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Very hard school: When ninth graders write a gangsta rap

2019-09-23T08:37:35.403Z


Children, write a gangsta rap in German lessons! What is a motivating task for ninth graders brings to mind our columnist Andrea Müller as a mother.



column

Ninth grade, German lessons. Since it is remarkable, if there is a homework, the Caspar done by mail and with unusual zeal. From the overall theme "Poetry Slam" he chose the theme "Gangsta Rap" - along with the usual suspects from his class.

The students formed for it two-groups and should perform the self-rhyming rap in hip-hop style in front of the class. Of course, such a task motivates him a lot.

And one more thing, says Caspar, is important: the class teacher has explicitly emphasized

  • that it is an art form,
  • that any border crossing is allowed and
  • that therefore no statement as a personal insult can be understood, possibly also glorifying violence or misogynistic texts including insulting the respective mother.

I somehow had a bad feeling. How it sounds in the forest ... at some point always comes the echo.

Caspar formed a team with a classmate whose father is from Tunisia and whose family lives "somewhere in the heathland". His first impulse was therefore to rewrite "Röslein auf der Heiden" - that was what Bushido would have done, "cried Caspar from above, from his attic room.

15 minutes later, the new version of Goethe's text sounded acoustically effective from the wooden staircase to the kitchen:

Did I see Knab standing a little rabbit,
Möslein on the heathen,
was not young and was not nice
Mother in the chalk
I wanted to go back soon,
I'm cool guy from the pasture.
Too much shot in the Döslein red
Oh Roeslein on the heath.

My reaction was, admittedly, perhaps a little hysterical: "My God, no!" I shouted. Even if the text was not completely wrong in rhyme, so much hormone-controlled "shot in red" really did not make a good impression, I argued - artistic freedom or not.

My beating argument against Caspar's text, however, was different: In gangsta rap, rappers should insult themselves in direct speech - not in third person.

The argument ignited, my son retired to the revision of the homework. Meanwhile, I should just watch a YouTube video, Caspar said. And if he demonstrates this later, then only under one condition: I should not rewrite anything and make no alternative suggestions of defused concepts. I agreed - as long as I'm not quoted for hormonal-related, ragged brain-prince a 15-year-olds for parents talk to school. Deal!

Shortly thereafter, I see in the network: The "Federal Examination Office for Media at Risk" describes gangsta rap as a misogynist, homophobic and derogatory to minorities. And this must be so: As a progressive reaction to social marginalization gangsta rap is a non-violent discharge of conflicts, for example, as a result of failed integration policy. I'm really relieved, Khaled's parents are clearly more integrated than me.

All exaggerations, it continues, even violent fantasies, are constructive. A ban would be equivalent to the deprivation of artistic freedom of young people. The audience already understand the codes and know that the verbal derailments are not meant seriously. I can not say that would have calmed me down.

However, since I do not want to be considered narrow-minded or hostile to youth culture, I try to give my son's words free rein in the following presentation without interrupting him. His little brother Ben is thumping and shouting with laughter on the living room carpet, as the 15-year-old with perfect gangsta gestures auskotzt his verses:

Your Mudda is a Bitch, everybody knows
where else do you come from,
you ugly tuneser?
How did she make you
secretly, in a night
in the fish cutter
With the camel from Vadder, nothing came out
only you, you leek without hose
I prefer to make cat fudda out of you
That's what she got out of it
this Bitch, your Mudda.

OK.

Is my education now "failed"? Or should I be happy because he has, for the first time, kept to the required cornerstones of his homework? Racism, misogyny, glorification of violence - all there.

Is this maybe a bit like Tarantino, if you agree that the content is meaningless for long stretches, but the movie goers laugh anyway? If you ignore the glorification of violence and everything else that is politically incorrect?

A few days later, I ask Caspar how Khaled reacted to the verses. Secretly I had feared that my son could have made the boy cry in front of the class. So what did Khaled say?

"Nothing bad, Mama," says Caspar. Something with '' luscious slut, in the spirit constantly without flashlight. ' Had nothing to do with you. "

Lamp and bitch? Totally uncreative. And the copyright is already with Jan Delay anyway.

But what does it mean here? I will ask the parents of Khaled on occasion.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2019-09-23

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