German rap is tremendously popular among the countrys youth garnering more than three hundred million streams on spotify of two hundred million you tube clicks and scores of chart toppers every year. The artists are influential in schoolyards and in childrens bedrooms sexism and homophobia have long plagued german rap accusations of anti semitism were less common but now even popular artists are facing condemnation for lyrics that incite anti jewish sentiment is there truth to the allegations. Its rare that anyone in german rap openly acknowledges their jewish heritage marina bush or nashville is an exception shes a leading promoter in the scene and has worked with many thing as rappers. That might anti semitism in german rap is mainly expressed behind the scene of. This is the first time shes opened up about her experiences with anti semitism in the industry. I was working backstage at a festival when a young man from the rap scene called over across the entire space u g u u g u u. I think a lot of people dont know i understand other languages. But i understood when people whod actually been really nice to me the whole time then turned to him and said in a different language youre kidding shes jewish and my god we had no idea this was the guy and they immediately started treating me differently so not only does that have been artists whove declined to work with me because of my religion no idea what theyre afraid of maybe they fair. I want to pick up a cut im just in it for the money no idea but yes ive encountered that. In this business for fifteen years and i dont know a Single Person who is truly an anti semite. Elfland who used to manage have to fit the rappers name translates arrest warrants and the controversy surrounding anti semitism and german rap started at his door his real name is unhung and he has hundreds of thousands of facebook fans many are young back in two thousand and fourteen he came under scrutiny for his line i celko came to the jews from the Stock Exchange and the jewish lyrics in hip hop that was a first in a scene. The rapper repeatedly distanced himself from the accusation maintaining the line stemmed from personal experience when as a young dealer he sold cocaine near the frankfurt Stock Exchange to jewish customers. Affluent larky was managing half the fail at the time he watched the controversy unfold over the lyrics. He thinks it was all blown out of proportion. So like reporters on the street signs that work reflects reality naturally they exaggerate. Have to feel himself declined to comment on the allegations. Professor mooney. From the department of linguistics at the Technical University in berlin is a leading expert on anti semitism she says lines referring to jews from the Stock Exchange are dangerous because they serve as a vehicle for whats called structural anti semitism. Structural anti semitism describes the type of jew who. A trick that is primarily associated with a criticism of capitalism its based on the accusation levelled against you as a centuries that was reactivated again in the Nineteenth Century which cost them as a money hungry greedy people seeking only to rate profit jewish money lenders jewish finance see is the jewish interest right these are the terms used. To fail is from the city of often. In a twenty four thousand interview he said ill tell you how a sixteen year old often thinks from his limited perspective everyone who is powerful and rich is jewish. The artist said he himself was no longer prejudiced. So how do teenagers in often think. Take for example the heros a project group run by the german red cross the boys are aged between sixteen and twenty one and enjoyed listening to german rap. What did they think of the songs. They do it is a provocation to make a statement to come across as cynical its just part of the image of young people who would also say things like hey man are you mental is that fair to people with mental disabilities or if you say man you jew its not p. C. But in that moment its not meant offensively its just part of how we are its part of the music. Its you. Its a common insult ive heard it since Elementary School it means youre my easily. Someone stingy there. With us but so what you got. The arena bruges has worked with have to fear for years is she disturbed by his lyrics. Even to take fire from i dont really comment on rap as lyrics because i. I think if someone raps i sold drugs to jews or the night and they werent used then its just a fact. Then to me its not under semitism and i think people are just hearing what they want to hear. Thats why i did i dont know how often he would have had to repeat that it was his own personal experience. That it was just a fact and if he had sold me bass to penguins he would have rapped about that. And what you. Have to feel. This is from the song i take it as a compliment judes Stock Exchange it means theyre loaded i see it as a compliment. A sports is a german rapper from essen the son of a reigning in academics his real name is par humpback healy his career began in battle rap a kind of competition in which rappers vie for the most offensive line. This is where. Hes been operating his own label for four years now. And show me a single line by a rapper who writes against jews of pure provocation im a great us as long as you can show me that line its just a preconception german rap is full of foreigners so german rap is anti semitic. Its kind and theres no way of the semitism in rap zero for me anti semitism means hating jews fighting against religion