Apache 207 is one of the most striking characters in German pop. Over two meters tall, with retro sunglasses and the balancing act between street rap and hit appeal, he has earned a mass audience-from charts to arenas. His joint song with Udo Lindenberg, a bridge between rap and Deutschrock, made it clear that Apache has long since reached the center of German pop beyond genrees.
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With his fourth album 21 grams, he now dares to try to show himself more openly. The title refers to the legend that the soul would lose exactly this weight when dying. So it should be more than mere pop, it should be more existential, more personal. In the first track of the album, he raps: “Let’s record today, this album here will be an honest.” The honesty looks like this: In “Tomorrow” he describes the loneliness of a 10,000 euro hotel suite that looks like a prison despite the Panorama view. He commutes between overcrowded bars, luxury bodies and mums for a cappuccino at the harbor – between excess and longing, glitter and grip.
This ambivalence is reminiscent of The Weeknd, only Apache sounds less like a cool R’n’B, but combines the directness of street rap with pop-hooks that stick immediately. The power of the album is exactly in this area of tension. According to Apache’s bourgeois name, Volkan Yaman is vulnerable, but never completely unprotected. There is 21 grams a balancing act between superstar pose and the attempt to allow real closeness. Not a radical break, but a cautious step towards authenticity-and therefore more interesting than one would expect from one of the greatest pop phenomena in Germany.
This album appears in the MusikExpress 11/2025.