Makeda McGowan

African Diaspora in Germany

Final Paper
May 8, 2011

Conscious German Rap: The “Ethnic-outsiders’” Political Voice

and Critique of German Society

“Within German discourses, urban centres are usually

portrayed as sights of ethnic conflict and social decay;
they have localised common fears around economic
decline and cultural change. These are also places,
though, where a new discourse on identity originated. It
is a discourse that can be called authentically ‘German’
in that it does relate to one’s predecessors’ countries of
origin or to other Diaspora communities. Yet focusing
explicitly on the German situation, it constructs a
national identity which includes hundred of thousands of
Afro-Germans, more than one million ‘Turks’ born in
Germany, and the 70,000 German Sinti, to name just a
few of those usually not thought of when ‘German’ is
defined. It is a discourse which finds its congenial
expression in Hip Hop.”1

Conscious German rap is the most relevant form of rap when it

comes to depicting the lives of Germans and critiquing German

society. Hip-hop along with rap music first originated in the late 1970’s

in the United States and soon after, in the early 1980’s, the movement

made its way to Germany. The first rap music in Germany was merely

an imitation of American rap and once rap music became more

acclimated among minorities in Germany the tone shifted to a more

conscious form. More recently gangster rap has gained popularity in

Germany and similar to the first rap in Germany, it is more an imitation

1
El-Tayeb, Fatima. "'If You Can't Pronounce My Name, You Can Just Call Me Pride':
Afro-German Activism, Gender and Hip Hop." Gender & History 15.3 (2003): 460-486.
Wiley Online Library. Web. 9 May 2011.
of American gangster life rather than an interpretation or critique of

German society. Throughout the transitions of subject matter in

German rap lyrics, blacks along with other “ethnic outsiders”2, females,

and whites have all played different roles. Although some play more

significant or have more recognizable roles than others, hip-hop and

rap music ultimately serves as the voice of minorities in German

society.

The hip-hop movement emerged out of the ghettos of the Bronx

New York in the 1970’s and began to spread globally in the 1980’s.

When the movement reached Germany the aesthetic aspects such as

graffiti and break dancing were widely embraced by white youth in

East Germany that saw a “real parallel between ghetto life and their

oppression as citizens of a communist dictatorship.”3 These youth were

strongly influenced by two particular films “Beat Street” and “Wild

Style” and claimed that they felt the same way as individuals in the

ghetto even though they did not suffer from racism and poverty.

Because white youth who popularized hip-hop were imitating American

hip-hop and not creating German hip-hop through their own

experiences, this fad soon died out. Minorities who could truly relate to

the experiences of minorities in American ghettos continued to express

2
El-Tayeb, Fatima. "'If You Can't Pronounce My Name, You Can Just Call Me Pride':
Afro-German Activism, Gender and Hip Hop." Gender & History 15.3 (2003): 460-486.
Wiley Online Library. Web. 9 May 2011.
3
Brown, Timothy S. “’Keeping it Real’ in a Different ‘Hood: (African-)Americanization
and Hip Hop in Germany.” The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of
Black Popular Culture, 137-150, 1997
themselves through hip-hop and like oppressed groups in America

used it “as a tool for defining one’s identity and place in society.”4

In 1989 Germans interpretation of hip-hop began to emerge

rather than the earlier mimicking of American hip-hop and the rap

group Advanced Chemistry were the first rappers to rap in German.

Although their name is in English, this group is made up of three

Germans of Italian, Haitian, and Ghanaian backgrounds. In 1992 they

released the single titled “Fremd in eigenem Land”(foreigner in your

own country) describing their experiences of being out casted in a

place they call home, an issue that nearly all minorities in Germany

could relate to. Another rap group by the name of Fresh Familee

published the first German speaking rap song in 1990. 5 The song

“Ahmed Gündüz” is more of the Turkish-German’s experience of being

discriminated against in Germany. This group came out of the

Ratingen-West of Germany, which can be seen as the equivalent of

American ghettos because they faced issues such as high crime rates,

low income, alcoholism, and other social issues.6

4
Brown, Timothy S. “’Keeping it Real’ in a Different ‘Hood: (African-)Americanization
and Hip Hop in Germany.” The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of
Black Popular Culture, 137-150, 1997

