I find it a little hard to believe that I came into Germany not even aware of the fact that "German hip-hop" exists and left with 4 CDs of said genre. It's odd to say the least, but some of it is excellent. Of course, that being said, I have no idea what they are saying most of the time, but whatever. I watched myself a little German MTV and caught some real bad videos for people who wanted to be the German Ludacris or the German Hammer (yeah), but a few bands seem to be pretty darn good ... you can judge for yourself:

Die Fantastischen Vier
Their name translates to "the Fantastic Four" and if anything, they are the German answer to the Beastie Boys, but that is unfair to DFV. They've existed over more or less the same time period as the Beastie Boys and share many of the same qualities as their NYC brethren, but they seem to sport a more diverse portfolio. I actually ended up getting multiple albums by DFV because I was so impressed so here are two videos:

1. Old school DFV - "Die Da?!?" (Remember, this is from the early 90's - fashion choices are, well, questionable).


2. New School DFV - "Einfach Sein" (from their new album Fornika - seems to be an album about aging as music stars)

K.I.Z.
Ok, this is the real curveball. I caught part of a video by this band on German MTV and I was intrigued, so I bought the only album I could find, the frighteningly titled Das Rapdeutschlandkettensagenmassaker, which translates to something like "The Rap German Chainsaw Massacre". Indeed. Anyway, the album turned out to be great complete with the group rhyming "Village People" with "Der Spiegel". They had a new disc coming out, but alas, it was after I left (it was titled Hahnenkampf - a title Michael Vick might not be into right now as it means "Cockfight".)

Here is "Tanz" from the aforementioned chainsaw-related album (which sold in as low budget a case as the video implies).

I'll just wait here patiently for Betsy to express her horror at my new musical obsession...