even religion death on these people or god knows what and no one does that no one doesnt exist if. Ya go by our conducts research in berlin on anti semitism in german rob one focus area is the work of koolaid. Born felix bloomer the raw. From does the dog has a large youth following his videos get millions of clicks on youtube. By us says the artist thirteen minute video up to clips and warrants a closer look. At this music video up a collapse of a clear using video apocalypse recounts the history of humankind as a continuous struggle of good and evil. And this repeating cycle of history is broken by callender who takes up arms as the knight of good against evil. Evil which is the devil has a representative on earth and his representative has three tasks. He must decimate the population he must control humankind with an iron fist and prepare the way for evil to manifest itself on a earth on their own as there is in a very short sequence you see this representative of this servant of the devil and on his hand hes wearing a signet ring with a star of david. Your words here the representative of evil the devil servant is branded as jewish and the star of david ring is the only pictorial detail so its appearance is not coincidental and the combination with water is wrapping and the lyrics written out on the screen its clearly an anti semitic statement bashed in. Both ears that i could. Go. Live in the midst. Of and this clearly connotes anti semitic symbolism is incorporated into various anti semitic interpretations which are evident in the video. For example the final battle takes place in East Jerusalem callender and his army of good face off against the as he calls it superior power on temple mount the significance of temple mount is twofold first because of its contentious status in the mideast conflict and second because it is a sacred site for both jews and most. Of contempt and this superior power on temple mount can only be defeated if its leader is defeated and he operates out of a bank tower in the city of london. The evil force that reigns of East Jerusalem that orders the jews to enslave humankind rules from its headquarters in an International Finance santa all that plays to the codes and myths of antisemitism. We ask god to respond he agrees to discuss only one aspect of the video by instagram the symbolism of the ring is often are the pentagram and hexagram are magical symbols but far predate the beginnings of judaism so i have to ask you what your experts area of expertise is obviously not of historians. Refuse to acknowledge their lyrics harbor anti sematic content is no exception. To that and of course anti semitism exists in german rap just like it exists in the rest of society and it would be foolish to suggest it doesnt. Come from done in the. Cover to pump for a range of media for fifteen years and was editor in chief of splash mag a well known rap magazine. Thats the the definitive. Within the german rap scene and among its protagonists there seems to me to be no consensus about the definition of what constitutes an anti semitism. Which is why some react so angrily when you level that kind of accusation against them because theyre thinking hey i have nothing against jews here i even know one of my promoters a jew whats your problem i hang out with them and so on. And the problem is that that doesnt necessarily mean youre not drawing on and to jewish narratives thats the problem. Being a sports radio. Thats the allegations of antisemitism in german rap. I think its pretty well known the jews are strongly represented in business everywhere in the world and envy no longer plays a role. I can turn the question on its head and say the imagine suddenly we muslims took over the entire Global Economy and were the richest of the rich everywhere and an island i can imagine that the envy that once played such a big ball of course would quickly resurface and play a role again. Phone the fairness of why is it dangerous when the human because if you could trace someone as overprivileged and then youre practically inviting people who suffer from injustice to attack these people. Every time you signal jews control the banks or all jews are rich youre offering someone who doesnt have money and influence the legitimacy to go punch another person in the face. Ligaments on the fly and. Im often. I find it problematic that people dont really know what anti semitism is and define it as some kind of anti jewish racism or something and you dismiss this model of. Mental open gang as a rap band from athens and distant off. Their songs take issue with nazis right wing populists and anti semites. Doesnt mention that watching that interview probably one find the type of classical right wing radical anti semitism in the german rap scene that you find among neo nazis. You will never or rarely find a rapper who admits to holding a grudge against jews you will want to get in soon is there only ever against the Israeli Government or zionists are all there against the power of banks those are the contemporary types of anti semitism. Contemporary anti semitism what is that rapper koolaid guy has faced a barrage of criticism over a line on a twenty seventeen album jewish organizations like the Central Council of jews in germany called for the cancellation of his appearance at a state festival and hasn and issued a public rebuke the line that sparked the uproar was a word play on lending money featuring the words jewish interest and explosives collate i defended himself on facebook he said he