Kreuzberg Hip Hop Culture: "Your Weapon is The Mic, Your Drug is Spray Paint!"

The instructions of the principal of the hip hop school of life went something like: yell as loud as you can! Talk in capital letters! Be heard and noticed. Don’t mess with one another! Keep the knives in their sheaths, talk instead of resorting to violence. Your weapon is the mic, your drug is spray paint!

From the article, written by Annette Kögel on the occasion of Maxim’s death, Der Tagesspiegel¹

In the 90s, the sociological conditions of the laborer migration into Germany were compounded by racist attacks. Young people subsequently began forming gangs in order to defend themselves and take a stand. While these developments took place, hip hop culture as the bastion of ostracized factions of society for self-expression had begun making its voice heard on TV and via the American military. Correspondent with gang violence in the US and its reflections in hiphop, Berlin’s hiphop culture also evolved and developed within its own conflicts.

Intertwining art and life, this first article of our hip hop case file centers on the Kreuzberg district of Berlin. Relaying the unique development of Turkish hip hop, the story doubles as a respectful observation of the actors that lured teens away from violence and towards art.

Interview with Tamer Yiğit by Sedef İlgiç and Nazlı Sağdıç Pilcz
Text by Sedef İlgiç
Edited by Nükhet Polat
English Translation by Zeynep Beler

Kapak Görseli: Al Jazeera Türk 36 Boys Documentary

In the first interview of our hip hop case file, we had touched upon the rise of the far right and xenophobia during the ‘90s following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the catastrophes in Mölln and Solingen.²

The district of Kreuzberg, populated densely by Turks and with rubble from WWII, was dilapidated and practically cornered by the city up against the Wall.

Teens began forming gangs; both to defend themselves against attacks and to take a stand against the ostracization they faced. Fifteen Turkish gangs surfaced in Berlin alone; the Kreuzberg-based 36 Boys among them.³ Active from the late 80’s to the mid 90’s, the gang harbored five hundred members.⁴

Though Turks were in the majority, the gang also included young people of other ancestries. The only German member of the gang is Tim Raue, who presently is the chef of the eponymous Michelin-starred restaurant.⁵He says he would not be where he is today if not for being a member of the gang.⁶.

I met Tamer Yiğit last year during his tenure as a resident artist at Tarabya Cultural Academy, when we shot a video together. You can see the teaser here:

Wishing to hear a more in depth account of how he chose music over the gang wars described in the video as I worked on this article, I met up with him in a video call.

Tamer Yiğit, Daily Sabah

Tamer’s introduction to rap happened at 6, with the music video of the song “Rappers Delight” on German television channels. Starting off “rapping to the darbuka” after his parents bought one as a gift for their musically inclined child, Tamer later became interested in DJ’ing and worked on the records of the band Islamic Force from 1990-95 as an MC using the moniker DJ Rakeem.

Tamer recounts that of the two metro stops in Kreuzberg at the time, gangs congregated at Kottbusser Tor while hip hop scenesters hung around Schlesisches Tor. Come along, then, as we get to know the two people from this scene in Berlin’s Kreuzberg who in the early 90s laid the groundwork for Turkish hip hop culture’s value system and philosophy.

Maxim, Angel of Peace

The nomenclator of 36 Boys was Atilla Murat Aydın, also known as Maxim, “mighty Maxim”, “the mighty”, at times “Hulk 271” or “Big Daddy”⁷ To some, he was a “barbarian that vandalized public property with graffiti”.⁸ To those who knew him intimately, however, he was an “angel of peace”, founder and idol of the Berlin hip hop stage.

Maxim’in imzasıyla “Ben bir savaşçıyım, sanat benim ruhum.” Berlin Limited

Graffiti artist, breakdancer and rapper, Aydın was born in Heidelberg and raised in Berlin. Like so many others who became enamored with hip hop in Germany, he was introduced to this genre through American soldiers and embraced the culture unreservedly. He took part and performed live in bands such as Hulk 271, Islamic Force and Street Boys respectively. In 2003, on his 33th birthday, he was stabbed to death. He mostly gave live performances, and his tape “Floorwars” that was released in 2002 contains live recordings and beats.

