‘Everything comes together in Marvin Gaye’

The album that first comes to mind when I'm asked about the most important records of my life. Brutal how everything comes together here: the message, the music, the build, the visuals. One of the best albums ever made.

In my youth, he embodied the ultimate in rap for me. And somehow he still does. Nas had an incredible influence on me. Every Wednesday afternoon I sat in the music store in Biel and listened to hip-hop history. Then once a month I had enough money to buy a CD. At some point, there were hundreds - including all of Nas'. The first one was "Stillmatic" (2001), but honestly, his debut is still the best. A perfect album.

In Brazil, this album by a crew from São Paulo is being lectured about at the universities. Their head, the rapper Mano Brown, is in my top 5 best MC's of all time. "Sobrevivendo no inferno" comes across as if it's all of a piece. It is at once extremely cinematic and reality-based, and just as relevant today as it was in 1997. The themes of racism, police violence, drug trafficking and poverty are still very much relevant in Brazil's big cities. You could say that Racionais give a voice to a Brazil that otherwise has none. Now this sounds like hard fare, some pieces last seven minutes. But the realization is so good that you never get bored.

For me, this is the most important record from Brazil - closely followed, by the way, by the first album of the arranger Arthur Verocai from 1972. "Força Bruta" has accompanied me since my childhood. Today as an adult, I listen to it again from a different perspective. It's almost like the Brazilian equivalent of "What's going on?" for me: You don't even realize you're listening to the album because it's so enjoyable. At the same time, Jorge Ben is incredibly important to Brazilian music culture and identity.

I think this young Geneva rapper is still far too little known in German-speaking Switzerland. For me, he has made one of the best CH rap albums of recent years with "Möbius". I had Rounhaa already a while somehow on the screen, but never really dealt with him. Then when this album came out and some of my friends were sharing tracks from it on social media, I took the time to really dive into it on my way to the studio. It blew me away. Experimental yet accessible, extremely modern but just deep. Digital vibes with soul. Very touching.

After the Psycho'n'Odds project with Nativ ("Radiation World", 2020) it was clear that I would finally tackle my solo project. I met regularly with producer Questbeatz for over two years. We started in front of a white canvas, without any guidelines - except that we wanted to make an album that suited us. That depicts the moods and shades of my personality. That's what "Dystopia" came out of. A rather gloomy album that depicts my depressive phases in the times of the pandemic. But at the same time it celebrates utopia, the power of love and the rhythms of baile funk. Musically and intellectually, a lot of things come together that define me, and I'm proud of that.