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Turkish Ambassador or Rapper? [030] meets Chefket on the hottest flat roof in town | Interview
‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ – that’s a film. The modern version: ‘Chefket on a hot flat roof’. 39 degrees, but feels like 100. The city is groaning. Up on Universal’s roof, it’s like being on a hob cranked up to full blast. A scorching interview!
Burn, baby, burn!
Our feet are burning—thankfully we’ve got shoes on. Chefket’s wearing aviators, a Hawaiian shirt, shorts. We tuck ourselves into a corner with him. Shade! Someone had the idea to put up a gazebo on the roof at Universal by the Oberbaum Bridge. Cheers to that hero! We’re talking with Chefket, son of Turkish immigrants from Heidenheim and rap poet, about his new album. ‘Alles Liebe (Nach dem Ende des Kampfes)’ has been out since 17 August, following his debut album ‘Nachtmensch’, which made the top ten in the album charts back in 2015. The new record also features rap greats like Marsimoto (aka Marteria), Sido and Crackaveli. Chefket’s heading out on tour—he’ll be at Astra on 5 October. His track ‘Sowieso’ is available on YouTube, as you can see. But first, you should read our interview. Here it is.
I’m simply a German who speaks good Turkish.
– Chefket
You’ve become a well-known rapper in Germany, you must enjoy living here…
Thanks for letting me live here (laughs). Thanks for always mispronouncing my name. That meant I had my stage name straightaway, didn’t have to look far. But honestly, I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
Are we down with Erdogan – or not?
Do you ever feel you’re made a role model, a figurehead for integration?
You really have to be careful whether you let that happen to you. On ‘Entscheide du’, my verse starts: ‘It’s Chefket, not your model Turk rap shit, I come in like this so there’s no confusion. I’ve got the best of both cultures inside me. If I wanted to be really on the nose, I’d pose with spätzle and chai. Bilingual with two, trilingual with ten. At home in two countries and I can understand everything. Yet many try to take the piss while I’m splashing about with colours. They come along and say, “Just one colour would be better.”’
You must have been asked about Mesut Özil plenty of times, since you’ve got Turkish roots. After the World Cup, people were saying Özil was one of the reasons we went out so early.
It’s such rubbish. There’s honestly no point talking about it anymore. If we’re talking football, then we should discuss the whole team, who just weren’t any good. Why is this suddenly such a big topic? I really don’t get it. Are we down with Erdogan or not? Is it Erdogan’s pull or not? (laughs) I haven’t quite figured it out myself.
I’ve got loads of mates who are sick to death of always being asked: ‘When are you going back?’
Your album’s called ‘Alles Liebe (nach dem Ende des Kampfes)’: I immediately wondered – which struggle?
It’s just that long journey you’ve put behind you since you started making music, not really knowing where things would go. I chose music, and rap has been the form with which I somehow learnt to write—where writing takes centre stage. I can use that skill in every genre I work with now.
Do you think after the World Cup he was singled out because he’s got a migration background?
What did they call him: ‘Turkish pig’ and other things. It’s obvious they really laid into him. You just have to call that racism. And it’s always interesting—release an album as someone with Turkish roots and you’re bound to get asked about it. Not reduced to it, but it comes up. And it’s interesting that, just because someone shares your background and behaves a certain way, all of a sudden you’re expected to have an opinion on it. I reckon it was mostly a silly summer news story. No one really knew what to say. Personally, I’d have found it more interesting if they’d talked a bit about the NSU files, which are now sealed for 130 years.
When I think of ‘Fremd’, the track on your new album—there’s a line: ‘I’ll always be a stranger here’. Is that your statement, or is that what others think?
It’s definitely both. The song is bigger than me, really. It could be about a refugee arriving in a new country, or an American living in Germany who’s constantly asked when he’s going ‘back to the States’. I’ve got loads of friends who say it really winds them up, always being asked that. Talking with each other rather than about each other—that’s the way forward, I reckon. It helps break down a few prejudices. As for the bigger world politics, we all feel a bit helpless and very small—but actually, we’re bigger than we think if we focus on our own environment, and there we really can change a lot.
Model Turk: Nah. Turkey specialist: not really.
Do you sometimes feel more like a Turkish ambassador than a rapper?
When I was little, yeah. I used to pretend, at school—I was the Turkey expert for the teacher. So I had to read up so I even knew the answers. But that’s a long time ago now. These days, I’m simply a German who speaks good Turkish.
What does love mean to you in everyday life?
It’s when you see an old lady struggling to find her keys in her bag, so you ask if everything’s all right and help her carry her shopping up to her flat. Then you see her place is a right tip, so you offer your number so she can ring whenever she needs. We used to have neighbours—an elderly couple, no kids. When my parents were at work, this couple would look after my sisters. That was Mr and Mrs Zimmermann.
How’s the tour shaping up?
The tour’s coming up soon. It’s nearly all sold out. Which is fantastic. We’re playing Berlin—at Astra, 5 October.
Thanks so much for the chat.
Photo: © Franz Mangel / [030] Magazine