Mits’ Pick of the Week 2/6/07
Written by Mits
Aightchyall, listen up. For dis week’s Pick of da Week, I picked a phat jawn from across the pond.
Of course, by “pond” I mean the Atlantic Ocean and by “phat jawn” I mean an interesting pop-cultural anomaly.
Hip hop is an American verbal art form, plain and simple. Tibet has throat singing, Pakistan has sufi musiqi, and we have that salvo of syllables called hip hop. Rooted in east- and west-coast scenes in the 1980’s, hip hop is now popular all over the world.
One thing that has always struck me about hip hop is that it works very well with the English language. Listening to hip hop in other languages just doesn’t cut it. Take for example, Panjabi MC from India. In the song “Jogi,” his proper pronunciation of words in the Panjab dialect of Hindi throws off the lyrical rhythmic flow.
That said, I was curious when I encountered the grey and white case of a CD in the “Deutsch Hip Hop” section of a record store in Vienna, Austria. Enter Curse, one of Germany’s premier rappers. Given the German language’s propensity to have long, strange words (“Geschwendigkeitsbegrenzung;” in English, “speed limit”), I was curious as to how Curse’s flow would compare to those of such American lyrical wizards as Black Thought of the Roots and Aesop Rock.
Well, somehow this guy manages to pull it off. I don’t understand a word he’s saying, but I am very impressed by his flow. The German language is very difficult to speak, yet he looses lyrics with the greatest of ease.
So put this in your pipe and smoke it.
Here is a song from his debut album Feuerwasser (“Fire Water”) called “Hassliebe” (“Hate Love”). Even if you don’t enjoy the lyrics, you’ll enjoy how he is similar to yet different from American MCs. He moves around much in the same way, such as head bobs and the “I’m making hand motions for emphasis” thing that American rappers like to do. However, notice that the video is relatively minimalistic. In lieu of hoes, cars with hydraulics and bling, we have several Curses in one shot, leather couches, and black sweaters.
If nothing else, revel in the fact that “OMG THERES A GERMAN DOOD RAPPING.”
Enjoy.
