It’s not only Britain that has a jihadist rap scene to contend with.
Eurabia Alert. “German Rappers Steeped in Anti-Semitism, Jihad,” by Lizas Welt, translated by John Rosenthal, from Pajamas Media:
When an unknown assailant fired four bullets at German rap star Massiv in Berlin in mid-January “” one of them grazing the rapper’s right arm “” the initial outrage soon gave way to questions. Was the episode really an attempted murder, perhaps the opening salvo in an emerging turf war among rival rappers, or had Massiv staged the attack himself as a publicity stunt? Threats of violence are, in any case, commonplace among rivals in the German rap scene. Among Massiv’s most adamant foes, for instance, is the Stuttgart-based rapper Bözemann [roughly, “Badman”], who likes to appear in the persona of an armed Albanian guerrilla fighter and who makes a point of his Muslim faith, as does Massiv.
Last summer, Bözemann came out with a “diss” track titled “The Challenge,” the video for which has already been played some 340,000 times on YouTube. The challenge in question is addressed to none other than Massiv. In the song, Bözemann announces, among other things, his intention to chop his enemy”s head into four pieces with an axe. In the video, moreover, one sees him digging a grave for Massiv and setting up a wooden cross next to it. The cross does not only bear the name of Bözemann’s hated rival, but also “” as the ultimate put down “” a Star of David. The implication is clear and on his MySpace page, moreover, Bözemann has made it even clearer. Thus, last July, the German “Bad Blog” found the following message for Massiv on Bözemann’s page: “HEY MASSIV!! “¦ I JUST WANT TO BOMB YOU AWAY I SH*T ON YOUR FAME AND YOUR LABEL ON YOUR TATTOOS YOUR MOUNTAINS OF FAT YOUR GAY SONGS YOUR GAY VOICE AND YOUR MUSLIM POSING BECAUSE THERE IS NO WAY YOU ARE A MUSLIM YOU ARE DEFINITELY A JEW AND YOU”RE DRAGGING THE QURAN THROUGH THE MUD!!!!“
[…]
The pride expressed by Bözemann in the alleged exploits of his grandfather “” namely, while fighting with Nazi Germany as a member of the Albanian SS division “Skanderbeg” “” was likewise of no interest for Spiegel-TV. “MY GRANDPA WAS ALSO THERE!!” Bözemann has been cited as having written on a “pro”-Skanderbeg division MySpace page, “LONG LIVE THE 21. SS SKB [Skanderbeg] DIVISION!”
But as observer of the German rap scene Robert Peschke has explained in an interview with the website Hagalil, Bözeman’s anti-Semitism is hardly an exception in German rap anymore:
“¦ since in recent years the word “Jew” has again become a general purpose insult, precisely among young people. Some German rappers also use the term “Intifada Rap” to describe their music and they see themselves as belonging to a “Generation Jihad.” They do everything they can to adopt the look and tone of Jew-haters. In videos that are accessible to anyone on YouTube, rap fans celebrate Hamas activists and other Islamist terror groups and challenge the right of Israel to exist. In these circles, Osama bin Laden has long since replaced Che Guevara as a symbol of emancipation.
The Violence Prevention Network is an association dedicated to counteracting extremism and xenophobia in German youth culture. In a recent lecture on anti-Semitic tendencies in German rap, Jan Buschbom of the Violence Prevention Network comes to the same conclusion as Peschke:
In the so-called “Underground Rap” milieu “” which, despite the name, includes genuine hit parade stars like Sido and Bushido and which dominates German-speaking hip-hop “” anti-Semitic remarks have become part of the consensus, or, at any rate, they are not perceived as scandalous. In light of the violent imagery, misogyny, sexism, and homophobia that are commonplace in recent German-speaking rap, it seems that hardly any of the young musicians and fans are bothered by the expressions of anti-Semitism. “¦ In German-speaking hip-hop, the Islamist terrorist has become a metaphor for masculinity, toughness, and soldierly virtues. Thus in his rap “September 11,” the Berlin-based rapper Bushido describes himself as a “Taliban”: “I am the terrorist, whom the youth believe in,” he sings.
Massiv too, who always performs in a keffiyeh and proudly refers to his Palestinian heritage, has similar material in his repertoire. Thus, for example, his tune “Blood Against Blood” contains the following lines:
My lines are explosives, my hand is on the button! I put a dropkick on your head, your blood doesn’t stop! You all make pop sh*t, the bullet’s coming for you! Let’s stay real now, give me the money and don’t laugh! The climate is too hot, Palestinian heritage! I”m registered as unemployed, but I still buy a Beemer! I don’t stop, as if I were Al-Qaida!
In “Festival of Sacrifice,” a track in which Massiv “disses” the rap group Shokmusik, he says: “I”m planning a nasty terrorist attack with the Lebanese guy/I’ll be coming at you with a 100-day beard!/The Shokkers get bombed like the World Trade Attack!” And in “Homeland,” which he recorded with the rapper Basstard, he sings the praises of the suicide bomber: the “Shahid, who is born again in Heaven.”
Read it all.