Apr 14/08
The Bosphorus Underground

I’ve been to Istanbul a couple times now. I love it.
I was there a few weeks ago working on the Asian bank at Samanyolu TV, one of the stations in the Gülen media empire. It made for an interesting contrast since I’d spend most of the day at a moderate Islamic television station on the, generally speaking, more conservative Asian shore of Istanbul, then at night I’d return home to the bars, restaurants and nightlife in Beyoğlu, Taksim.
Indeed, the clichés you read about in guidebook intros are spot-on: the city is wedged between Europe and Asia/Middle East, between secularism and Islam, and between older traditions and contemporary Western culture. The politics, geography and even the hip-hop all reflect this.
A lot of Turkish hip-hop musicians are actually based in Germany where the movement got its start. With over two million Turks in Germany, it’s no surprise that the music started there as an outlet for disenfranchised Turkish youth struggling to fit-in to German society.
It’d be hard to be a rapper in Turkey itself. You couldn’t be too fuck-the-man since that might land you in jail for “insulting Turkishness” under the infamous penal code 301, and generally speaking Turkey is quite a polite society with courts that aren’t too tolerant of defamation.
Regardless of its Turko-German roots, Turkish hip-hop at home or abroad remains very Turkish and many rappers are increasingly now based in Turkey. Almost all major Turkish MCs in Germany or Turkey rap in Turkish rather than German or English, and since it’s early days Turkish DJs have mixed traditional Turkish instruments, melodies and rhythms with 808 beats and that American hip-hop sound. You’ll hear some examples of that today: traditional instruments like the bağlama, kemençe and davul are often playing in the background.
We should start our tour with the Germany-based Turkish hip-hop supergroup, Cartel. They are generally credited with starting the Turkish hip-hop movement in the mid-1990s after the release of their self-titled debut on Polygram. Not only did they rap in Turkish and use Turkish melodies in their mixes, but their music was very popular in both Germany and Turkey.
After almost killing each other in a fight in 1996 the members of Cartel went their separate ways and several of them were jailed. This plus some controversial lyrics got their debut album banned in Turkey. It wasn’t re-released until 2004. As a result, hip-hop in Turkey in the late 90s went underground for a while.. but the flame had been lit.
A few years later two rappers, Ceza and Dr. Fuchs, started a rap group called Nefret. The group was immediately popular and Ceza would soon become Turkey’s most famous rapper, and arguably one of its most influential Turkish musicians in any genre.
When Ceza released his album Rapstar in 2004 hip-hop was firmly established on the Turkish musical scene. Even the hugely popular Turkish pop star, Tarkan, suggested that he’d start incorporating some hip-hop into his music. Check-out some of Ceza’s videos on YouTube, including his most popular release to date, Holocaust.
Following Ceza’s success several new rappers came to the forefront, among them Sagopa Kajmer. He’s probably one of the best/most popular Turkish rappers around these days. Listen carefully to the second track by Kajmer that I’ll post today; the references are golden. You can see his videos on YouTube. Check-out how many views he’s getting and it’ll give you an idea of his popularity. (I might even have to add him as a friend on Facebook..)
Next, for those who still might associate Istanbul with veiled women we’ll hear some tracks by two female MCs, Sultana and Kolera. Kolera has worked closely with Sagopa Kajmer over the years. She has plenty of videos on YouTube and a MySpace page if you want to learn more. Sultana has some videos on YouTube, too.
Lastly some music by Fuat Ergin. I include this because he raps in Turkish but was born in Germany and has lived there most of his life… and yet still feels a very strong connection to Turkey. Fuat Ergin and many others like him reflect the strong ties that remain between the Turkish diaspora and Turkey, even a generation after their emigration. Video here.
Cartel - Cartel
Ceza - Araturka Fasli
Ceza - Yerli Plaka
Sagopa Kajmer - Al 1′de Burdan Yak
Sagopa Kajmer - Kirik Cocuk (Mickolodium mix)
Sultana - Com Kaymak
Kolera - Bugun mutlu olmayacak gibiyim
Fuat - Her Ayin Elemani

Benn loxo reader, DR, came through huge with a collection of cassettes that he picked up in Mauritius a few years ago.
You see that picture to the left? All Mauritian. Aside from the dozen albums I’ve received digitally, those are the tapes and CDs that people have lent me or that I’ve picked-up over the last couple weeks. Obviously I can’t afford to buy 30 albums for every X country week, so these kinds of contributions are invaluable for Benn loxo. Thank you!
BBC Sound System are a Senegalese hiphop group based in Paris, France. Their 2003 release,
Every few months I like to dig around the Google Analytics statistics for this site and see who visits and from where.
Been busy with the French elections and enjoying the out of control amazing French weather of late. I’m back, though, with about 600 new tracks to dig through, select and post for the Benn loxo crowd.
Ben Herson, aka Benny Beats, founder of
Benn loxo listener
Don’t get me wrong - I love Christmas, especially the bit where I get to blast Domenic The Italian Christmas Donkey in my car with the windows down.
Hey Jozef, thanks for your comment on the last post. You woke me up. It’s been a while since I last wrote - sorry, people. I’ve been busy sorting out a move, working, traveling and fighting back the cold, Parisian rain. If any of you live up around Canal Saint Martin I’m your new neighbour. And hey, if you live in Amsterdam keep an eye out for me this weekend.
I thought after all the buzz around the 
Many of you probably have
Once and a while on Benn loxo I like to remind listeners that African music isn’t all about koras and djembes. There are lots of sounds coming out of the continent these days and not all of them are strictly related to “traditional” music, nor do they all sound like they should filed under “World” at your local Virgin megastore.
A Benn loxo listener, Joe, wrote me an e-mail today from Sri Lanka including a request for some more Nigerian hiphop.
I’ve posted a lot of Senegalese and some Gambian hip-hop on this site, but I haven’t really touched on other countries. There’s been a lot of buzz in the music media lately about Kenyan hip-hop, but I’ve never been to Kenya so I can’t help you there.
Damn, what the hell happened? I used to have all the time in the world. Now I’m at work and it’s 5:40pm and all I can say is this:
I’m finally heading back to Dakar today after over six weeks of work and vacation in Canada, the US and France. In honour of this I’m going to answer my most frequent request at Benn loxo: Senegalese rap.
So I went to see one of the