5
El-Tayeb, Fatima. "'If You Can't Pronounce My Name, You Can Just Call Me Pride':
Afro-German Activism, Gender and Hip Hop." Gender & History 15.3 (2003): 460-486.
Wiley Online Library. Web. 9 May 2011.
6
"Google Translate." Google Translate. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011.
<http://translate.google.com/translate?
hl=en&sl=de&u=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_Familee&ei=w0rITY_KMIacgQe9_
63LBA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDYQ7gEwAw&prev=/searc
h%3Fq%3Dfresh%2Bfamilee%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DgNs
%26rl>.
 Since 1989 many more socially and politically conscious rap

artist have emerged. In 2000 many of these Afro-German artist came

together and formed the group Brothers Keepers. This group had been

contemplated in previous years but the members decided to assemble

after Neo-nazis in East Germany beat an Afro-German man by the

name of Alberto Adriano to death. Brothers Keepers released a single

titled “Adriano” in memory the killing and in the lyrics describes the

everyday inequalities Afro-Germans face and once again raising the

issue of feeling foreign in your own country. “Since ‘Brothers Keepers’

success, it seems that Hip Hop has the potential not only to mobilize

those minorities’ not usually granted a voice, but also to motivate the

majority to listen. ”7

Although hip-hop can be used to describe the experiences of the

“racial-others” in Germany, there are also smaller communities within

the larger group of “racial-others.” Turkish-Germans are the largest

minority group in Germany and responsible for contributing a new

dialect or “ethnolect”8 to hip-hop culture in order to differentiate

themselves from German society in a way they want to be

7
El-Tayeb, Fatima. "'If You Can't Pronounce My Name, You Can Just Call Me Pride':
Afro-German Activism, Gender and Hip Hop." Gender & History 15.3 (2003): 460-486.
Wiley Online Library. Web. 9 May 2011.
8
"Project MUSE - Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies - Yiddish,
Kanak Sprak, Klezmer, and HipHop: Ethnolect, Minority Culture, Multiculturalism, and
Stereotype in Germany." Project MUSE. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011.
<http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v025/25.1loentz.html>.
distinguished, rather than the idea of difference that has been

imposed. Turkish Germans and other ethnic groups who have another

language besides German, have formed a genre called Oriental hip-

hop.

“The ethnonational differentiation in hip-hop

was dubbed “Oriental Hip-Hop” to designate
and market those multinational or multiethnic
crews who used their other language(s), which
was frequently, but not exclusively, Turkish.”9

Turkish-Germans along with other minorities in Germany have adapted

the term “Kanak” or “Kanaksta” to describe their selves and set their

selves apart from the rest of German society.10 The term comes from

the ethnolect of Turkish-Germans called Kanak-Sprak roughly meaning

“Kanak-talk.”11 The term “kanake” is a derogatory term used by

Germans to describe an immigrant similar to the derogatory term

“nigger” in English. Nearly parallel to the term “nigga,” “kanak” and

“kanaksta” are used by minority Germans to reclaim their

“otherness”12 Kanaksta is a combination of the German term kanake

9
"Hip-Hop Made in Germany: From Old School to the Kanaksta Movement -
PDFCast.org." Upload PDF Documents - Broadcast - Share. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May
2011. <http://pdfcast.org/pdf/hip-hop-made-in-germany-from-old-school-to-the-
kanaksta-movement>.
10
"Project MUSE - Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies - Yiddish,
Kanak Sprak, Klezmer, and HipHop: Ethnolect, Minority Culture, Multiculturalism, and
Stereotype in Germany." Project MUSE. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011.
<http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v025/25.1loentz.html>.
11
"Kanak Sprak - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanak_Sprak>.
12
"Project MUSE - Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies - Yiddish,
Kanak Sprak, Klezmer, and HipHop: Ethnolect, Minority Culture, Multiculturalism, and
Stereotype in Germany." Project MUSE. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011.
<http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v025/25.1loentz.html>.
and the English term gangsta. “…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.”13

Oriental hip-hop can be seen as giving way to the Kanaksta

movement that exists today. People who are apart of the Kanaksta

community are all interested in social change through hip-hop.

According to the article “Hip-Hop in Germany: From Old School to the

Kanaksta Movement” by Sabine von Dirke, the Kanaksta manifesto

states:

Kanak Attak is a community of different people from

diverse back-
grounds who share a commitment to eradicate racism from
German
society. Kanak Attak is not interested in questions about
passport
or heritage, in fact it challenges such questions in the first
place. . . .
Our common position consists of an attack against the
“Kanakisa-
tion” of specific groups of people through racist ascriptions
which
denies people their social, legal and political rights. Kanak
Attak is
therefore anti-nationalist, anti-racist and rejects every
single form of
identity politics, as supported by ethnic absolutist thinking.

This article also states:

“Being a Kanaksta is therefore not tied to

13
"German hip hop - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_hip_hop>.
 ethnicity or nationality, that is, being an
immigrant to Germany, but instead defined as
an attitude expressing opposition to
mainstream culture, including the left-liberal
concept of multiculturalism, and as an attitude
that embraces difference.”14

Unlike Kanaka attack that encouraged a new definition of German rap

and identity, gangster rap has become increasingly more popular in

recent years. Once again, this form of rap is more of an imitation of

American gangster life and rap rather than interpretation of an aspect

German society. According to and article in the New York Times:

“German parents and the news media have

expressed shock at hard-core lyrics, which,
they say, glorify a dangerous American ghetto
fantasy that doesn't exist in Germany and
shouldn't be encouraged.”

