German hip-hop (locally known as Deutschrap) refers to hip-hop in the German language. Elements of American hip-hop culture, such as graffiti art and breakdancing, diffused into Western Europe in the early 1980s.
History 1980–1990 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, leading to a strong emphasis on visual and cultural elements such as graffiti and breakdancing beyond the music itself.Brown, Timothy S. "‘Keeping it Real’ in a Different ‘Hood: (African-) Americanization and Hip-hop in Germany.” In The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture, ed. by Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle, 139 London;
In addition to films such as Wild Style and Beat Street, American expats and soldiers stationed in West Germany facilitated the introduction of hip-hop music and culture into German pop culture.
GLS United released the first German-language hip-hop song, "Rapper's Deutsch" ("Rapper’s German"), in 1980. While the group (consisting of three radio DJs including the later comedian and TV host Thomas Gottschalk) was formed explicitly for the one song, and the song was intended primarily as a parody of "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang, it was nonetheless the first German hip-hop group and first German-language hip-hop track. Also, the punk rock band Die Toten Hosen released one of the first German hip-hop songs, "Hip Hop Bommi Bop ", in 1983, which was also one of the first rap rock crossovers ever. The song, created in collaboration with Fab 5 Freddy, is a parody hip-hop version of their song "Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder".Step into German – Die Toten Hosen (Music Podcast 2014/8 Transcript). Article on the website of Goethe-Institute San Francisco, Retrieved 3 April 2020. Nina Hagen also raps in her 1983 single "New York / N.Y." (in German) New York New York, the English version of New York / N.Y., was successful in American dance charts, peaking at number nine on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs.Billboard – Music Charts, News, Photos & Video Billboard: Chart History – Nina Hagen
These hip-hop movies -Wild Style and Beat Street- led the younger audiences in 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 movies, they did not have a great overall impact, once German reunification began in 1990, the hip-hop scene began to flourish.Elflein, Dietmar. "From Krauts with Attitudes to Turks with Attitudes: Some Aspects of Hip-Hop History in Germany." Popular Music, Vol. 17, No. 3. (Oct. 1998), pp. 255–265. As one German remembers on a visit to the US in 1986, things were much different. MTV did not exist in Europe at the time, and the scene was still very much underground. Moreover, there was a lack of European hip-hop clubs.Hip Hop In Germany
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 revival of hip-hop culture in the country. "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."Brown, Timothy S. "‘Keeping it Real’ in a Different ‘Hood: (African-) Americanization and Hip-hop in Germany." In The Vinyl Ain't Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture, ed. by Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle, 137-50. London; A "Graffiti and breakdancing came out big but it only lasted for a short period of time. But hip-hop survived in the underground."Heimberger, Boris. "Hip Hop in Germany." In The bomb Hip Hop Magazine. April 1996
American hip-hop continued to influence the German scene, influencing emergent acts such as Rock Da Most. Originally most German rappers relied on English language lyrics, a fact which has led some academics and groups of the German public to interpret the emergence of hip-hop in German pop culture as "cultural imperialism": that is to say, as a movement that emulated the culture of the United States at the expense of their native German cultural traditions. The influence of American hip-hop artists remains strong even in today's German-language hip-hop scene: music videos rely on similar symbols of power and affluence, such as cars and jewelry.Rollefson, J. Griffith. Flip the Script: European Hip Hop and the Politics of Postcoloniality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology Series, 2017. https://europeanhiphop.org/
Many German hip-hop artists are of Turkish-German or Arab-German descent, often second- and third-generation German citizens who grew up in comparatively poor or "tough" neighborhoods, which has become an influential hip-hop narrative. Identification with their roots in neighborhoods remains an important aspect of the identity of individual rappers and their "crews".
When not rapping in English, many German rappers employ a dialect of German developed in these communities and which is therefore associated with immigrants and the German "ghetto". Using this language in their music, some academics have argued, enables them to levy criticism and protest aspects of society and politics that they perceive as having disadvantaged them and their communities.Loentz, Elizabeth. "Yiddish, Kanak Sprak, Klezmer, and HipHop:Ethnolect, Minority Culture, Multiculturalism, and Stereotype in Germany". Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies. 25.1 (2006) 33–62
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-language 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.German Rap Keeps it Real Culture & Lifestyle Deutsche Welle 26.02.2006
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, is, for instance, 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 im eigenen 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 in 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."Elflein, Dietmar. From Krauts with Attitude to Turks with Attitude. Oct. 1998.
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.Compost Records: Michael Reinboth 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 liner notes read as follows: 'Now is the time to oppose somehow the self-confidence of the English and the American.'"
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 and lighthearted lyrics have 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."Pennay, Mark. "Rap in Germany: The Birth of a Genre." In Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA, 121. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2001.
Although Die Fantastischen Vier achieved commercial success and helped to pioneer hip-hop music in Germany, they were criticized 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.