The Viennese finally appeared in Berlin again – expectations were high.
The Columbiahalle is probably a second home for rap fans. When entering the sold-out location, almost everyone knows where to go. Some are still struggling with whether they want to stand in the endless coat check line or attend the pre-act skrt cobain and Baby Bens, but everyone moves through the venue unerringly.
The hall and especially the first few rows in front of the stage are bursting at the seams. Without mercy, without consideration, people push through and want to move forward as far as possible. In the canon, shouts of gratitude to Yung Hurn sound: “Thank you Yung Hurn, you are the best.” A line from his track “Ponny” that has become both a prayer of his fans and the motto of his merchandise.
Performance that we have experienced better
The shouts get louder and louder and the Viennese appears on stage almost on time (only 15 minutes late). He opens the concert with his song “No” from his early days. The mosh pits that arise in the middle of the hall take the breath away from everyone in the crowd. But that doesn’t stop fans from shouting at each other.
From old hits like “Eisblock”, “Opernsänger” or “Popo” to newer releases like “eine nase”, “Elfbar” or “Aus Mein Kopf”, the setlist did not disappoint. But his energy. At times, Yung Hurn sang listlessly into his microphone or strolled from one side to the other across the stage. But you can still forgive the 28-year-old for that. He knows exactly what he has to do and decides spontaneously whether he will actually do it.
The Yung Hurn Cult
In the front row there are almost only female fans, pressed against the barrier with longing eyes. During his performance, the rapper occasionally takes the time to hop off the stage and offer people autographs, photos or just his hand. He is accompanied by a cameraman who films the scene with an old camcorder and projects it onto the wall. You might think you’re watching a celebrity on the red carpet.
In addition to his rave and synth-pop tracks, he also brings quieter songs from his repertoire, which he has mainly released under his alter ego “K.Ronaldo”. With “Rot” the location appears in the same light and Yung Hurn proves once again why he was previously called a cuddly rapper. At the end of the concert he romantically introduces his track “Ponny”, which everyone has been eagerly waiting for. When he switches to the hard drum pattern, the entire hall goes crazy again, outvoting him with their screaming.
When cloud rap was still weird
Yung Hurn is one of the pioneers of German-language cloud rap. When the rapper from Vienna released his first track “Wiener Linien” in 2015, the minimalist and murmured sentences about love, sex and drugs were still alien to the rap world. With “Bianco”, colleagues RIN and Julian Sellmeister, Yung Hurn’s real name, catapulted themselves out of the SoundCloud bubble. For some he is a cuddly rapper, for others he is a misogynist. Although he has had to face this criticism for a long time, it does not seem to diminish his success.
During his appearance, he did not comment on recent criticism of his lyrics and an accusatory song against him.