Vanessa Mai & AK out of control: Toxic? Yes, please!

We would be presumptuous to say that Davut Altundal and Vanessa Mai have a lot to say to each other. That sounds downright absurd, after all, the Berlin rapper Altundal, who recently released his album BLACKOUT under the name AK Ausserkontrolle, is known for German rap on anabolic steroids, while Mai is known for sunny hits. She has just reactivated her project Wolkenfrei, the act with which she started her career in the 1900s, now only run by her.

But if you listen more closely, if you take a look at the past of both acts, you might get the idea that both might have a little bit more in common than their current high chart position. In “Supermodel,” a gangster-rap piece without a shred of wit or storytelling skill that characterizes many artists with hard-hitting street stories, AK Out of Control gushes about an overtly attractive woman in a way so stupid it borders on self-destructive: “What for a view, I’ll throw a Viagra / And swing the liana like Tarzan, oha.”

So stupid that it borders on self-destructive

Said woman is brought to heel with “more Woddi than fits into the glass”, AK raps, “because that’s exactly what I am and I’m allowed to do it”. So so. Of course, it doesn’t get that openly violent and ugly in the ideal Schlager world, but it can also be quite toxic there: “I noticed you straight away / I had already been warned,” says the 2014 cloud free song “Direct hit in the heart”. , “You really wouldn’t be without it / Some would have burned their fingers on you”.

Dangerous men, we learn that at AK and also learned it at Wolkenfrei, are simply irresistible. Alone: ​​Vanessa Mai seems to see things differently today. “True love doesn’t hurt” is the name of a song on their current album HOTEL TROPICANA, and it’s about how good it is to feel safe with someone. AK Out of Control, Davut Altundal’s fictional character, would certainly disagree.

This column first appeared in the Musikexpress issue 06/2023.