borrowed a line from another rapper and nearly included it on his album jewish organizations he said didnt understand the art form of battle rap and were ignorant of the dominant news culture of our time. As most present gave him but in a sagal they have to be boundaries where i say there is a certain area that may still constitute out that theres a certain area of hyperbole and taboo breaking on this but i have to ensure that it doesnt cross the boundary to where i target minorities and incite my followers to violence against those minorities and i think its our duty to raise our voices to stop things of that nature also for you know. Done you know in mine is the director of the Jewish Communities Association in hessen after his organization issued a statement criticizing canadia he received a phone call from the rapper. On the im tock on the estimate and on the day we sent out our press release and it became clear that the city of russos haim was on the verge of canceling colleagues performance. Called me. During the course of the call he tried to argue that the allegations we had leveled against him were unsubstantiated in particular he stressed. He was no one to semite that was most important to him he had less of a problem being called a homophobe and sexist but the allegation that he was an antisemite weighed heavily on him and he wanted to clear his name out from under it i tried to communicate that i couldnt care less if he was an antisemite or not i couldnt care less what he thought of what mattered to me were his actions and the message his lyrics disseminated and if those lyrics have and to semitic and anti jewish content then it makes no difference to me what as an individual thinks. As appearance at the festival and has and was ultimately cancelled his fans were disappointed. Jews from often back relates to beat up more such lyrics cause and its just the absolute i dont know anyone who takes it to heart i have jewish friends they listen to this music too well they dont take it so seriously i also wouldnt take it seriously if someone were to Say Something insulting about islam or my religion is just music its art so whatever. The from that. I dont believe freedom of expression legitimize everything if i feel someone whos driving an anti semitic agenda. And wants to express a serious political statement and that happens to be anti semitic then it isnt simply a matter of freedom of expression. That they feel released a mix tape in twenty fifteen where he record been the target of conspiracy theories for nearly two hundred years here. Hes like they secretly control all banks and thereby the world and are responsible for all of the worlds ills on the next step after failed alludes to the rothschild theory on several tracks that if the youth group heroes thinks half the fears lyrics fuel conspiracy theories. If you google the term straw theory you dont get any results so i think he coined the term theory and used his mixtape to explain the conspiracy theories attributed to the term. The way have to be filed presents a rothschild theory has nothing to do with the times definition of what it allegedly means according to wikipedia its just wordplay and only saying it is im the boss in frankfurt nothing more. Definitely problematic it just serves to reinforce the anti semitism thats already prevalent among young people. Didnt invent the ross child theory but the popular rapper is disseminating the term through his songs. Is the dumbest mechanism of social criticism but the most relatable im doing badly financially and socially that has to be someones fault so i find someone whos really well off to blame. That isnt the way it works its not a matter of tracking down people who are responsible for your problems and holding them accountable and then everyone is better off thats nonsense the world just isnt that simple what type of world do you do rap songs convey. Video as highly problematic in it the rapper battles the evil forces in jerusalem and the Banking Industry the in the bank the defeat of the banker the devil in us. Tide of battle for East Jerusalem is one there is freedom among quote buddhists muslims and christians. And this. Difference that increase in the for. His dream trip. To start. And end is at the end of the video jews are not part of the community of religions living together in peace which means the video explicitly sanctions the following interpretation of the redemption story of one world must be freed of injurious and nefarious world jury only then will there be peace on earth and have twins which mean. On this matter to refused our request for comment. But he gave the following explanation in an interview with german broadcaster bio. In songs like armageddon or apocalypse naturally certain conspiracy theories are woven together into a consistent overarching Science Fiction story but i dont draw any conclusions as to whether the earth throughout. The video apocalypse is another instance in which says oh well its just a story its just the picture and it doesnt contain in the symbolism that he really takes seriously all that serves an ulterior purpose of course thats nonsense hes drawing a homogenous picture jews as world rulers jews as evil jews as demons who seek to rule the world he is cost of the savior who rises up to repel the evil and free the world from the stranglehold of the jews. German youth radio stations rarely air a controversial rap songs but streaming Services Play any music as long as it hasnt been labeled dangerous by the federal review board