In Tamer’s words, Maxim “was the one person moving through the Berlin hip hop culture, uniting almost everyone and upholding the scene.”

Maxim not only introduced many teens to hip hop culture but also presented hip hop culture as an alternative path to violence. In this way he played a monumental role in many young people’s lives and reconciled street gangs.

Boe B, the Hero of “Small Worker District” Kreuzberg

Tamer goes on to describe Islamic Force and Boe B:

“There was a band named Islamic Force that was famous among us. Back then, they also partook in gang activity. One member was the late Boe B, Bülent İpek. I’d heard his name often, he was 2-3 years my senior. Graffiti and breakdancing had entered our lives by proxy of hip hop but there were no rappers. As we’d been seeing it on American TV, the late Boe B was to us what Brad Pitt was to the US, he was our Hollywood star. He was the hero of Kreuzberg, this small worker district; he was our hero. His name was very familiar and the release of his singles gave us a shock. Istanbul: an English track talking about Kreuzberg. It was a great first step for Berlin rappers. Everyone was pumped up to write lyrics and get in the studio.”

“My Melody, Istanbul” was the first maxi-single of the band Islamic Force that Boe B founded in 1986 along with Maxim. A genre emerged that would later be dubbed “oriental hip hop”. It was the unique synthesis of Turkish music and American hip hop. The track also features Dj Cut’em T (Taner Bahar) and the Spanish-German DJ Derezon.

In an interview with hip hop researcher Verda Kaya, Dj Cut’em T relays the creation of “My Melody”:

We said, what we have at hand, our culture and identities, are important and powerful enough to be part of these tracks. We felt that when sixteen or seventeen-year-olds went to a club and suddenly heard a track from a Kreuzberg group joining Turkish beats with English rap, they would all find themselves in it.⁹

Each Culture Creating Its Own Rap Philosophy

Boe B was a true artist. We would drive around Berlin together, listening to old Turkish tapes and searching for samples, talking about music. We always tried to stay away from violence even as it always ended up finding us. We tried to keep on making music. In fact, Boe B and I tried to approach rap music in a different way. The rap music of Americans is different, because they have jazz and funk in their DNA. Their families’ legacy to their children is the music they listen to. We on the other hand did not grow up with jazz and funk. We grew up listening to Turkish music or Anatolian pop. We believed that each culture needed to find its own rap philosophy. Meaning, let whatever is in your DNA come to the fore, let that be your starting point. That way, we would be enriching rap music while at the same time avoiding the threat of copying the music of others.

With this philosophy going forth, the 1997 record Mesaj released by Boe B’s band after it was joined by Killa Hakan (Hakan Durmuş) and Nellie (Nellie Rüllich) in the ‘90s created a breakthrough due to being entirely comprised of Turkish tracks and bringing Turkish rap to the forefront.

The lyrics focused on societal conditions, as in the track “Selamın Aleyküm”:

They came from the village to Istanbul
Subordinated at the German customs
As though they were bought
They would be used and thrown out, was the plan
But they were wrong
Our people upset their accounts

The band changed its name, which had been inspired by “Soul Sonic Force”¹⁰and expressed a cultural identity rather than religious solidarity, to “Kan-Ak” to avoid controversy once their popularity in Turkey rose. They disbanded in 2000 after Boe B’s death.

You can also find the story of the track “Hayat Bizi” written after Boe B’s death here..

