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Rap and salzheimer – s


Rap and Salzheimer’s

A smart guy with smart lyrics, a beautiful voice and a sick flow; a mix between Max Herre and Kool Savas – and yet still humble: That’s it Chefket, fount Şevket Dirican. “Saltheimer’s” (he eats too much salt, too often). We met up with him in Citizen office, a burger joint in Berlin-Friedrichshain, and spoke with him about criticism and clichés in the music branch, his current projects and his love for his family.

Critical and ironic at the same time: Sentences like “I eat pork, but only when it’s circumcised” show me that you’re pretty relaxed when dealing with clichés. It is still a very skewed image of German Turks?

Not anymore. I freed myself from that topic with my album »Identitäter“. It was a form of liberation for me, in order to dissociate myself from this topic. You’re always labeled as the “Turk.” I’m sick of being reduced to my background because I’ve got a lot of interesting things to say. I want to make art. Imagine an artist with German parents who is being asked about his Germanness. I can not and I do not want to represent a group of people, a country or a flag. Who am I supposed to be speaking for? I only speak for myself. Maybe I’m making it harder on myself by doing this because a lot of people need this generalization, but that does not really bother me. I’m just Chefket!

In the song “Made in Germany“, among other things, you criticize Germany’s arms exports ,. Currently, German weapons are being exported abroad again. Can you imagine yourself doing any album without any political statements? Or are political statements too important for you?

Political statements are so important to me that I would not stop making them, even if an album without a message would sell better. I just think that there are important topics that I can raise my audience’s awareness about. And I learn something myself along the way. But I’m not writing essays on arms exports. For me, it’s about the emotions that each person has. It has to do with powerlessness in the face of things that you can not change, or that you believe you can not change. A lot of musicians are afraid to confront their fans with difficult questions because they might scare them away. I do not have this fear.

For example, if Germany produced a chocolate bar that was poisonous and killed people, everyone would say: “Hey, you can not do that, it kills people!” But with weapons it’s different. The justification jobs does not legitimate anything. It’s all very strange. Sometimes I ask myself if I’m too dumb, or if the other people are – I do not have a clue. How can anyone be used for arms exports? Even one single weapon is one too many.

At your first live concert, your mother is one of the people listening. How does your family influence you?

They have a strong influence on me. My mother does not tell me what I should write about, of course. But my upbringing, the way we treated each other, that all shaped me. Since my parents live in Turkey, we do not see every other very often. My sisters surprised me and had my mother flown in. I did not know anything about it and then during sound check, all of a sudden, she was standing next to me. For her age she’s stuck out. Masallah! Family is the most important thing.

You want to bring out EP on which you sample old Turkish folk songs. Musicians like Yasin Bey aka Mos Def and Action Bronson so have done that. Can you tell us a little bit about the coming project?

Really, Action Bronson too? The idea came to me when I was living in Montreal.
My roommate asked me if I liked Turkish, psychedelic rock, and I like it: Of course, put it on. They were original recordings by Barış Manço and Erkin Koray that sounded really awesome, so I copied them directly. I already knew a few things by Oh no, Madlib‘S brother. He has sampled many different things, including a song by Selda Bağcan. Reinterpreting the old songs is fun. The EP will probably come out after the next album.

Your five favorite musicians?

I do not want to name any names and bring them down to my level, but I really like Bill Withers. In general, I like a lot of things from the past: Al Green, Miles Davis, Bob Marley, Jamiroquai, and Black Uhuru, along with others. Pablo Moses which is definitely a huge inspiration as well. I used to listen to the album »Revolutionary Dream” a lot. The guy is just awesome. He looks like this crazy murderer, but has a soft voice.

Your five favorite tracks?

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