Kool Savas HHV Records 7 Items

Berlin Battle Rap in its purest form

The Berlin rapper often referred to as the King of Rap, named Kool Savas, can be credited with quite a lot: establishing battle rap in Germany, a series of number-one albums, nationwide controversies over his lyrics, and perhaps the most significant diss track in German rap. Savaş Yurderi, born in 1975, originally hails from Aachen, and after a childhood spent in Turkey and then Germany, he began to get politically involved in Berlin-Kreuzberg as a young man in the nineties. His musical heart beat early on for West Coast battle rap, and following a trip to Los Angeles, he founded the rap crew M.O.R. in 1996 with colleagues Fumanschu and Justus Jonas. Their name stands for Masters of Rap, and that describes them quite well because Savas and his crew laid down the foundations for German hip-hop, as well as through his crew Westberlin Maskulin founded a year later with his friend Taktloss. Following West Coast role models like Ice Cube and Compton’s Most Wanted, the two delivered aggressive battle rap in rhyming form on the first Maskulin tape in 1997: “Mein Ziel ist, alle Menschen töten ohne Grund” (“My goal is to kill everyone for no reason”).

From the Index to MTV

Kool Savas was now making waves in German rap, but criticism came early: the homophobic and sexist lyrics in tracks like Schwule Rapper (“Gay Rappers”) were controversially discussed and lead to the indexing of the Warum rappst du? EP. Nevertheless, the provocateur made it to MTV and the charts in 2001 with his EP Haus und Boot. In 2002, he founded his own label, Optik Records, under which he took young talents like his producer Melbeatz and the newcomer Eko Fresh under his wing. “Der Rest braucht nicht mehr zu reimen / Denn ich allein vereine alle in einem” (“The rest no longer needs to rhyme because I alone unite everyone”) – Savas presented himself as superior on his debut album Der beste Tag meines Lebens, but alongside the battle lyrics, the King of Rap now got more personal, and this decision also increased the sales figures. The probably most significant beef in German rap unfolded in 2003 when Eko Fresh left the Optik label – several diss tracks followed from both sides, including Savas’ huge success Das Urteil, with which he now concluded his concerts on tour. In addition to a collaboration LP with Azad and a TV appearance on Stefan Raab’s TV total, a handful of new Optik colleagues appeared on his mixtape Die John Bello Story in 2005, but the label was already facing its end three years later – which didn’t stop the battle veteran from climbing to the top of the charts with his next album, Aura.

The elevation of fresh

King Kool Savas, or KKS for short, continually set new milestones: Aura became the most successful German rap album of 2011. A year later, he performed the song Schau nicht mehr zurück with Xavier Naidoo at the Bundesvision Song Contest – and won. On Märtyrer, KKS continued to prove himself unbeatable in battle rap, albeit less provocative than in his younger years: “Ich mach‘ Rap über Rap, ihr macht Rap über nichts / Deswegen bleibt ihr auf null, das ist simple Mathematik” (“I make rap about rap, you make rap about nothing / That’s why you stay at zero, it’s simple mathematics”). With Essahdamus in 2016, he returned to the mixtape aesthetics of the old school, and in collaboration with Sido, he recorded the album Royal Bunker, which the two rap stalwarts dedicated to the former groundbreaking Berlin label of the same name: “Zwei Sterne kollidier’n und ihr seid live dabei” (“Two stars collide, and you’re live with us”). With KKS and AGHORI, the rapper continues his legendary status while maintaining his special position in German rap – he grows in new directions but remains true to his roots: “My music will always change a bit, but it will always have the same spirit.” Or, to put it simply: “Die Steigerung von fresh? KKS” (“The elevation of fresh? KKS”).