Hip hop is no stranger to controversy. It’s been synonymous with the genre since its birth in the Bronx. But when world governments begin to investigate rap and its effects, there just may be cause for some alarm. Such is the case in two of the leading European Union countries, currently.
Most recently the hot button has been in the UK where now even the country's conservative party is addressing concerns this weekthat rap seems to be too violent and possibly needs to be curbed.
But the most troubling incident of late concerns the biggest selling rap label in Germany of all time, Aggro Berlin. In fact, the combined efforts of their 5 solo artists and two groups, respectively, Sido, Fler, B-Tight, Tony D, G-Hot, A.I.D.S. feat Sido & B-Tight and Deine Lieblingsrapper feat. Sido & Harris have already garnered several top 5 singles in the country, and the label has received 3 gold (European standard) albums even though sagging music sales in the region has affected many other labels of all genres. It would seem Aggro Berlin has clearly taken Germany by storm in by setting a new standard with not only its audio efforts but also dramatic videos and graphics in an independent effort quite atypical of European hip hop business.
However now 6 of the labels albums have been currently "flagged" by the German government due to what is deemed as “explicit language” addressing sex, drugs, crime and violence. In fact, one of the most succcesful tracks is called “Arschficksong" (translation: "f*cking that a**") by Sido which deals explicitly with the artists´ first anal encounter with a girl. The artists also address their violent and criminal career in the streeets of Berlin including selling drugs, theft, etc. Due to such lyrical content, the federal German agency “Bundesprüfstelle”- which is responsible for examining media works allegedly harmful to young people and entering these onto an official list, a process known as Indizierung (indexing) in German - has decided to “index” the 6 albums on its official list. Under German law, once on this list, artwork of any kind can then be banned at any time.
Several of the most prestigious media outlets in Germany have examined these actions. (please attached along with translations).
Yet Aggro Berlin says that it supports this type of expression due to the fact that the arrtists are intimately familiar with codes, violence and stories of the streets. Most of the artists as well as fans are immigrant offsrping from rough environments with no future, prevalent poverty , high unemployment, violence and crime; and it is these lyrics which bring attention to the situation of a growing number of young people in Germany today. And it is these conditions which the government allows to exist which has given rise to the artists' expression against it.
Says recording artist, Fler, “I grew up in a bad part of Berlin which I would describe as a typical German ghetto. The neighborhood was really bad and most of my childhood I spent hanging out with my homies in the streets instead of going to school. I saw a lot of crazy things happening in the streets like thefts, murders, rape, etc. and I also did a lot of crazy things myself. I´m German and most of my homies come from different parts of the world and were all put inside of these ghettos where we learned to survive. Our crew sold drugs, did robberies, etc. We are outsiders and nobody cares about us because people who live under these circumstances don´t get many chances in Germany. The government has forgotten about us long time ago though most of the immigrants in our hood were invited in the 70s to live and work here. We don´t get any support from the government and especially kids from our area are left alone and become very frustrated and violent. No playgrounds, bad schools and no perpectives. A proof for this disregard was even on all German TV channels recently which covered a school named “Ruettli” in Berlin where the teachers wrote a call for help to the Berlin senator and authorities because they couldn´t cope with the violence at their school anymore. The teachers were scared of going to the classrooms. This school is the best exampel for the situation of ghetto kids in Germany because it is located in an area similar to the one where I grew up and most of the Aggro Berlin artists spent their chidhood. The teachers tell you that you don´t have a future. There is no motivation for the kids to graduate and there are no role models. School leavers don´t find a job and go straight to unemployment. What´s mostly left is to start a criminal career in order to make some paper.”
Thus, much like that of the birth of hip hop in the United States, rap music still stands for a way to speak out not only against oppression but also in many cases to demonstrate to the mainstream consistently the types of citizens it has created when it elects to marginalize people according to race and class. Whether Germany or the United States, there will always be those who are considered “outside” and then even limited in their expression of that exclusion.
However, Aggro Berlin plans to combat all this by continuing to release music their way: by continuing not only to express their outrage via their own site but they have also just recently inked a deal with the mighty Caroline distribution company in the United States for a pioneering effort to release their music, the first of which will be “Trendsetter - Trendsetter” by Fler), with a DVD of 20 videos entitled “Aggro Viedos” the CD/DVD is set to hit in October '06 with a special first single release in September featuring the popular U.S. rap artist Juelz Santana entitled "Gangzta Mucke" ("Gangsta Music”). The album will be available via a variety digital retail outlets, and is destined to be a hip hop first.
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