Die Fantastischen Vier:
Nickname: The Fantastic Four
Members: Michael Beck, Thomas Durr, Michael B. Schmidt and Andreas Rieke
Origins:
Stuttgart, Germany
Genres:
German hip-hop, Pop, and Rap
Years
active: 1986 (1989) – present
Labels:
Four Music, Sony BMG
To this day they have released 15 albums.
Die Fantastischen Vier were among the first groups to ever rap in the German language. With success and growing popularity the group had a brief stint in Los Angeles but having no connection to "American Gangster" scene they chose to focus their hip-hop on a more serious and philosophical style of hip-hop/rap.
Deichkind:
Members: Philipp, Ferris MC, DJ Phono and Porky
Origin:
Hamburg, Germany
Genres:
Hip-Hop, Electro
Years
active: 1999 – Present
Labels:
Showdown (parent label: WEA Records), Island Records
To this day they have released 5 albums.
The groups lyrics mainly consist of themes of irony and humor, but in their recent appearances display this change noted by fast, electronic rhythms. The band describes their new sound as TechRap, a mixture of techno and rap. Deichkind is very well known for its crazy and wild live shows including rubbish bag-outfits, trampolines, vodka, and pillow fights among other things.
The death of producer and friend Sebi Hackert on 21 February 2009 caused a major shock to the band.
Begin
Clip.
2000
to present
Today, the German hip hop scene
is a reflection of the many dimensions that Germany has come to represent in a
unified image of Europe. Everything from "migrant hip hop," which is
known as hip hop from the large Turkish immigrant population that is mostly
centered in Kreuzberg, to the more humor-based groups paint a portrait of a
vibrant and diverse hip-hop community in Germany.
Despite common notions of the Old
School German hip hop’s emulation of US hip hop styles and the New School’s
attempt to rap about crime and violence, some “Old Schoolers” feel that the
New School has, in fact, forgotten about its roots. Old School supporters and
Scholars disagree on the nature of the recent transformation in German hip hop.
Scholars have argued that the Old School German hip hop “scene was musically
and vocally oriented to American role models. Rhymes were written in English;
funk and soul samples dominated musical structures”. However, Old Schoolers
themselves contend that it is the New School German rap artists who have been
“Americanized,” and therefore lack the authenticity of the struggle of the
ghetto in West Germany. The German old school acknowledged that there were many
the differences between the situation in the United States and the situation in
Germany, and aimed at expressing the concept of “realness,” meaning to “be true
to oneself”. Different from the US hip hop’s equating “realness” with
“street credibility,” many raps that came out of the old school German hip
hop “address this issue and reject unreflected imitation of US hip hop as
clichés and as the betrayal of the concept of realness”. Furthermore, the
Old School of German hip hop may have been seen as representing “a critique of
White America” because of its modeling after US hip hop; however, Old
schoolers dispute that hip hop in Germany was about the oppression of people in
Germany. One Old School artist, DJ Cutfaster lamented that, “Most people have
forgotten that hip hop functions as a mouthpiece against violence and
oppression and ultimately against the ghetto, which has become the metaphor for
the deplorable state of our world”. Contrary to the New School hip hop’s
attempts to crossover into the mainstream popular culture, the Old School
“envisioned and propagated hip hop as an underground community that needed to
keep its distance from and to create resistance to mainstream culture in order
to avoid co-optation”. End Clip.
Die Fantastischen Vier Hits:
Deichkind Hits:
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deichkind
Presentation Review:
- The task our group had was to present information on Hip-Hop in the Germany in the 21st Century.
- My group consisted of myself, Talimatou (Tyler) Peniata and many other individuals.
- The way we completed this task was by everyone working on their own and researching and posting their information to the blog. Then in class we took turns presenting from our own blogs.
- Suggestions? Perhaps make this assignment a 2 week assignment so that groups can meet together and the presenting will go smoother and the information will be clearer to the audience.
