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DJ Kool Herc is considered one of the pioneers of hip-hop (here in 2000 in the UK). A party hosted by his sister and him in New York's Bronx gave hip-hop its mythical date of birth: August 11, 1973.
Photo: PYMCA / Avalon / Universal Images Group / Getty Images
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But the roots of hip-hop lie deeper. For some, for example, the poet Gil Scott-Heron is a "Godfather of Rap" (here in Chicago in 1981). His song »The Revolution Will Not Be Televised« from 1971 is considered a masterpiece. Scott-Heron's influence extends far beyond the boundaries of rap.
Photo: Paul Natkin / WireImage / Getty Images
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The party song »Rapper's Delight« by the group The Sugarhill Gang was one of hip-hop's early successes in 1979 – and for later stars of the genre such as Queen Latifah or Chuck D, it was the first rap song they heard in their lives.
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
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»Broken glass everywhere«: Grandmaster Flash (shown in the photo) and the Furious Five release the track »The Message«, which is central to pop history, in 1982. Political rap makes it into the US charts.
Photo: Peter Noble / Redferns / Getty Images
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Run-DMC from New York – the first rappers whose music videos are shown on MTV – enter into far-reaching collaborations in the mid-eighties. On the one hand, with the shoe and sporting goods manufacturer Adidas. On the other hand, with the rock band Aerosmith: »Walk This Way«. Hip-hop culture is expanding.
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
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»You gotta fight for your right to party«, the Beastie Boys recommend on their debut album »Licensed to Ill« in 1986. It is the first rap album to reach No. 1 on the U.S. charts.
Photograph:
Lynn Goldsmith / Getty Images
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On the other hand, Public Enemy demanded »Fight the Power« in 1989.
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
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Thedebut album of the rap group N.W.A, »Straight Outta Compton«, released in 1988, is a milestone in gangsta rap. It continues to shape the genre to this day: there is the insistence on origin, on Compton, a suburb of Los Angeles. There are the rhymes about making money. Less than 10,000 US dollars costs »Straight Outta Compton«. Among other things, it really makes N.W.A. member Dr. Dre rake in money (here in 1992, the year in which his influential album »The Chronic« is released).
Photo: Ken Weingart / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
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In the mid-nineties, two terrible events occurred in the conflict between rappers from the West Coast and East Coast: In 1996 Tupac Shakur (center) was shot dead in Las Vegas, in 1997 The Notorious B.I.G. (left) in Los Angeles. Both die in their mid-20s. Here you can see the musicians side by side, in 1993, together with rapper Redman.
Photo: Al Pereira / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
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During this time, two female rap stars released their debut albums: In 1996, Lil' Kim's »Hard Core« was released (here in 1997 during a performance). An album without which today's rappers like Cardi B would hardly be conceivable.
Photo: Raymond Boyd / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
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And in 1997 »Supa Dupa Fly« by Missy Elliott was released (here in 2002).
Photo: Gregory Bojorquez / Getty Images
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When rap became bigger in Germany at the beginning of the nineties, it was on the one hand about politics: The rap group Advanced Chemistry from Heidelberg felt "foreign in their own country" after Rostock-Lichtenhagen. Unesco has now declared the hip-hop culture from Heidelberg an Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Photo: Stadtarchiv Heidelberg
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On the other hand, the early days of German rap were all about partying: The Fantastischen Vier are unsure whether it's "the one there, the one there, the one there or the one there". Your insecurity will be rewarded. With gold in the German charts.
Photo: teutopress / IMAGO
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Moses Pelham (left) transfers »Straight Outta Compton« to German conditions in 1994, so to speak: The debut of the group Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt, to which Pelham and Thomas Hofmann (right) belong, is called »Direkt aus Rödelheim« – a working-class district in Frankfurt am Main. There is again the insistence on the origin, this time in Germany. Two guests on the album later became really famous: Sabrina Setlur and Xavier Naidoo.
Photo: BRIGANI-ART / IMAGO
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About ten years later, other rap representatives from Germany insist on their origins: The label Aggro Berlin lets Sido (here still wearing a mask and in proper style in the Berlin-Plötzensee correctional facility) sneak from his "block", the prefabricated buildings in the Märkisches Viertel, into the charts and the ear canals of high school students.
Photo: Sven Lambert / IMAGO
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A few years earlier, others had already crept in, in a more peaceful way: the Absolute Beginners from Hamburg with their popular album »Bambule« (here the members Eißfeldt, also known as Jan Delay, and Denyo at a concert in 1998). Along with Hamburg, Stuttgart was one of the strongholds of German hip-hop at the time.
Photo: Brigani Art / Pohlmann / IMAGO
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»You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow«: At the latest with Eminem's slightly fictionalized bio-pic »8 Mile« (2002), rap also became an issue in Hollywood.
Photo: Cinema Publishers Collection / IMAGO
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A kind of »8 Mile« on German – »Times Change You« (2010) is about one of Germany's greatest rappers: Bushido. Elyas M'Barek plays the young Bushido (here alongside Hannelore Elsner as his mother). It is the German version of the "From Drug Dealer to Millionaire" story that N.W.A initiated at the end of the eighties. From the Curb to the Skyline«, as the title of Bushido's debut album says.
Photo: Constantin Film
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At the end of the noughties, musicians like Drake (here 2009) brought sadboi rap into the mainstream. More vocals. More feelings. Subsequently, Drake and Kanye West become deeply hate-loving protagonists of hip-hop.
Photo: Johnny Nunez / WireImage / Getty Images
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Also at the top: a musical couple. Jay-Z and Beyoncé bring hip-hop to the Louvre.
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Kendrick Lamar becomes the first rapper to win the Pulitzer Prize in 2018. He gives rap political significance again. In previous years, the »New York Times« called him an »evangelist of Black Power«, for Pharrell Williams he was a »Bob Dylan of this era«. In 2015, when asked by SPIEGEL who Kendrick Lamar was, the rapper replied: "A street poet."
Photo: Kevin Winter / Getty Images
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In 2020, rappers Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B (from left to right) caused controversy with their empowerment anthem »WAP« – and a good mood at parties.
Photo: Kevin Winter / Getty Images
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A rap superstar gone astray: Kanye West, who at some point will only call himself Ye, is causing a stir in 2022 not so much with his music - but with hatred of Jews, love of Hitler and conspiracy madness.
Photo: Edward Berthelot / GC Images / Getty Images
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Just as US hip-hop has long been mainstream in youth culture, so is German rap. One of the most popular rappers in this country was once a YouTuber who advertised products: Shirin David (here in Baden-Baden in 2019).
Photo: Eventpress Radke / IMAGO
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The global success of hip-hop can be seen, among other things, in the fact that its trail runs through the international pop landscape. For example, she can be heard on the latest album of one of the most successful musicians in the world at the moment, who sings in Spanish: Bad Bunny.
Photo: Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
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