Episode 1
Fanta 4 and Advanced Chemistry, Commerce and Underground
We talk about two dominant groups in 90s German Hip Hop, how this genre came about in the first place and why it was already a talking point back then to "sell out".
Episode summary
“Hip-hop is dead.” At least, that’s what legendary German journalist Marcus Staiger declared in the year 2000. But to understand how it “died,” we have to go back to how it was born. This week on the German Rap Podcast, we’re stepping into the time machine to explore the late 80s and early 90s origins of Deutschrap.
We trace the culture’s roots back to American GI discos in West Germany and unpack the very first (and very polite) attempts at German graffiti. Then, we tackle the ultimate ideological split in early German rap: the massive, mainstream, “Vanilla Ice-esque” commercial success of Stuttgart’s Die Fantastischen Vier versus the politically charged, underground, conscious rap of Heidelberg’s Advanced Chemistry. Who was doing “real” hip-hop? Why was there so much gatekeeping? And how did Torch end up being crowned a Zulu Nation King by Ice-T?