In Boe B’s Footsteps: Killa Hakan

36 Boys member Hakan Durmuş, more widely known as Killa Hakan, was born in Kreuzberg in 1973. His professional music career started in 1997 with Islamic Force and continued solo when the group disbanded. His joining Islamic Force was precipitated by meeting Boe B in the streets. He describes this turning point and taking over the torch from Boe B:

I was in the streets before, and Boe B plucked me out and into rap. I did listen to rap back then but didn’t know what it was. I was young and in the ghetto. Boe B was leagues ahead in terms of thought. He primed me on rap in just the right place and took me into his band. He’s left us, but I carry on with all my heart.¹¹

Killa Hakan, Killa Hakan Resmi Facebook Sayfası

Killa Hakan is a prominent name in current Turkish rap. He continues to be a spokesperson for Kreuzberg and the conditions and experiences of living in Germany.

Tamer is another name upholding this hip hop legacy:

The late Boe B, Maxim, Amok…¹² These are people of our culture. That is to say, children of the first worker families to arrive from Turkey and they are our Hollywood stars. Their impact was extraordinary and it never went away. Because the art they forged was for the future.

For me, Boe B’s lyrics and music are of a quality that is still unsurpassed in Turkish rap. It never will be surpassed either, because they were striving for something else.

I am coming out with a new single in January 2022. Its intro features Maxim. And my latest Berlin-DNA play featured videos of the late Boe B. To the fullest of our abilities we’ll always honor what they did.

Walking on the streets of Kreuzberg today, we can still glimpse the traces of the cultural history witnessed by the district. As a trailblazing project that defended art against violence and expressed itself, its culture, its identity and the conditions it emerged from through music, Islamic Force and its creators are clearly not to be forgotten.

1. “Und so klingen die Anweisungen des Direktors der Hip-Hop-Lebensschule: Schrei laut! Sprich groß! Damit sie dich hören und Notiz von dir nehmen. Und macht euch nicht gegenseitig fertig! Lasst die Messer stecken, Gespräche statt Gewalt! Eure Waffe ist das Mikrofon, eure Droge die Sprühdose!” (Çeviri Sedef İlgiç)
2. Murat Meriç starts off his Killa Hakan interview and Meryem Nakiboğlu her book Hip Hop Kültürü - Küçük İstanbul Kreuzberg ve 36 Boys [Hip Hop Culture - Kreuzberg the Little Istanbul and 36 Boys] by recalling Ergüder Yoldaş’s lyrics: “Berlin Berlin şen Berlin/ duvarları bol Berlin/ Kreuzberg’de bir gettoda/ tutsak olmuşum Berlin.” [Berlin cheery Berlin/Berlin of the many walls/in a ghetto in Kreuzberg/I’m held prisoner, Berlin].
3. Meryem Nakiboğlu, Hip Hop Kültürü - Küçük İstanbul Kreuzberg ve 36 Boys [Hip Hop Culture - Kreuzberg the Little Istanbul and 36 Boys], Çizgi Kitabevi, 2020, s. 74.
4. As relayed to Meryem Nakiboğlu by Şenol Kayacı, ibid, p. 122.
5. Meryem Nakiboğlu, ibid, p. 125.
6. 36 Boys Al Jazeera Türk documentary, 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZHas0x1Hy8 The name of Maxim’s first hip hop band, 271 was also his door number. (Site: http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/yazik-siddet-galip-673791/, Date accessed: 7.11.2021.)
7. The name of Maxim’s first hip hop band, 271 was also his door number. (Site: http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/yazik-siddet-galip-673791/Date accessed: 7.11.2021.)
8. Site: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/geb-1970/441540.html
9. Verda Kaya, “Göç Serüveninde Türkçe Hip Hop”, [Turkish Hip Hop in the Immigration Odyssey] Misafir Göçmen Yerli içinde, İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, 2021, p. 502.
10. Verda Kaya, ibid, p. 501.
11. Interview with Murat Meriç, https://www.gazeteduvar.com.tr/yazarlar/2018/10/21/kreuzberg-sokaklarindan-yukselen-ses-killa-hakanDate accessed: 7.11.2021.
12. https://www.instagram.com/amokonefivesix/ For German interview with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=423OIo4Pb7Q For Renk Magazine interview: https://renk-magazin.de/en/amok-crimson-sofa/