Emptied Instagram page, baroque paintings and a countdown: OG Keemo’s “Berserker” presents itself as the most uncompromising German rap album of the year.
The Instagram account is emptied, only the bio links to a website. OG Keemo, the Mannheim rapper with Sudanese roots, will drop his new album “Berserker” on May 7, 2026 – and expectations are high.
The website: a teaser with a countdown. What you can see is an art direction that gives hope for great things. Several baroque paintings rotate behind the ever-dwindling countdown. Including Saint Sebastian, pierced by arrows, looking towards heaven – a Rubens that hangs in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin – and the severed head of John the Baptist, who died due to the intrigues of two women. Brute force, black metal lettering in Fraktur style and the word “Berserker” paint a rough picture of the new album.
What can we expect?
Bazzazian has an arrest warrant, OG Keemo has radio father Frank. It is expected that the man behind the raw sound profile of the last few albums, who has been inextricably linked to Keemo’s music since the beginning, will once again delight our ears with deep 808s. His beats are so influential that they usually get an instrumental album dedicated to them. Above all, the combination of head-nodding rap passages and unexpected samples – for example from the anime soundtrack of the Miyazaki film “Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro” in “Reise” – sets the music apart from the German rap norm. One thing is certain: from “Geist” to “Man Bites Dog” to “Feber”, there was always a powerful sound for the live shows.
To what extent the increasingly creative beat interpretation will be continued and which features can be found on the album remains to be seen. In any case, the guest list from the past albums reads like a dream – whether Souly, Levin Liam or Schmyt: OG Keemo’s vocal color harmonizes perfectly.
One thing is clear: OG Keemo follows a clear aesthetic line with “Berserker” – raw, supported by art history, uncompromising. It remains to be seen whether there will be a new storytime à la “Vögel” and whether the intro lines of the songs will be as legendary as “Civic”.
OG Keemo, seen on the website with a cardboard crown, seems determined to further expand his standing in German rap – and is no longer an insider tip.
