Inside Out - Hip Hop Spricht Special - Live in Berlin, Pt 1

Hip Hop Spricht

Berlin, Germany

Available in German language only. This Inside Out special features Germany's most effective youth culture phenomenon of the last ten years: German Hip Hop. A full decade worth of Rap biz experience found its way to the stage of Red Bull Music Academy's workshop session "Hip Hop spricht" about the state of the artform in Berlin. More than 500 spectators followed the call on a nice Saturday in April: aspiring bedroom producers, journalists, regular music fans, and full-fledged scene icons alike. Whereas the genre has been attacked by mass media for its excessive usage of explicit language and some highly-publicised outbursts of violence recently, prominent MCs like Samy Deluxe, Azad, Torch, Dendemann, and Nico (of group K.I.Z.) opted to stress the scene's sense of unity and focussed on the culture's core element: music. "By now, Hip hop in Germany deserves to be acknowledged as a genuine culture, that is relevant at quite a few levels of our society," rapper Samy Deluxe pointed out. "It's absurd to still downplay it as some short-lived trend after almost 30 years." In a second panel discussion, some of Germany's most respected hip hop producers broke down how to craft a beat, while equally stressing the importance of artistic uniqueness and passion. "Sometimes you have to forget about the rules and just follow your feeling", said Tai Jason, producer for Germany's most successful rap label Aggro Berlin. Or, as DJ Dynamite of legendary group Dynamite Deluxe put it: "It's not about expensive equipment and instruction manuals - it's about your heart and your brain." After every question from the audience was answered, the scene's establishment passed the torch to some of the most talented newcomers in "Deutschrap" for the night's closing concert: Huss und Hodn, Morlockk Dilemma, Marteria a/k/a Marsimoto and Berlin-based Chart-toppers K.I.Z., who collectively demonstrated, that there actually is a happy medium between gangsta platitudes und blinkered nostalgia for the "good ol' days". So, get a slice of the Deutschrap spice.