Artist like Germany’s most popular gangster rapper Bushido have lyrics

that degrade women, speak of violence, sex and drugs in a ghastly

manner. With lyrics like these, Bushido along with other artist has been

recognized by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young

Persons that usually focuses on mandating neo-Nazi music.15 They

have banned the sale of gangster rap with the lyrical content described

to anyone below the age of eighteen. This banning has not decreased

the popularity of gangster rap among youth rebelling against their

14
"Hip-Hop Made in Germany: From Old School to the Kanaksta Movement -
PDFCast.org." Upload PDF Documents - Broadcast - Share. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May
2011. <http://pdfcast.org/pdf/hip-hop-made-in-germany-from-old-school-to-the-
kanaksta-movement>.
15
Tzortzis, Andreas. "Germany's gangsta rap shocks and seduces - The New York
Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d.
Web. 9 May 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/arts/12iht-rapper.html>.
parents or even neo-Nazis relating to the violent and discriminatory

lyrics.

Although hip-hop culture in Germany is predominantly male,

there are still females that have contributed to conscious rap. Cora-E

was one of the first female rappers that were signed by a major record

label. Her raps spoke of social criticism and aimed to connect with

children of working parents.16 The record label that signed her (EMI)

also signed another female artist by the name of Tic-Tac-Toe. “Their

lyrics, while not always brilliant, introduced a severely

underrepresented point of view into Hip Hop: that of the (black)

teenage girls dealing with issues ranging from dating through racism to

sexual abuse.”17 In 2000 after the Brothers Keepers were formed an all

female group was formed called Sisters Keepers. They provided a place

where females hip-hop artist could come together to create social

change since there was no place for them in Brothers Keepers.

“‘If You Can’t Pronounce My Name, You Can Just Call Me Pride’:

Afro German Activism Gender and Hip-hop” an article by Fatima El-

Tayeb, discusses how “The possession of historical consciousness

(being aware of and paying respect to those who paved the way) is a

central concept within Hip Hop culture”18 yet German hip-hop does not
16
"Cora E. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cora_E.>.
17
El-Tayeb, Fatima. "'If You Can't Pronounce My Name, You Can Just Call Me Pride':
Afro-German Activism, Gender and Hip Hop." Gender & History 15.3 (2003): 460-486.
Wiley Online Library. Web. 9 May 2011.
18
El-Tayeb, Fatima. "'If You Can't Pronounce My Name, You Can Just Call Me Pride':
thoroughly do so. Acknowledgement is given to the United States

founding hip-hop culture but often time acknowledging who gave voice

to minorities in Germany is overlooked. El-Tayeb states that “Showing

Our Colors: Afro German Women Speak Out” along with other texts by

females authors should to be equally acknowledged when it comes to

paying respect to those who gave minorities a voice in Germany. The

male dominated German rap industry continuously excludes a female

presence, when if it were for earlier presences male or female rappers

might not have to opportunity to express them selves through hip-hop

today.

Bibliograpgy
Afro-German Activism, Gender and Hip Hop." Gender & History 15.3 (2003): 460-486.
Wiley Online Library. Web. 9 May 2011.
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<http://translate.google.com/translate?
hl=en&sl=de&u=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_Familee&ei=w0rITY
_KMIacgQe9_63LBA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0
CDYQ7gEwAw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dfresh%2Bfamilee%26hl%3Den
%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DgNs%26rl>.

"Project MUSE - Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies -

Yiddish, Kanak Sprak, Klezmer, and HipHop: Ethnolect, Minority
Culture, Multiculturalism, and Stereotype in Germany." Project MUSE.
N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011.
<http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v025/25.1loentz.html>.

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ml>.

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encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cora_E.>.

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free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_hip_hop>.

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New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News &
Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/arts/12iht-rapper.html>.

"Hip-Hop Made in Germany: From Old School to the Kanaksta

Movement - PDFCast.org." Upload PDF Documents - Broadcast - Share.
N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://pdfcast.org/pdf/hip-hop-made-in-
germany-from-old-school-to-the-kanaksta-movement>.

El-Tayeb, Fatima. "'If You Can't Pronounce My Name, You Can Just Call
Me Pride': Afro-German Activism, Gender and Hip Hop." Gender &
History 15.3 (2003): 460-486. Wiley Online Library. Web. 9 May 2011.
Brown, Timothy S. “’Keeping it Real’ in a Different ‘Hood:
(African-)Americanization and Hip Hop in Germany.” The Vinyl Ain’t
Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture, 137-150,
1997