OG Keemo Vinyl, CD & Tape

Relentless Realness from Mannheim

As a child of a flourishing hip-hop culture, Karim Joel Martin, born in Mainz in 1993, grew up listening to tracks by US rappers like MF DOOM and Skepta, however, the Berlin attitude of the early 2000s also left a mark on the son of a Sudanese parent. Together with his friend and producer Funkvater Frank, he ventured into sampling as a teenager in Mannheim, bought a microphone with his savings, and from that point on, mixtapes began to pour out, initially just for themselves, but soon with the Zonkeymobb gang collectively and publicly on Soundcloud. “Dank Keemo genießt deutscher Rap wieder Reputation” (“Thanks to Keemo, German rap regains reputation”), it was said in 2017 on Kobe. That’s not entirely wrong – the Chimperator label recognized the rap obsession of the young man from Mannheim and signed him, and a year later, his debut album Skalp was released. On meticulously crafted trap beats, OG Keemo brought fresh air to the genre with his lyrical ambition, a healthy gangster attitude, and dark themes: “Ich rede so, als wär‘ ich der Teufel persönlich / Doch seh‘ aus wie ein junger Gott” (“I talk as if I were the devil himself / But look like a young god”). With his powerful voice, he often creates a tense atmosphere and dedicates himself to a rare and relentless realness, reminiscent of what is known in the US from rapping poets like Kendrick Lamar or J. Cole.

Of Demons and Everyday Racism

Even in his early tracks, OG Keemo lets us know about the demons that have haunted him since then: “Ich schrieb meine besten Verse / Als ich bereit war, mein Leben einfach so wegzuwerfen” (“I wrote my best verses / when I was ready to throw my life away”). But his mental illness hardly makes him doubt his superiority because: “Meine Depression ist stärker als der Großteil von euch N****s” (“My depression is stronger than most of you N****s”). In 2019, the Otello EP followed, where Funkvater Frank replaced trap drums with boom-bap elements, and the hype around the lyrical heavyweight Keemo increased in the German rap scene. The second full-length album, Geist (“Ghost”), was released in the same year’s winter and told stories of his childhood, street life, and personal limits. The rapper seamlessly moves from one topic to another in a hypnotic manner, never losing focus, introducing concepts only to discard them in the next verse. The lyrics also often revolve around the daily battle against racism: “Ich bin gepolt, um bei Sirenenlicht zu bangen / Also red‘ nicht, wenn du nicht versteht, weswegen ich so handel‘” (“I’m tuned to panic when I see sirens / So don’t speak if you don’t understand why I act this way”).

An Album as an Audio Play

On his 2022 album Mann beißt Hund (“Man Bites Dog”), OG Keemo pours his lyrical art into a concept that tells a story from three different perspectives. According to Keemo, the tracks are based on true events, recounting juvenile delinquency, daily violence, and life in the high-rise complex – the narrative changes, and we hear from the viewpoint of either Karim, Yasha, or Malik. Despite this differentiation, it’s deeply personal: “These are all different parts of me,” says Keemo. Mann beißt Hund entered the German charts at number two and placed the rapper at the forefront of a new hip-hop generation. Through numerous skits and dialogues, Keemo creates an atmosphere that almost turns the album into an audio play, thanks in part to Funkvater Frank’s dramatic string samples. In the world of algorithm-based listening habits, OG and his producer clearly stand against the fast-paced consumption – long-form concepts are rare in German rap anyway. The next album with the title Fieber (“Fever”) is already announced, and new tracks like Fieber and Tasche show the Mannheim artist in top form: “Keemo is back, N****as sind geschockt / Aus dem Winterschlaf von dem Block / Leerer Bauch, Cash in mei’m Kopf” (“Keemo is back, N****s are shocked / Waking up from the winter slumber on the block / Empty stomach, cash in my head”).