When DJ Kool Herc (68) played his two turntables in a party room in the Bronx for his sister’s birthday on August 11, 1973, the foundation for hip-hop culture was laid. Samy Deluxe (45) honors her with his new album “Hochkultur 2” and releases the record for the 50th birthday of the music style that has accompanied him since early childhood.
“I first came into contact with rap at the end of the 80s, when I was about ten years old,” says the musician in an interview with the news agency spot on news. “I heard Run-D.M.C, Ice-T and Fat Boys. Then there were the first films that spilled over. That’s when I understood for the first time that it all belongs together, so in addition to rap or scratching, there is also graffiti and breakdance .”
Public Enemy impressed him the most at the time, “the overall concept with the band and the dance troupe with their military moves, this image was the most tangible for a young mind”. Initially, the dogmatic rules that a subculture initially brings with it helped him, “but as I developed myself as an artist, I realized that it’s a form of expression that doesn’t have a style. It’s one for every type of character opportunity to develop”.
He started rapping in 1991 and rapped and wrote in English for two years, Samy Deluxe continues. “Working with DJ Dynamite, with whom I had my first band, I only then realized that you can also rap in German. Of course, it made more sense for me to do it in my language I was very concerned with the rhythm of the language in the lyrics, because I also wanted to create the flow of English rap.”
His hometown also had a major influence on his development as an artist: “In Hamburg, the scene was very diverse and an interesting mix, a wild time with a wide variety of parties in the Rote Flora [autonomous center in Hamburg’s Schanzenviertel, editor’s note] or squatted houses in Hafenstrasse”, the musician looks back. “The most diverse subcultures have come together. In comparison, I have the feeling that the city is no longer as edgy as it used to be. For example, there are fewer youth centers, i.e. places that bring people together and that are decisive for whether a scene emerges can.” He himself tries to pass something on and encourage the next generation. “For example, I have an association that offers workshops for young people in all hip-hop disciplines. Young artists also go in and out of my studio and can try things out.”
With “Hochkultur 2”, the rapper is now releasing his ninth solo studio album. The record was supposed to be released in 2020, but the pandemic pushed the release back. “It was an intensive phase of discovery, Corona caused a long break and it was difficult for me to get back into the songs that had been created before,” says Samy Deluxe. “I didn’t feel like making new songs either, I didn’t like my voice when recording and I didn’t buy it anymore that that’s me.”
But he knew “that the words I wrote are right and important and the valve has opened again. I wanted to make an album with strong content, with topics that have really concerned me in recent years, from social problems to to ‘where’s hip-hop right now’ to mental health”. In recent years he has “been through highs and a lot of lows and in self-healing I have processed that in songs. I think that the four songs on the album can give people good food for thought”.
For the album track “Roter Velour” with DJ Desue, we went to New York, the birthplace of hip-hop, to shoot a video. “The week there was a blatant experience. I sprayed graffiti there and we shot on a rooftop in Harlem, among other things,” says Samy Deluxe. In order to celebrate his new record and the 50th hip-hop anniversary, the rapper invites you to a “Block Party Deluxe” on August 13th at the exhibition center in Hamburg City. “A very illustrious group of rap and graffiti artists will be there and we will celebrate all elements of hip-hop – and maybe lay the foundation for us to be able to do a festival like this every year.”
The musician will also have his only live performance there in 2023, there will be no tour or festival appearances this year. “Maybe I’ll get so much pleasure on stage that there’ll be a tour next year, I wouldn’t rule it out.”
