Unique Rap From Germany Is Conquering The World: 6 Rappers With The Biggest Hype

German rap is slowly but surely conquering the whole world. DeutschRap became more progressive, more creative and, above all, more acceptable to the commercial world and radio stations. That's why we bring you six most relevant German rappers who are breaking the music charts around the globe.

Representatives of the so-called DeutschRapu have songs with tens to hundreds of millions of views, are popular on social networks, and their hits have gone viral all over the world. Their success is already being observed by well-known American rappers, who are trying to establish musical cooperation with many of them.

The work of German rappers like Luciano, Ufo361 or Mero is in demand because it has a lot to offer. Among them you will find a return to the classic roots of gangsta rap in a modernised form, an increasingly popular drill, but also melodic compositions with an oriental touch created by German descendants of immigrants from the Middle East.

Luciano

Patrick Großmann is a 28-year-old Berlin rapper with Mozambican origins, which he inherited from his father. He grew up in the Berlin district of Schöneberg. His domain is a distinctive thick voice and dark German drill based on fat 808s and straightforward lyrics. He started out as a street rapper, but today he sells out halls across the continent.

As Luciano became more famous in Germany in recent years, his popularity grew in Europe and even crossed the ocean. Initially, he was also a front runner for the well-known American rapper ScHoolboy Q from the group Black Hippy, where Kendrick Lamar is from.

As one of the few European rappers, he can also boast of collaboration with the American rap superstar - Lil Baby. He released the song Fendi Drip with the currently hottest rapper in the world and with another important German rapper Ufo361. In addition, he has songs with other rap stars such as YG and Central Cee, and his songs have tens of millions of views on YouTube.

Luciano's first mixtape in 2016 was titled 12812. Since then, he has released five more albums, one each year. And with each of them he moved higher and higher on the charts. He works under the music publishing house Locosquad, which also produced his first compositions. His most famous tracks include Meer, Ballin, Jäger and Beautiful Girl.

Ufo361

34-year-old Ufuk Bayraktar, who calls himself Ufo361, is one of the fundamental pillars of current German rap and also the reason why this European genre is being talked about around the world. Ufo's exotic name comes from his Turkish origin. He was born in West Berlin and grew up in the nearby district of Kreuzberg, whose postcode is also in his pseudonym.

He started rapping at an early age, and hip-hop culture influenced him not only in music but also in the form of visual art. In his youth, he was engaged in spraying with the graphite group THC-Crew. He released his first songs in 2011 and performed in the three-member group Bellini Boyz.

His first big hit Ich bin ein Berliner, which referenced John F. Kennedy's famous speech, was released in 2015, and later his first mixtape of the same name. Two more of his sequels were released after that, but the third project from 2017 caught on the most. In the same year, he also founded his own record company, Stay High, through which he releases music to this day.

His other studio albums were massively successful, with 808, for example, reaching number one in both the German and Austrian music charts. His songs have tens of millions of views on YouTube, the most recorded being the song Neymar with Capital Bra, which has more than 120 million views so far.

In addition to the music industry, Ufo has also managed to gain a foothold in the fashion industry, as it cooperates with renowned fashion houses. He was featured in a recent Vetements campaign, met Rick Owens at Paris Fashion Week in March 2022, and his music played at the recent Balenciaga Spring Summer 23 show in Paris, where Kanye West was also featured.

Mero

The young German rapper Mero represents the German new wave. He has Turkish roots, his parents come from the Black Sea region of Turkey and moved to Germany in the 1980s. Currently 22-year-old Enes Meral became known in 2018 mainly on Instagram, where he shared his rap work.

At that time, he recorded amateur rap clips on his phone. His debut single Baller los debuted at the top of the German and Austrian singles charts and currently has more than 200 million views on YouTube. He continued with songs like Hobby Hobby and Wolke 10, with which he scored in the German and Austrian charts.

In addition, Hobby Hobby became the first German rap song to enter the Spotify 200 chart. In his relatively short career, he has already managed to release three studio albums (Ya Hero Ya Mero, Unikat and Seele). His compositions are very rhythmic and melodic, and his rap style is characterised by choruses with an oriental touch

It is also worth mentioning his unique approach to sampling, thanks to which you can hear, for example, traditional Turkish or Arabic religious compositions, similar to one of his most successful compositions Olabilir (which means "can be" in Turkish) in his songs. His music video for this song currently has more than 280 million views, which can be the envy of even the most famous rap names in the world.

