hop groups, Die Fantastischen Vier never played in underground jams, and they did not invoke American “Gangsta rap” themes. The group was therefore not taken seriously at first. In 1992, however, their single Die Da?! hit the top of the charts. Despite the fact that this was the first German rap record sung exclusively in German, many in the hip hop community were aghast, because the band had barely no connection to the jam scene, rapped about in a light-hearted nature, and released their music through Sony/Columbia. The latter asset was particularly controversial, as Hip hop culture, both in Germany and the United States, had developed with a distinctly anti-commercial edge. By 1992, however, anti-commercialism no longer predominated in the American hip hop, and it has since lessened in Germany.
Although Die Fantastischen Vier achieved commercial success and helped to pioneer hip hop music in Germany, they were contested for sounding “too American.” The group’s lack of socially conscious topics and simplistic delivery and material informed the ways in which they were viewed as a trite pop group. Other German rap groups criticized Die Fantastischen Vier for not incorporating localized material that would resonate with German culture.
During 1992-93 many acts of protest occurred in the wake of anti-immigration in Germany. Amongst the angst of this period, the content of German hip hop started to become more politicized. Additionally, the language of the music started to reflect a more local voice. The group Advanced Chemistry has been noted as one of the first to incorporate social critiques of growing prejudice and racism in Germany. “…the newly emerging hip-hop movement took a clear stance for the minorities and against the marginalisation of immigrants who, as the song said, might be German on paper, but not in real life” In essence, Advanced Chemistry engineered legitimacy and authenticity to German hip-hop music by expressing the “real life” hardships experienced in German society.
During the inception of hip hop into Germany, most popular hip hop artists have come from West Germany.This could be because of the large immigrant population there at the time. “By 1994, the number of immigrants living in Germany had reached 6.9 million. 97 per cent of all immigrants were resident in the western part of the country, which meant that in the former Federal Republic of Germany and in West Berlin every tenth citizen was a foreigner.” f those 97% of immigrants in the Western part of Germany over 1.5 million of them originated from a European country. For example, the community with the largest number of immigrants (roughly 1.9 million people) was the Turkish community. Within the Turkish community only 5% of its people were of age 60 or older. Such statistics give justification for why hip hop may have flourished in Germany; many of the people were young. Furthermore, German hip hop, much like many other countries, was heavily influenced by the western world. During that time, a rises of anti-immigrant feelings resulted in the acts of arson and murder against the Turkish asylum seekers. In May 1993, 5 Turkish people were killed and many injured when someone attacked the home of a Turkish family with a firebomb. In 1993 German hip hop “globalized” with the emergence of Viva’s Freestyle; the equivalent to the American Yo MTV Rap show. Viva’s freestyle consisted of hip hop songs from the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany.The influx of immigrants into Germany caused an adverse effect on employment and wages. It was found that immigrants and native Germans were imperfect substitutes for each other, while old and new immigrants were interchangeable exposing an inelastic labor market. Lower wages and a poor job market are often catalysts for an emerging hip hop scene.
No new Deutschrap (German-language rap) albums made the charts from 1992 until 1995. Underground rap continued to develop, splitting into two the Neue Schule and Alte Schule (“new school” and “old school”). The members of the Alte Schule – many of whom had rapped in the early jams – accused the Neue Schule of not taking hip hop seriously. The Alte Schule, (derived from a groundbreaking compilation record of that name from the independent label MZEE-Records ) which included Cora E., the Stieber Twins, and Advanced Chemistry, had a more political focus that the Neue Schule did not share. One example of politically charged Alte Schule hip hop is Advanced Chemistry’s 1992 Deutschrap 12 inch Fremd im eigenen Land, (also MZEE-Records) which concerned widespread racism and the plight of disadvantaged immigrants. Another example is the Absolute Beginner song K.E.I.N.E. which criticized the police for being everywhere but where they were needed.
In contrast, the Neue Schule, which included the Fantastischen Vier, Fettes Brot, and Der Tobi und das Bo, sought mainly to produce fun, accessible music. They rapped about less weighty topics, injecting a liberal dose of humor and irony into their songs.
Despite criticism of the Neue Schule, it arguably paved the road for wider acceptance of the Alte Schule. Nonetheless, members of the latter continue to regard the former with disdain.
In the mid 1990s German hip hop was growing. John Clarke used the term ‘recontextualization’ to describe the process of borrowing cultural ideas and integrating them into a new society. German hip hop did just this as it took U.S. hip hop and gave it a new meaning and identity in German culture. Black American gangsta rap however is not the only type of rap that has developed in Germany. Some of the most innovative rap music in Germany is made by Germans or by underground crews dedicated to rap for both political and artistic reasons. Rap has been able to succeed in Germany not just due to a different national culture of the U.S., but also because people are responding to other racial and ethnic cultures. At this time, in the mid 1990s, the relation of import and domestic rap was 70% import to 30% domestic, but domestic was increasing rapidly. CD’s had practically taken over the market in Germany and cassettes were almost out and were just used for black copies. German hip hop was yet to have a specific identity as different styles occurred due to ethnic and musical background.
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