Cartel (rap Group) - Career

Career

Cartel contained three separate groups of Turkish rappers. These were Erci E, Karakan (Alper Ağa and Kabus Kerim) and Da Crime Posse (M.Ali, Babalu, İnceEfe and Olcay). Alper Ağa is known to be the first recognized Turkish rapper. In 1995, after recording their debut album Cartel and releasing it in Germany under PolyGram, they quickly gained attention from the German media. They had an interview with MTV Germany and explained that their mission was to introduce the world to Turkish music.

Cartel featured five songs by the group Karakan from Nuremberg, three songs by Da Crime Posse from Kiel, three songs by the West Berlin artist Erci C., and the title song, which was a communal recording by all groups involved. The cover design of the CD, with a red ground color and ornamented C, represented the flag of Turkey. In Turkey, the 1995 album sold over 300,000 copies, but only sold 20,000 copies to the young Turkish community in Germany, its target audience of approximately 1 million. Their manager, Oznan Sinan, said upon its release that “our target groups are the Turks, not the German society. Cartel is not defined to these three groups but intends to expand as a community…and…in time as an idea.” He used the German media to promote a cultural identity, in an effort to identify these rappers as Turks and the group’s rhymes in the Turkish language aimed at developing an ethnically defined minority. The press release for the record stated, "As in France or England, here also ethnic minorities have started to rebel against discrimination through their own music. Hip hop as a language is here a logical choice. Cartel understands itself as a musical lobby for thousands of kids from the second generation, speaking up for what they think and how they feel." When Cartel released their debut album to address the first generation of Turkish immigrants in Berlin, it sparked an international controversy. Although some refrains were rapped in German, most of the lyrics as well as promotional materials and paraphernalia were in Turkish. Cartel even reclaimed the word ‘Kanak’ from its derogative roots by using it liberally in their album, “Don’t be ashamed, be proud to be a Kanak!” and branding it all over their T-shirts and stickers. This not only marked hip-hop culture as distinctly Turkish, but simultaneously created a separate public sphere for fans of Turkish hip hop because most Germans did not speak Turkish. The very fact that the language of the album was in Turkish shifted the balance of power from privileged Germans to oppressed Turks. In the liner notes of the cd, “the English words ‘What are they sayin?!’ appear in big bubble letters. Underneath, the caption teasingly reads in German: ‘Didn’t pay attention in Turkish class? Then ask for the translations fast with this card’”. Using their position as outsiders, Turkish youth are able to create a subculture only accessible to those on the ‘inside.’ By flaunting cultural ‘otherness’ Cartel is able to evoke a power and visibility normally not associated with the minority status of Turks in Germany. Giving it a particularly ‘local’ meaning, these particular distinctions transform distant German hip hop into a platform for Turks to assert their nationalistic pride. Cartel used elements of ethnic segregation as they were experienced in the history of German hip hop to try to unite the excluded parts of the hip hop community under an artificially ethnic minority, which was supposedly Turkish. Despite not selling as many albums in Germany as had hoped, they are still regarded today as the legitimate founders of Turkish hip-hop and recognized for providing a foundation for Turkish migrants to emerge in the German music scene.

Musically, Cartel mixes several different styles to create a truly hybrid sound. Hip hop, ragamuffin, Turkish folk music, and Pop Muzik are all elements included in the album. Despite this mixture, Cartel especially attempts to target their lyrics and rhymes at an ethnically-defined Turkish minority. This is a reaction to a largely German-dominated hip-hop scene within Germany that did not incorporate the music of minority groups.

In addition to combining Arabesk melodies with Turkish rap, Cartel is most identifiable by their gangsta style hip-hop that juxtaposes their group against cultural displacement, racism, and capitalistic exploitation. Some themes in their music include cultural pride, the celebration of brotherhood amongst Turks and Kurds, and a call to mobilize the masses against arson attacks, racism, xenophobia, exclusion, drug abuse, materialism, and capitalism. This notion of Turkish youth struggling with national identity is perhaps most clearly addressed by Cartel’s lyrical content. In the explosive song “Go Go,” Cartel asks its audience to recognize the new generation of Turkish Germans, "We’re not Ali of Ahmet/Look at the chess board/Whoever disrespects us now is/ forced to make their play/You’ve made us sick long enough/ with your swindling." By referring to Turks as “Ali” and “Ahmet”, the quintessential image of the Turkish Gastarbeiter, Cartel calls its listeners to see beyond Turkish stereotypes while holding them accountable for all cultural assumptions. In drawing upon the image of a chess board, Cartel alludes to future relationships between ethnic Turks and Germans, warning that the power is shifting to Turks because of the upcoming generation Kaya sums up the implications of Cartel’s nationalistic rap by saying: Cartel rappers assert and construct a distant pan-Turkish diasporic cultural identity while acknowledging the African connections of rap art. Like many other Turkish rap groups, Cartel also acknowledges it’s ‘authentic’ Turkish folk music connections in the form of a lyrics structure which was used by the mythical Turkish minstrels (halk ozani) By doing so, the rappers also contextualize themselves both in their ‘own authentic’ culture and in the global youth culture. Cartel’s strong identification with Turkey, as seen in their lyrics, is further confirmed by a variety of album cover designs. In their debut album, “Cartel” the design of the CD resembles the Turkish flag, with a red background and the initial letter ‘C’ of ‘Cartel’ imitating it’s signature crescent. The word, ‘Cartel’ is also decorated with Turkish ornamental shapes

Although Cartel was presented as a strong Turkish culture force, their Turkish cultural identity was symbolic of all immigrants and foreigners. Cartel drew heavily on the socio-political messages being espoused in the United States. “The identification with the situation of the black minority in the United States went so far as the acceptance of a separatist economic model as promoted by the Nation of Islam, the suggestion being that it is not capitalism as such which is the source of social inequality, but the nationality of the capitalist.” Their lyrics used this sense of ethnic pride and rejected oppression in order to find empowerment. “By flaunting the cultural "otherness" of the constructs "Oriental" and "hip-hop" in a German context, they evoke a power and visibility normally not associated with the minority status of the Turks in the diaspora.”

Some members of Cartel were involved in Turkish anti-racist and anti-Nazi groups in Germany. They were organized to fight neo-Nazi assaults on Turks. Cartel member Abdurrahman joined the organization because he said that it was necessary to unite as "a single fist" against the Nazis who were attacking Turkish men and women. He said that instead of fighting in the streets, music should be the weapon used to organize against and attack the Nazis. Members Alper and Karim expressed that rap music allowed them to vent their anger at Germans who treat Turks as second-class citizens. "Cartel's version of diasporic identity came to be identified particularly with the song 'You are a Turk.'"

In 1996, the group had a fight, split up and went separate ways. Their debut album was banned in Turkey. Karakan and Erci E released solo albums. However, due to lack of success Karakan decided that they would quit. Erci E released one more album afterwards but had low sales and little attention. In 1998, Erci E collaborated in a single with German musician Peter Maffay. Cartel's original debut album was re-released in 2004.