Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Global Rap
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Global Rap
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Historical and Cultural Perspectives
- Part II Approaches to Rap
- Part III Applications of Rap
- Part IV Contexts for Rap
- 13 Honoring the Honorable
- 14 ‘It Will Never Go Away’
- 15 The Art of Capping
- 16 Drill as Cultural Form
- 17 English Rap in India and the Fault Lines of Sociolinguistic Politics
- 18 Television and the Janus Face of Chinese Hip-Hop
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
14 - ‘It Will Never Go Away’
Re-imagining Black German Identity in ‘Ich bin Schwarz’
from Part IV - Contexts for Rap
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 July 2025
Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Global Rap
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Global Rap
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Historical and Cultural Perspectives
- Part II Approaches to Rap
- Part III Applications of Rap
- Part IV Contexts for Rap
- 13 Honoring the Honorable
- 14 ‘It Will Never Go Away’
- 15 The Art of Capping
- 16 Drill as Cultural Form
- 17 English Rap in India and the Fault Lines of Sociolinguistic Politics
- 18 Television and the Janus Face of Chinese Hip-Hop
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Research on rap music in Germany has focused on questions of transnationalism, ethnicity and gender. This chapter advances studies of German rap through an analysis of the rap song and music video “Ich bin Schwarz” (I am Black, 2016) by the popular female rap duo SXTN. Drawing on intersectional, feminist, and hip-hop studies scholarship, we conduct a close reading of the visuals, lyrics, and signifying practices that are mediated in the cultural text. We argue that “Ich bin Schwarz” promotes a new version of a self-empowered, humorous, and unapologetic Black female German identity by remixing the popular German music genre Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave), subverting racist and sexist imaginations of Afrodiasporic womanhood, and continuing hip-hop’s political legacy against right-wing extremism in Germany. Ultimately, “Ich bin Schwarz” contributes to a growing body of performances in rap music and larger popular culture that destabilise white-dominated notions of German national identity.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Global Rap , pp. 211 - 224Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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