for media harmful to minors the Music Industry also has a few means at its disposal and they did. Itll age rappers can always just self publish. The mizen rebels and the like most rappers are their own boss of their own label and have built up their reach on the internet and they dont have an industry over their heads calling the shots saying if you say that it will stop promoting you it doesnt matter so rappers speak their mind their grip on. That of the side rap rap has become what it is because the media no longer plays any kind of regulate reroll these people are their own platform no one cares if a magazine editorial sense as a rapper for something stupid they said so i think any successful repartee day will point to this follower numbers as proof that hes right and can say whatever he wants. That applies to call a guy who has enormous reach he holds the german record on spotify with almost thirty million albums streams in one week he has almost two million facebook followers and a million on you tube his videos garner up to fourteen million views even if someone has channel are highly controversial. And palestine was a sharply condemned video the rapper shot and released in twenty sixteen we can not fraud cast an excerpt. Many critics accused of a one sided pro palestinian portrayal of the middle east conflict. Isnt the only rapper voicing support for the palestinians. It was really its pretty common to find rappers calling for a free palestine and the like there is definitely something of a pro palestinian consensus in rafas and it is sometimes more and sometimes less prevalent my memory nigga for one. Group when it comes on the issue here is not about anti semitism in russia its about a certain notes being projected that depict certain people with an immigrant background including many people in the hip hop scene but not just in the hip hop scene these people exist everywhere as having a problem with the state of israel and they do they say so publicly on their Facebook Page and post about it. Well as soon as t. V. Callers and wants them to speak on the record about it no one wants to sit down to an interview and defend their own views because if you defend your views in germany will grow out of. My own to be a bit of a good boost off book. Is the subtext anti israel or is it anti jewish. Monica she says theres a point at which criticism of israel crosses the line into anti semitism. Between israel related to anti semitism has nothing to do with the facts and is not problem oriented this type of anti semitism is fueled by a desire to wipe israel off the map its most easily recognizable manifestation is the articulation of anti jewish stereotypes projected on to israel that is unmistakably verbal anti semitism and not legitimate political critique and things emitted. By no sale or just criticizing israeli policy and surely are not an anti semite just because you voice your opinion. If you have spent ten years studying israels betrayal in europe your discourse and in german discourse in particular course of the august day over that time we observed a strong anti israeli narrative a way of talking about israel that almost exclusively casts the country in a negative light the result is a distorted hateful picture with figures has on saudi and. German rappers have a tremendous influence on young people that many artists refuse to acknowledge that their lyrics could be interpreted as anti semitic. Estimate and that kind of is not true that there is no anti semitism in german rather they. I think anything be a conversation but it needs to be on another level not on the level of the artist lyrics i think thats been the biggest mistake and continues to this day in. The arena buju nashville says dissecting the lines of rappers lyrics is not the way to detect anti semitism its the artists the wider message that counts industry insiders and anti semitism experts complained that rappers are still weaving anti semitic content into their songs and that its often not recognized and therefore not discussed. Or. Men do that since most everything with if you think racism is confined to incidents where neo nazis openly assault people on the streets you havent understood the definition of racism but when it happens on the street people get it and they see the discrimination the prejudice with a small bit of that is also by and large understood in the german rap thing but what evidently hasnt been understood there is why it is anti semitic to claim that a small group of people are secretly controlling the world this is often the business of the first ask. Why is anti semitism a problem in german rap for call ya from until open gang the answer is Crystal Clear i did it will be limited to all of the problems he find across society you find in hip hop to its really very simple hip hop doesnt exist in some vacuum outside of society in an anti Semitic Society youre going to find anti semitic rappers just like youll find sexist rappers in a sexist society and so on. The fast pace of life in the digital. Shift has the lowdown on the web showing new developments and providing useful information. And interviews with the makers and users. Shifts next d. W. Freedom of expression. Of value ways has to be defended and new. Over the world of. Art of Freedom Freedom of art. A multimedia project about artists and their right to express their views freely. D w dot com freedom. County. Sheriffs hash tag a special edition on the booming business of user data. 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