Photos: Barbara Dietl (Jens Balzer)
In Germany, the Holocaust is used as a punchline and Nazi uniforms are being worn again. But it’s not like that! This is totally different! It’s all in line with artistic freedom, of course. Ben Salomo, the former organiser of the Berlin series »Rap am Mittwoch« and an MC himself, turned his back on the scene in 2018. The trigger: the Echo music award given to Kollegah and Farid Bang, who used anti-Semitic slogans in their lyrics and beyond. His autobiography »Ben Salomo bedeutet Sohn des Friedens« (»Ben Salomo means Son of Peace«) has just been released. Jens Balzer has also published a new book, dedicated to the band-to-hand fight of pop discourse: »Pop und Populismus. Über Verantwortung in der Musik« (»Pop and Populism. On Responsibility in Music«) asks urgent questions about identitarian processes on the right and the left. Together with FluxFM host Jasmin Kröger, Salomo and Balzer will discuss political responsibility in rap and beyond.