The Echo, which was awarded annually from 1992 to 2018, was considered one of the most important German music awards. The last award ceremony was overshadowed by a scandal at the center of which were German rappers Kollegah and Farid Bang.
“Bans and censorship are not the solution. I hope that we find a way to a new awareness of what is tolerable and what isn’t through conflict like this.” These were the words used by Campino, frontman of the band Die Toten Hosen, to close his speech at the Echo award ceremony on 12th April 2018. The date plays a significant role, more on that in a moment.Campino’s plea was directed at Kollegah and Farid Bang. On this evening of scandal, the rap duo had received an Echo award in the Hip-Hop/Urban National category for their album Jung, brutal, gutaussehend 3 (Young, brutal, good-looking 3), known as JBG3. The mere nomination and presence of the rappers at the award ceremony was controversial. The International Auschwitz Committee called the nomination “a slap in the face for all Holocaust survivors and a shameful occurrence for Germany”.
The scandal was triggered by a line from the song 0815, which was included on the JBG3 bonus CD. The lyric asserts: “My body is more defined than those of Auschwitz inmates”. The inmates of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp were severely emaciated due to the harsh conditions. Yet minimal body fat is described as “defined” in fitness jargon and is considered a desirable state in the fitness community because it means that the muscles are more visible. Farid Bang, who performs the line in question, is referring to his low body fat percentage with this comment. An extremely grim comparison. All the more so because the album happened to receive the award on 12th April, the very same day as Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom Hashoah. The speech given by the two prize-winning rappers is met with boos from the crowd. Other winners give their prizes back in protest – a gesture that heralds the beginning of the end for the Echo Awards.
The song 0815 is like a lyrical rampage, with one verbal low blow after another. Reading many of the song words, you can’t help but ask: who actually likes this stuff? Alongside the blatantly antisemitic insinuation that caused the protest, they also contain racist expressions based on prejudice against refugees, which sound like AfD bar-room slogans.
Deliberate provocation was part of the marketing strategy behind the Jung, brutal, gutaussehend series. Right at the start, Kollegah and Farid Bang promoted JBG1 as “the most asocial tape in the history of German rap”. Their strategy paid off: Jung, brutal, gutaussehend Part 2 sold more than 100,000 copies and achieved gold status, Part 3 actually topped 200,000 to beat its predecessor. Although 0815 was not actually an official album single release, it attracted a great deal of attention because of the Echo scandal. The song does not offer much by way of added value – either in terms of rap or musically. It follows the classic battle rap model: discrediting enemies to boost their own egos, with over-the-top stage management. Kollegah and Farid Bang adopt a hypermasculine style of battle rap, in which they sing about their own penis sizes or imagine hard, distanced sex with the female family members of their actual or fictitious rivals.
The cultural influence of 0815 remained insignificant, however the aftershocks were all the greater. The direct response to Campino’s speech followed that same evening, when Kollegah put a caricature he had drawn of the singer up for auction. The duo subsequently apologised for the song and visited the Holocaust Memorial in Auschwitz. Despite this the event hosts felt compelled to take drastic measures, and cancelled the Echo Award presentations after that scandal-ridden award ceremony in 2018.
June 2024