Depending on your perspective, Aykut Anhan, aka Haftsperre, belongs to the middle hip-hop generation. When his first album “Azzlack” was released in 2010, the iconic riot label Aggro Berlin was already heading towards the exodus. Bushido has long been under the influence of notorious court structures. Ex-Maskenmann Sido was looking for his way to his “ass fuck” escapades.
Ultimately, it turned out once again that hip hop – not only in the USA – is difficult to convert into an adult existence. Unless you switch to the producer department. Or just do marketing…
The rap uncles from Stuttgart are an exception. But in the early 1990s Die Fantastischen Vier had never laid claim to being dangerous uzi-with-war-dog honchos either.
This is what the station district sounds like
With the arrest warrant and its Kurdish-Turkish-German language mix, a new, even more authentic note came into play: The Sound of Bahnhofsviertel. It doesn’t matter whether his stories as a coke seller are “real” or “made up”. He was able to convey this cause very well and, for the moment, also musically convincing. Lines like “Chabos know who Babo is” have entered the German vocabulary.
So now the seventh album, with a phalanx of prominent guests. For example UFO 361, Azad or the Frankfurt doyen Kool Azad. The duet with the 21-year-old pop singer Paula Hartmann is remarkable. The opening track “A Smell of Coke” is deliberately sweet. Principle: The young clubber who “just likes the smell of coke” and doesn’t want to take a nose herself. In addition, the fatherly watcher, who reviews the tough early years in terms of pressure refueling.
Musically, this is miles away from “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, but the principle should work similarly. A problem, if you can call it that, is the lack of proximity of the German-speaking rappers to the roots of the genre. In short: Hardly any of the rap millionaires under 40 have soul. Then samples from Modern Talking have to be used to create something like “soul”.
A lot of Hessen – even more theater performance
Since the Rödelheim Hartreim project, the Frankfurt version of hip-hop has always been on the go. Even the female counterpart, Sabrina Setlur aka Sister S, was more of a “tough” male projection in her early years. Boris Becker came later.
The Hessian father Moses P (51) is still radio-socialized. After that, it thins out nationwide, musically. Politically correct crews like the Antilopen Gang have far more ideas. But these are rarely heard on lowered sleds on the Sonnenallee.
The 36-year-old arrest warrant (who no longer lives in Offenbach) prominently advertises his Frankfurt origins in 2022. “Mainpark” is a notorious high-rise estate, a kind of “gheddo”, or “where I come from.” That’s all fine, he has mastered the rise “authentically”.
His themes “Chevington & Classics”, “The Brown Bag” or “Pimp” continue to play in the shady hard-core milieu. These only have anything to do with his current reality in retrospect. Arrest Warrant, the life correct gangsta rap performer. Perhaps he should soon turn to subsidy theater. That would have something: arrest warrant at the Berlin Volksbühne.
It is to be expected that “Mainpark” will be number one in the German album charts next week. His label knows how it works with the keyboard of success.
It might be difficult for people over 45 (exceptions prove the rule) to really “listen through” the album. There are definitely brilliant moments. Only: Similar to the German national soccer team, it is not enough to shine for just a few minutes.
Arrest warrant remains the good, tough, totally okay guy. He’s just gotten a little too clever after ten years of great success.
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