{"id":42434,"date":"2018-04-23T01:38:26","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T07:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=42434"},"modified":"2018-04-23T01:38:26","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T07:38:26","slug":"artists-return-german-music-award-over-rappers-holocaust-lyrics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/artists-return-german-music-award-over-rappers-holocaust-lyrics\/","title":{"rendered":"Artists return German music award over rappers\u2019 Holocaust lyrics"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1541244\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(JTA) \u2014 Several artists have returned their Echo Awards in Germany to protest the award won by two rappers whose lyrics boasted of having \u201cbodies more defined than Auschwitz inmates.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_42435\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/GettyImages-947041198.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-42435\" class=\"wp-image-42435 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/GettyImages-947041198-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/GettyImages-947041198-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/GettyImages-947041198-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/GettyImages-947041198.jpg 880w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/198;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-42435\" class=\"wp-image-42435 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/GettyImages-947041198-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/GettyImages-947041198-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/GettyImages-947041198-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/GettyImages-947041198.jpg 880w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-42435\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farid Bang and Kollegah speaking at the Echo Awards show in Berlin, April 12, 2018. (Andreas Rentz\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In response to the award controversy BMG, which distributes releases by Kollegah and Farid Bang, has announced a campaign against anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n<p>At the awards ceremony on April 12, a speaker condemning the rappers received a standing ovation.<\/p>\n<p>The award recognizes sales, not the content of the album, but the awards committee has pledged to rethink how it will choose winners, according to&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/variety.com\/2018\/biz\/news\/bmg-distributor-of-controversial-german-rappers-launches-campaign-against-anti-semitism-1202758474\/\">Variety<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Kollegah and Farid Bang won the Echo Award for having 2017\u2019s best-selling hip-hop album.<\/p>\n<p>In their lyrics, along with the boast about their physiques, they call for \u201canother Holocaust; let\u2019s grab the Molotov\u201d cocktails.<\/p>\n<p>The BMG campaign is focused on teaching schoolchildren about anti-Semitism. The distributor has pledged&nbsp;100,000 euros, about $123,000, to the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRecent news reports have produced shocking evidence of a new wave of anti-Semitism in German schools,\u201d read a statement by&nbsp;BMG Worldwide CEO Hartwig Masuch. \u201cBMG is utterly opposed to anti-Semitism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Masuch also said the artists in question are not anti-Semitic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKollegah and Farid Bang have repeatedly made it clear on the internet and speaking in public that they are not anti-Semitic, and they have apologized for any distress caused by the lyrics in question,\u201d he said. \u201cBMG stands for values such as artistic freedom, creativity and diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Artists%20return%20German%20music%20award%20over%20rappers%E2%80%99%20Holocaust%20lyrics\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7137],"tags":[9331,260,8790,8795,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42434"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42436,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42434\/revisions\/42436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}