Editing German hip-hop (section)

===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.<ref>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;</ref>

In addition to films, such as [[Wild Style]] and [[Beat Street]], American expats and soldiers stationed in Germany facilitated the introduction of hip hop music and culture into [[Music_of_Germany#Popular_music_from_West_Germany|German pop culture]].

''GLS United'' released the first German language hip hop song, ''Rapper's Deutsch'', in 1980.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.vice.com/de/article/thomas-gottschalk-war-der-erste-deutsche-rapper/|title=Thomas Gottschalk war der erste deutsche Rapper—Auch wenn es weh tut|date=16 August 2016|work=Noisey|access-date=19 January 2018|language=de}}</ref> 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 none-the-less 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 also was one of the first [[Rap rock|rap rock crossovers]] ever. The song, created in collaboration with [[Fab 5 Freddy]], is a parody hip hop version of their song [[Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder]].<ref>[http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/saf/pro/stepintogerman/dmu/2014_8_Die_Toten_Hosen.pdf Step into German – Die Toten Hosen (Music Podcast 2014/8 Transcript)]. Article on the website of ''Goethe-Institute San Francisco'', Retrieved 3 April 2020.</ref> [[Nina Hagen]] also raps in her 1983 single [[New York / N.Y.]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tonspion.de/news/die-zehn-besten-songs-von-nina-hagen |first=Kerstin |last=Kratochwill |title=Die zehn besten Songs von Nina Hagen – Die Top Ten der "Godmother Of Punk" |publisher=[[Artistdirect]] |date=10 March 2020 |access-date=3 April 2020}} (in German)</ref> ''New York New York'', the English version of ''New York / N.Y.'', was successful in American dance charts, peaking at number nine on the [[Dance Club Songs|''Billboard'' Hot Dance Club Songs]].<ref>[https://www.billboard.com/artist/nina-hagen/chart-history/dsi/ Billboard – Music Charts, News, Photos & Video | Billboard: ''Chart History – Nina Hagen'']</ref>

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 movie, it did not have a great overall impact, once [[German reunification]] began in 1990, the hip hop scene began to flourish.<ref name="autogenerated9">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.</ref> 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 music|underground]]. Moreover, there was a lack of [[European hip hop]] clubs.<ref name="autogenerated2">[http://www.daveyd.com/germany.html Hip Hop In Germany<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

After this initial wave of popularity, hip hop fans were few and far between.<ref name="autogenerated5">{{cite journal |first=Dietmar |last=Elflein |title=From Krauts with Attitudes to Turks with Attitudes: Some Aspects of Hip-Hop History in Germany |journal=Popular Music |volume=17 |issue=3 |date=October 1998 |page=257}}</ref> 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."<ref name="BrownTimothy">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</ref> "Graffiti and breakdancing came out big but it only lasted for a short period of time. But hip hop survived in the underground."<ref name="autogenerated10">Heimberger, Boris. "Hip Hop in Germany." In The bomb Hip Hop Magazine. April 1996</ref>

[[American hip hop]] continued to influence the German scene, influencing emergent acts such as [[Rock Da Most]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brooks |first1=Ann |title=Popular Culture: Global Intercultural Perspectives |date=2014 |publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education |isbn=978-1-137-42672-7 |page=97 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eQncCwAAQBAJ |language=en }}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> 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 [[Music_of_Germany#Popular_music_from_West_Germany|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.<ref name="autogenerated7">Brown, Timothy S.'Keeping it Real' in a Different 'Hood': (African)Americanization and Hip Hop in Germany. The Vinyl Ain't Final 137-50. London; Athlone, 1997</ref> 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.<ref>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/</ref>

Many German hip hop artists are of [[Turks in Germany|Turkish-German]] or [[Arabs in Germany|Arab-German]] descent, often second- and third-generation [[German citizen]]s 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 [[community|communities]] and which is therefore associated with [[Immigration_to_Germany#After_World_War_II_until_reunification_(1945-1990)|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.<ref name=loentz>Loentz, Elizabeth. [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v025/25.1loentz.html "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</ref>

[[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 [[Politics of Germany|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.<ref>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</ref> 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.<ref>[http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1914272,00.html German Rap Keeps it Real | Culture & Lifestyle | Deutsche Welle | 26.02.2006<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

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 (German rapper)|Torch]], the leader of the group for instance is both of a [[Haitians|Haitian]] and German [[ethnic background]].<ref>Adelt, Ulrich "Ich bin der Rock'n'Roll-Ubermensch": globalization and localization in German music television Popular Music and Society, July 2005, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2822/is_3_28/ai_n14793364/pg_11{{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> ''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 Certificate|German Blood]]?".<ref name="autogenerated7" />

After the [[German reunification|reunification of Germany]] in 1990, many Germans saw a growing wave of racism. Because many hip hop artists were children of immigrants,<ref>{{cite journal |first=Dietmar |last=Elflein |title=From Krauts with Attitudes to Turks with Attitudes: Some Aspects of Hip-Hop History in Germany |journal=Popular Music |volume=17 |issue=3 |date=October 1998 |page=255|doi=10.1017/S0261143000008539 |s2cid=143592704 }}</ref> this became a major theme of German hip hop.

During the 1980s Germany first saw a wave of [[Immigrant_generations#Second_generation|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."<ref>Elflein, Dietmar. From Krauts with Attitude to Turks with Attitude. Oct. 1998.</ref>