Germany is one of the main countries that large number of Turkish people
relocated to work. As we have discussed several times throughout the semester,
these people were named “Gastarbeiter”s which can be translated as “guest
workers”. In the last two decade, second and/or third generation Turkish
immigrants in Berlin have been still trying to find a home between past and
future. This subculture that Turkish-German youth created is not silent. They express
their struggle with issues such as belonging, racism, alienation, identity in many
forms. Among these forms, art, especially music with lyrics have the power to
affect and lead the youth greatly. Among music with lyrics, hip hop becomes
popular not so surprisingly considering the fact that it is a genre that originated
to rebel against exclusion from the mainstream society. My main goal for this
final paper is to investigate how this young generation of Turkish-German
people who are torn between two nationalities connect with their Turkish roots
through the means of “oriental hip hop”. “Oriental hip hop” should not be
confused with “Turkish hip hop”. This genre is created among the Turkish
immigrant artists in Germany. It brings elements of arabesque music into the
American hip hop rhythms to form a genre that is specifically aiming at young Turkish-German
audience although it later acquired popularity in Turkey as well.
Some researchers argue that this genre was furthering the exclusion of
Turks and fueling the tension with the Germans because first of all Germans
could not understand the Turkish lyrics and secondly the lyrics almost always
included nationalism which would go a bit further than just national pride. On
the other hand, many researchers state that this oriental hip hop created a
public sphere where young Turks who are confused and maybe even ashamed of
their roots can understand where they come from and reclaim their pride in
being Turkish. I plan to focus this latter side of the argument because I
believe that these artists achieved so much for the Turkish youth in giving
them reason to be proud of who they are no matter what the society demands you
to be. Oriental hip hop may even be a safe harbor for many troubled youth who
would have gone down a darker road otherwise. As Timothy S. Brown stated beautifully in his
article "‘Keeping it Real’ in a Different ‘Hood: (African-) Americanization
and Hip-hop in Germany”, “Oriental
hip hop is a way for disenfranchised youth to mark their place in German
society. They live in Germany, but may feel like outcasts because they do not
fit perfectly into the cookie-cutter mold of being only German or only Turkish.
Turkish hip-hop has allowed the youth to embrace their identity and let others
know that although some may see them as exiles in Germany, the youth take pride
in themselves, their community, and their heritage.” Before starting this
research I didn’t know a lot about hip hop genre in general and t be honestly
my ears were not used to it. But as I look deeper into the meaning of the
lyrics and empathize with the struggle of these artists my respect for them
grows. They are brave. A
derogative word used for Turkish immigrants was “Kanak” and the album of Cartel
by Karakan, Da Crime Posse and Erci-E used this word in their album freely, encouraging
Turkish youth to not be ashamed of their roots. Erci-E strongly encourages
Turkish people to stick to their values and not be ashamed of them. His words “This
is who we Turkish people are. We should be proud and Germans should accept it.”
gives a general sense of what these artists are trying to achieve.
The methodology of this paper is built by three aspects. First is
collection and putting together of articles on this subject. Secondly, I am
going to analyze the lyrics of influential oriental hip hop artists. For this I
believe I have to do as many sampling as possible to decrease the variation and
see the general patterns or subjects they focus on when advocating national
pride (Yes, I am an engineer so that just happened. Don’t judge me when I say
sampling or variation). Thirdly, I will use the information I obtain from
previously done interviews with these artists to strengthen my thesis. For this
I am happy with whatever I find because of the time limits I have to rely on previously
done interviews. Influential artists/groups whose lyrics I want to analyze
include Erci-E, Karakan, Da Crime Posse (artists of Cartel), Akşit Uğurlu, another
pioneer group called Islamic Force, King Size Terror, Mc Boe B and Azize-A who
is also very important because she is a lady in the hip hop scene.
Bennet, Andy. "Hip Hop Am Main: the Localization of Rap Music and Hip
Hop Culture." Media, Culture, and Society 21 (1999).
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
Diessel, Caroline. "Bridging East and West on the "Orient
Express": Oriental Hip Hop in the Turkish Diaspora of Berlin."
Journal of Popular Music Studies 12 (2001): 165-187.
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
Erci-E website http://www.erci-e.com/. Accessed 14 May 2013.
Karakan Lyrics, Songtexte.http://www.golyr.de/karakan/index-6725.html.
Accessed 14 May 2013
Kaya, Ayhan. Constructing Diasporas: Turkish Hip Hop Youth in Berlin. New
Brunswick: Transaction, 2001. 1-236.
Lauren, Stokes. “Kankardeşler Hiçbir Zaman Ayrılmaz.” Besondersweg. Wordpress. 31 July 2010. http://besondersweg.wordpress.com/tag/turkish-german/.
Accessed 14 May 2013.
Minnaard, Liesbeth. "Playing Kanak Identity: Feridun Zaimoglu's
Rebellious Performances." In The Unifying Aspects of Cultures. Germany and
the Netherlands: 2004. http://www.inst.at/trans/15Nr/05_05/minnaard15.htm.
Accessed
14 May 2013.
Mitchell, Tony. “Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop Outside the
USA”. Wesleyan University Press. 2002.
Schwarz, Franziska.
German-Turkish Hip-Hop: Field Studies in Bavaria. Goethe Institut. May 2009. http://www.goethe.de/ges/mol/tre/jsp/en4569440.htm.
Accessed 14 May 2013.
von Dirke, Sabine. “Hip-Hop Made in Germany: From Old School
to the Kanaksta Movement”. 103. On Orientalism see Edward Said, “Orientalism”
(New York: Random House, 1978), and “Culture and Imperialism” (New York: Knopf,
1993). See also the comments by Alper in Weber, “Du kannst, da das die andern
fur dich tun” http://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472113844-ch6.pdf.
Accessed 14 May 2013.
