Antilopen Gang’s New Album: Differentiation as a Principle

This is Antilopen Gang’s new album, “Everything Must Be Repaired,” and they highlight their special status as contradictory songwriters in hip-hop.

Is politics only used for self-polarization? Antelope Gang Photo: Danny Koetter

The pre-single for the new album, “Everything Must Be Repaired,” came out just in time for April. “European October” was the only German-language work that addressed the international wave of anti-Semitism that followed the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, and the Israeli counter-offensive. The rap was a striking gesture of concern, which was further enhanced in the album version by Sophie Hunger’s strings and dirty vocals.

‘October in Europe’ is a song that stands out from the other tracks on the new album for its unapologetic political lyrics. At the same time, the line “everything has to be fixed” is exemplary in that it sounds like an attempt to make everything as negative, calm and desperate as possible. The question of whether the weeping violin and Sophie Hunger’s dirge added to the album version of ‘October in Europe’ are appropriate musical means is at least quietly raised.

Another register that bands routinely use today is self-contradictory positioning. Antilopen Gang has been one of the most widely discussed bands in the pop feature section of the past decade. What is very effective is that statements about current events and texts are put into perspective or ironized by the band themselves.

And early in her career, in 2014, she had a breakthrough hit with “Beate Zschäpe Listens to U2,” which was followed in 2021 by Antilopen rapper Koljah’s “Nazis in,” with the lines “They pat your shoulder and feed the pigs/You’re holding on to what you started/But maybe Beate Zschäpe would listen to Antilopen Gang today.”

For this to work, context of meaning is necessary, and because of its own importance, the Antilopen Gang imagined the left as a context, a love-hate relationship, and at the same time a liberal or radical opponent. It’s about translating hip-hop principles into political discourse. You make it clear that you’re the sexiest person in the environment you’re rapping about.

Maximize your mood

Martin Seeliger, singer of the punk band Shitlers, has a PhD in sociology and is the co-author of the autobiography of Antilopen member Panik Panzer. He called this constellation a “necessary community” that the band shared with the left. He accepted the 2020 “Abbruch Abbruch” symposium. A possible solution to the problem that all rappers face, Seeliger says, is to find something to rap about.

In that respect <모든 것은 고쳐져야 한다>The central work of <드림 댄서와 아름다운 화가>It is, perhaps, at odds with the naïve “we are more” rhetoric: “I see injustice as the only justification/Everything else is carnival and shooting/I step back into the critic’s shoes/I know everything is wrong/But I don’t know what to do, make it right.”

As a pop song, it works very well. Maximized bad mood expressed as despair traditionally has great aesthetic appeal, especially when everything sparkles with contradiction, and when everything constantly questions itself because it remains intangible. It also means: for a band that constantly deals with its own contradictions and perfects the spasm of boundaries as a principle, it is not particularly useful to argue about whether this is “right” or “wrong.”

The question is whether to shoot or not.

Ultimately, the first question in pop is not whether a piece is right or wrong, but whether it stings you, moves you, or leaves you cold. And why. If so, then the question arises as to what promise the band is making to the listener.

And this question is decided by Antilopen Gang, who always oscillate between great tracks that produce surprising results and potentially cheap grain, especially in the lyrics of the songs, which are expressed in a persistent final rhyme. There isn’t much music. They are barely talked about. And there isn’t much to be gained from it.

The composer’s touch is slightly felt in the hip-hop part of ‘Everything Must Be Repair’, the opening track ‘Nothing is Forever’, which sings melancholy of a sad happiness that cannot be fixed, and the truly beautiful ‘For a Few’. In terms of sound aesthetics, this work could have been published in the 2000s.

Humorous depictions of everyday life

In the second half of “Everything Must Be Repair,” Antilopen Gang plays a dozen funk songs that musically draw on bands like Pisse and Team Shit. It makes you feel good and light, and the lyrics are like humorous descriptions of everyday life and short character portraits of self-righteous men, romantics, and athletes. It’s a real relief after the first half of the album, as the band, increasingly frustrated with their routine, seems to be trying to free themselves.

In any case, what Antilopen Gang does when filmed is clever, funny, and cleverly broken down into three parts that still seem to get the point across. Then you get to the thesis of Samuel Salzborn, who described Antilopen Gang’s aesthetic as “critical theory 2.0”: the potential for freedom and liberation is momentarily available, but only to those who avoid this very socialization.”

If those pieces really get on your nerves, one of Martin Seeliger’s findings seems plausible. This means that at least Antilopen Gang’s “political work” is not really particularly interested in politics, but rather uses politics to prepare and position itself. This applies less to the new album than to the previous one, but it doesn’t work without politics. “Dreamdancer and Beautiful Painters” says “You’re a fool, you’re a fool, you’re a fool,” and if that’s what you want to do, that’s fine, and you shouldn’t deny it.

Start decisively from your own experience

A kind of knowledge and superiority shines through them, knowing that their own status can be inconsistent. One of the main promises of nutrition is that this knowledge makes you look smarter. The suggestion is that meaningful content is being conveyed and that it wouldn’t work otherwise. To do that, you have to ignore uniqueness as a main motif, at least if you don’t want to look like an arrogant ass, but rather like the best checker you want to be.

Musically and lyrically, Antilopen Gang’s tracks have always been top-notch. They start from their own experiences without contradiction and tell a story in a general way. Then, the flow is usually precise and the rhymes are less staccato. For example, “Outlaws”, “Patient Collective” and “Separate Yourself” are three songs from the previous album.

“Everything Must Be Repair” is beautifully old-fashioned, with “For Few”, the drug song “Alter Wegbegleiter” and “Rante nach der Sonne”, a declaration of love for Egotronic singer Torsun Burkhardt, who died in 2023. 1990s breakbeat. At this moment, something much more than “You’re an idiot, an idiot, an idiot” happens.