okay, so i'm a biased jerk. when i hear "Deutsche rap", i think Aggro Berlin and Sido. i don't think Seventies groove guitars, artistic album structure or social observation that actually observes more than crack, bitches and bling, and i sure as shit didn't expect this: Personen is a unique album, done in a bizarre style that sounds like the bastard child of hip-hop and indie rock.
because of this, obviously, it ain't gonna be everyone's thing. more traditional rap fans are gonna be pissed off to the core by the guitar motif - that Seventies groove i was talking about - that resurfaces under the skin of every single track on the entire album, even on tracks like Der Pate or Der Ethnologe where i would've said it really didn't fit with the song, and even though i speak both languages, it still weirds me out to hear an artist mish-mashing German and English together (Der Pate does this a hell of a lot, and it's not the only one).
but Personen shines through its faults. it runs like a play, or a vicious video documentary: the characters are fiction, but sharply observed and theatrically exaggerated so you recognise them from your own life, or from your own imagination. it's like a caricature of the city's inhabitants, or an exhibition of what we see of them, and it's something even those who hate groove, art and indie can empathise with. the vocals are smooth and flowing, the backing thematic if slightly repetitive, and the concept utterly unique. listen, and see if it changes your own impressions of your home's Personen.
Lepht