Capital Bra 

The Berlin rapper, real name Vladislav Balovatsky, was born in a small town in Siberia and grew up in the city of Dnipro, Ukraine. Together with his mother, however, they moved to Germany around 2000. He started rapping when he was 11 years old, in 2014 he took part in the freestyle battle competition Rap am Mittwoch. Capi released his first studio album Kuku Bra in 2016, which was a minor commercial success.

However, a year later, with the albums Makarov Complex and Blyat, he even took first place in the music charts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Subsequent albums had similar successes. In addition, Capital Bra is considered the most successful German rapper of the 21st century according to Billboard, thanks to dozens of hits on the music charts and for repeatedly occupying the first place in the ranking of the most streamed German artists on Spotify.

His YouTube videos boast tens of millions of views, with many of them surpassing the 100 million mark. The most successful is the clip for the song One Night Stand with 130 million views. In addition to his successes, however, he is also accompanied by several controversies. In the past, for example, he compared himself to Vladimir Putin, when in an interview with the German Backspin in 2016 he said that he is the Putin of German rap, condemned US politics, and two years ago in an interview with STRG_F he admitted to a drug addiction to tilidine.

His musical style is tuned to gangster rap, cloud rap and trap. In his work, you will find many references to his origins, he often samples Ukrainian melodies, and despite his fluent native German, a Ukrainian accent is noticeable in his compositions. It is also typical for him to use Eastern Slavic and Arabic words in his compositions.

Bonez MC

36-year-old Johann Lorenz Moser comes from Hamburg and is a member of the famous German rap group 187 Strassenbande. His first musical efforts saw the light of day in 2008, but his debut album Krampfhaft was released in 2012. Since then, his career was met with success. 

Bonez MC is considered one of the most successful German music artists. Three of his albums have gold status and one of them has reached platinum (Palmen aus Plastik together with the Austrian rapper Raf Camor). He is also an extremely popular artist on Spotify and last year he even became the most streamed German artist.

Despite the fact that among the others named on our list, he is the oldest in terms of age, he does not lag behind even in the recent years. He modifies his work, and although he returns to the roots of rap in the form of gangsta rap and "proper rap country", he is able to combine it with new styles, modern musical elements and flows.

Bonez is not a solo player, most of his most successful songs or albums were created in collaboration with his rap colleagues. He most often collaborates with the Austrian rapper Raf Camor, who is active on the German scene, or with Gzuz from his rap crew 187 Strassenbande. Among his most successful songs are 500 PS, Ohne mein Team or Mörder, which have hundreds of millions of views on YouTube..

Gzuz

Like Bonez, Gzuz (Ghetto-Zeug Unzensiert) is a representative of the hard sound of Northern Germany and the rap formation 187 Strassenbande. Kristoffer Klauß, draws on his own experiences of life with one (sometimes two) feet in crime, when creating gangster rap with lyrics about life on the street or attitudes against the police.

The rapper is known for his criminal past. Between 2010 and 2013, he served a prison sentence for robbery and assault. His group 187 Strassenbande at the time called for his release and sold Free Gzuz merch on tour as part of the movement. During his time in prison, Gzuz tattooed the words "Fuck Cops" on his shoulders using a machine made from an old tape recorder, Hamburger Abendblatt reports.

After his release from prison, he released the album High & Hungrig together with Bonez in 2014, which reached number nine in the German charts. Gradually, more and more public interest and commercial success came. Later, he took up the first places in the music charts and won the first gold and platinum awards for his albums and compositions.

However, in addition to his success in Europe, he also gathered a following in the US. Video clips for some of his successful songs were released by the prestigious American publishing house WorldStarHipHop, which stands behind the hits of the world's most popular rappers.

For example, they released Was hast du gedacht and Warum, which became viral, and to this day they have almost 170 million views combined. He is vulgar in his songs, often even violent in his clips, and returns rap to its original gangsta roots, but dresses it in modern clothes.