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Galactic-Tiger

Jewish Rapper Takes On Germany’s Hip-Hop Scene

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 A yellow star of David — the sort the Nazis forced Jews to wear — on the sleeve of a white sweatshirt appears near the start of the rapper Sun Diego’s “Yellow Bar Mitzvah” video. Seconds later, a scene shows a yellow Lamborghini in the middle of a neon star of David. Jets of flame from a massive gold menorah punctuate rapid-fire rhymes about guns, drugs and money.

"Yellow Bar Mitzvah" is a rare German gangsta rap recording in which Hebrew features prominently in the lyrics.

And while videos mixing menorahs and yellow stars of David with guns, sports cars and bikini-clad women pushing wheelbarrows full of cocaine would raise eyebrows anywhere, in today’s Germany they are particularly notable: Elements of the country’s booming rap and hip-hop scene have been criticized as anti-Semitic in recent weeks.

On April 12, a major German music prize was awarded to a duo whose album included the line, “My body is better defined than an Auschwitz inmate’s.” At the ceremony, called the Echo Awards, the rappers were booed. I n the weeks since, several prominent musicians returned their awards in protest, and the awards were canceled. The controversy sparked a national debate over rising anti-Semitism among young people and immigrants, two groups most likely to listen to rap.

Sun Diego, meanwhile, has succeeded while proudly proclaiming his Jewish identity. In his recent take on the 1980s Falco hit "Rock Me Amadeus", he boasts in a lyric that “a Jew is making a new German wave.” Sun Diego’s popularity shows that “You can’t pigeonhole German rap fans,” a Berlin-based hip-hop critic, Viola Funk, said in an interview. “Fans aren’t just interested in the art, but in the person behind it — that’s why it’s such a great thing when there is an unbelievably popular Jewish rapper.”

“Kids have lots of Muslim, Christian, German, Turkish, American, Lebanese or Kurdish role models,” he wrote in his autobiography, which is called “Yellow Bar Mitzvah: The Seven Portals From Moloch to Fame". “But so far there hasn’t been a Jew people could identify with in the German rap scene. I thought it was time to make an intentional statement.”

In some ways, it was a daring move. German gangsta rap is dominated by Arab and Turkish artists, and reports of anti-Semitism have been on the rise among both immigrant groups and young Germans generations removed from the lessons of World War II. Some of the country’s most popular rappers have put out videos featuring Jewish stereotypes and lyrics drawing on anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Yet incorporating his Jewish identity into his new persona seemed to intrigue fans, rather than repel them. “When I put out the book and the videos, it was like I had been resurrected,” he says. “Finally, I have an identity of my own and can do something with it.”

Jakob Baier, a political scientist who studies anti-Semitism in German rap music, says Sun Diego’s embrace of Judaism overturns stereotypes still common in German society. “He’s turned the anti-Jewish resentments around — ‘I’m Jewish, but I’m not weak. I wear a star of David not as a stigma, but as a symbol of self-empowerment,’” Mr. Baier said.

Music critics have taken a dimmer view, panning the songs as clichéd, misogynistic and offensive. The German magazine Der Spiegel accused him of “ethno-marketing,” calling the over-the-top Jewish imagery in Sun Diego’s videos a tasteless attempt to capitalize on his background. (Jewish leaders, however, have not made a fuss.)

Mr. Chpakov finds the criticism frustrating, mirroring taunts he heard at school as a child. “No one in Germany lets you forget: ‘Jew, Jew, Jew,’” he said, jabbing at the smoke-filled air over the hookah for effect. “For the Muslim rappers it’s the same: ‘Muslim, Muslim, Muslim.’ No wonder we all embrace our identities in our music. For me it’s my experience as a child, as a Jew. The Muslims wrap themselves in Palestinian flags. I’ve got a neon star of David.”

source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/world/europe/german-jewish-rapper-hebrew-hip-hop.html

 

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