K.I.Z. HHV Records 9 Items

Sarcastic, megalomaniacal, and combative

In the year 2000, Tarek, Nico, Maxim, and DJ Craft founded the group K.I.Z. The exact meaning of the three letters – Künstler in Zwangsjacken, Kreuzritter in Zentralasien, Kannibalen in Zivil – varies constantly. The main thing is: after their beginnings in the Reimliga Battle Arena, the rapping provocateurs joined the legendary underground label Royal Bunker, shaking up the scene with their first album, Das RapDeutschlandKettensägenMassaker, in 2005. Sarcastic, megalomaniacal, and above all, combative, the four resisted any stylistic categorization in German rap: “Du bist stolz auf dein’n Bezirk / Ich bin stolz auf mein Glied” (“You’re proud of your district / I’m proud of my penis”). In 2006, they continued in their usual bloody and intentionally sexist manner with the mixtape Böhse Enkelz: using samples from various directions, the group partially parodied entire tracks, rewriting rap classics in their favor – sparing neither Torch, Beginner, and Xavier Naidoo, nor Kool Savas and Azad. In addition to exclusive CDs for the Juice magazine, the quartet supported the Bloodhound Gang and later Prinz Pi on tours across Germany, although they were disinvited from Rock am Ring in 2007 because their lyrics were deemed too offensive. Their motto in response: “Main stage next year.”

Violent fantasies with a touch of social criticism

After ample lyrical provocation and sold-out live shows, Universal also became interested in K.I.Z: the album Hahnenkampf (“Cockfight”) continued to disregard societal conventions in a familiar way. It tackled socio-critical issues as well as blunt challenges: “Rap bleibt ein Hahnenkampf!” (“Rap remains a cockfight!”) The four exaggerate traditional gangsta rap to an extent that propels the tracks into almost surreal, but always comedic, realms. Genre openness is also important to them: from the beginning, K.I.Z not only devoted themselves to hip-hop but also reached for elements of pop, punk, and techno, while the album cover of their major debut references the brutal film classic A Clockwork Orange. With success: the record entered the top 10 and brought nationwide attention to the quartet. The cover of the successor, Sexismus Gegen Rechts (“Sexism Against the Right”), parodically combines Nazi aesthetics with BDSM aesthetics, living up to their already established shocker attitude: “K.I.Z – das Coolste seit der Atombombe” (“K.I.Z – the coolest since the atomic bomb”). With Urlaub fürs Gehirn (“Vacation for the Brain”), the guys landed a hit in 2011 with a catchy hook, and the eponymous album, infused with electro beats, combines sarcastically exaggerated violent fantasies with a dash of social criticism in their usual manner. According to Tarek and Nico, another highlight for the fans: “Our fans are soulless and sexually underchallenged.”

A reckoning with the whole world

Through doomsday scenarios and the smoky voice of Henning May in the chorus, the guys scored one of their biggest hits and their most successful streaming song with Hurra die Welt geht unter (“Hooray for the End of the World”) in 2015; the album with the same title dominated the German and Swiss charts at number one. In a mocking manner, they settle scores with German right-wing conservatives and the entire world, which is mocked from God’s perspective: “Wo bleibt der Dritte Weltkrieg? Wollt ihr, dass ich einschlafe hier oben?” (“Where is the Third World War? Do you want me to fall asleep up here?”) The album went gold. After this success, the crew took a breath – soon it was announced that DJ Craft was bidding farewell to the crew, leaving K.I.Z as a trio. And besides music, this trio is also involved in political work: Nico and Maxim have run for Die PARTEI in Berlin twice, and when Angela Merkel resigned in 2021, she was thanked in classic K.I.Z style with a song. The album Rap über Hass (“Rap About Hate”) continued their legacy in the same year, once again securing the top spot in the charts – with tracks like Unterfickt und geistig behindert (“Underfucked and mentally handicapped”) and Filmriss, K.I.Z guarantee another set of modern German rap hits. No one should take offense personally – Nico even comments: “I find what we rap horrible myself!”