In the land of unlimited possibilities, everyone can do anything. Waking up in the morning, advising stories at lunchtime, sorting merch in the afternoon and standing on stage as Stage Security in the evening.
The show DJ is suddenly the makeshift tour manager, the artist a best friend.
Ski AGGU is a Berlin rapper who raps with a lot of wit on Techno Beats about hedonism, Berlino Life and feelings. With a real name it is called August.
First US tour of a German rapper: Smaller Venues, great effect
One of August’s best school buddies will later become one of my best university friends. Because he willingly let him press an entire kebab for the music video of the song “Huso” (by Ritter Lean and Ski Agu), we continue to make friends. In the meantime, I regularly spend the time of my life on August’s side.
Because I am one of the few in his environment who sometimes reads a newspaper, I quickly qualify for reading his interviews. Without not writing texts in August’s names, as a “publicist” would perhaps do in English, we have intentionally incorrectly interpreted the word and since then I have been introducing myself as his publicist, which has hardly been questioned so far.
In winter I tell him when pumping: “Anyone who knows you and do not ask whether they can come on the US tour are crazy!” And I can.
In addition to the activities listed at the beginning, I try to bring myself positively here and there. Above all, due to the special authority to lose his cell phone, if we really have to hurry up, only to interview with a famous Instagrammer in downtown New York. For this, August invites me to the stage, where I can experience the shows from the best position with a security shirt as a inclined concertmaker and sensation Seeker.
Learning German for the concert: How American fans celebrate the Berlin lifestyle
Ski AGGU is the first German rapper to play a tour in the USA. New York, Chicago, La. Venues with capacities between 300 and 600 people.
So it is quite smaller than the Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin, which has almost 10,000 people. Nevertheless, tickets are sold so quickly on previously unknown terrain that the tour including several additional shows is completely “sold out”.
In addition to German au pairs, vacationers or delegates of the Bundestag, the audience consists of about half of Americans. Either read the translations of the texts on the Internet or have now started to learn German for your understanding.
I am always fascinated by how it can be. During my year abroad over ten years ago, I was not able to find too much interest in German culture at the time. In the snake before admission, we always interview the American visitors. AGGU mostly know these from the context of the ESC participation of Joost Klein, with which he brought out the song “Friesenjung”, which helped him to make his breakthrough. And from the Internet anyway.
Its open and tolerant way of impressing them. Again and again he took the time for the comments or posts of the fans on the social media platforms. A young woman tells how touched her when he re -published her Tikok a few months ago. As in Germany, he is very highly counted here.
DIY tour management: crew friends, chaos and creative solutions
Everything is knitted with a hot needle. The tour will hardly bear the resulting costs, but of course the first US tour of a German rapper is more of a German rapper. August, a studied industrial engineer, but budgeted accordingly.
The responsibilities are not always clear. A proven tour manager is missing at first. We juggle the responsibilities until friends traveled with co -traveling, for example, sacrifice themselves for the somewhat sympathetic topic of the merch. The example shows that if you are friends with your crew, everyone can get involved in the end.
When we return to our home in Brooklyn one evening, August already thanks the cleaner, from whom he thinks she has cleaned up during the day. Later it turns out: It was our photographer Luis.
The program is full, either we turn a music or short video, carry out sound checks or fan meetings.
Between moshpit and melancholy: the shows as emotional hotspots
While August cuts his TikKOs, I punch him through the cities like a blind dog. It doesn’t matter to me, it is of course very exciting to stand so close to the eye of this orchan or to run in the case. In general, I do not find myself as a shadow in August’s shadow, but as if I can ray something.
So there is no time to pause, not even for banalities such as washing the laundry. If necessary, we will work a few merchants brought to new, our own. The cities are blurred and I believe that later we can only remember everything because so many photos and videos are taken. The passed one is processed by posting it.
Always criticize people in the comment columns that August tours in the USA after liberal values are questioned again at the highest level. If you look at the audience, it quickly becomes clear that people here are happy to come together in a place as tolerant as the US aggu tour. As in the Berlin scenery, which is often stored by AGGU, queer people come together with supposed Atzes, where both freak out and be careful. You would not have to stabilize the concerts to a ray of hope, but they show that there is a wide audience for everything that the president obviously does not take for.
In the comments under a mail from August, Melina and me, countless fans are happy about how cute we all interact on the trip together. In between there is always hatred. Some want the weapons-savvy Americans like to shoot us. After I am confronted with something like this for the first time, I wonder what people can have hurt so much that they comment on the Internet in this way.
Chicago rhyme on ski AGGU
But there is a lot of nicity towards us. During our fan meeting in Chicago, the police would like to know how many fans are also to be expected and whether there may be tickets for the evening concert.
August and I go through the program before every show. We consider how best to address the audience in the respective place. So we convey German vocabulary à la “Atzen” or amuse ourselves about the rhyme of “Chicago” on “Ski Aggu”.
The German photographer Paul Ripke, who visits us at the LA concerts, will later say in his podcast: “I came as an interested person and went as a fan.”
Even if it is sometimes not clear to the audience how to prevent a moshpit, most take the chance to catch a photo with AGGU and IKKIMEL after the concert, although they also thank you for the concert.
August has already had all of this through: smaller venues, have to prove themselves. After the great success of the past few years, he could rest on the laurels. Instead, he emphasizes that he is in the mood to now also profile himself in the States.
I think that’s crazy. It has to demand so much strength to make it. Why would you try the same again elsewhere?
“Nobody traveled here as a plate washer. Nevertheless, we drive home with a rounded million of beautiful memories”
Soon I will probably assume betting whether Ski AGGU will be part of the Coachella line-up next year after assuring an ARD reporter: he would immediately accept a corresponding offer. In any case, in September he was already booked for a festival in San Francisco.
On the way to the last show in Los Angeles, according to Fontaines DC, we hear in our seven -seater. August says in the car that he hopes that everyone can hold out so that we can get drunk together later and the next day on a high that has been induced by mushroom chocolate, what has happened.
After the tour, we put all the designed and newly imposed functions. Merch sellers become friends, photographers again. I mutate back to the private individual and know that for a while I have to tell everyone about what we have experienced until I believe it myself. August perceived the opportunity to tear down at the most as one would say as a millennial.
Through the shows we were part of the respective city for a short time. More on the scurry than anything else, we only saw the statue of freedom from the corner of the eye. But instead of visiting the chicago silver bean, the cloud gate, we at least ate the locally famous deep dish pizza.
Nobody traveled here as a plate washer. Nevertheless, we drive home with a rounded -round million of beautiful memories. Everyone is clear, even if it sounds kitschy that the past ten days will be part of the stories that we will later serve against their will again and again.