RAF CAMORA performing at Donauinselfest 2023. The state of emergency is inevitable. His childhood friend EMIREZ will also be there. In an interview with Stefan Niederwieser, he talks about Viennese street rap from the very beginning and the unique hype that he was able to observe at close range.
How long have you known RAF Camora already?
Emirates: About twenty-two years. We met through a friend in front of his old school. One day I walked into a studio while recording and suddenly there we were RAF and Joshi Mizu. So did the rap crews Balkan Express and Mystik Assault started, later is out of it Family Bizz become.
The music industry was pretty much dead twenty years ago.
Emirates: RAF and at that time I only heard rap from France and I only heard rap from the Balkans. German rap didn’t appeal to us for a long time, Kool Savas was the first, and later Bushido. We were teenagers hanging out in the park, a buddy had a studio where we recorded our songs for fun and boredom. And that turned into something serious.
you had with Family Bizz a major deal EMI Music. The tracks sometimes sound like a wild mix?
Emirates: It still amazes me to this day EMI was interested. One of us sang reggae in French, one rapped hardcore in Bosnian and Joshi Mizu was the only one who rapped in German. In some songs it was completely mixed up. But people liked this chaos.
Why didn’t that continue?
Emirates: We were too wild, only had nonsense in our heads and didn’t take it seriously. When the major deal came and the music became more and more American, it wasn’t real to us anymore. We couldn’t identify with that. We just felt like puppets and had to perform in weird places and watch what we were doing. It wasn’t what we stood for. The label then also saw, okay, it’s a bit difficult with the guys.
So you rapped in German for the first time?
Emirates: That’s right, we’ve got each other in RAFs Met a studio in the tenth district and said, okay, let’s try something in German. This resulted in the legendary “Scandal EP”. That happened because I wanted to be understood by our audience here. If you want to become better known in Bosnia, that’s difficult from Austria. They don’t take you that seriously. It’s different today.
Why is the EP by you and RAF Camora so legendary?
Emirates: We were the first in Vienna with street rap in German. OTK started at the same time as us, I count them among them. We had little to do with the people in the inner districts, and we made fun of them. At that time there was none Spotify and Youtube was just beginning. A friend designed a logo for us, we printed the cover ourselves and then distributed the songs on USB and self-burned CDs. That’s how it spread. As a rapper you didn’t have that status back then. The lyrics were much heavier, it wasn’t very mature. Raf then moved to Berlin, he was destined to become a musician. It wasn’t for me, I did my apprenticeship.
You visited him a couple of times in Berlin.
Emirates: Naturally. We recorded a sequel to the Scandal EP there. The hard drive died, we only had the raw mixes. I was too lazy to re-record them and besides, I was going to quit rapping at the time anyway and said we’d just put that shit on YouTube the way it is and that’s it.
RAF Camora was on the brink of extinction in the winter of 2015. “Zodiac“ with Grown up and Joshi Mizu was a disaster, the tour was only half full, many CDs were shredded. And RAF Camoras Label Independence was almost bankrupt.
Emirates: No one made a million straight away. You have to push through, you have to invest in your equipment, pay rent and make a living. It was the same with him. But he made his way and made do with what he had. He kept going, believed in it and achieved what he achieved today.
What is that?
Emirates: I say he made history. Plastic palm trees will be hard to replicate for anyone. The sales figures speak for themselves. have with it RAF and Bonez MC made the first serious dancehall in German. It wasn’t your standard rap, it was something very special. When I heard the album for the first time, I knew it was going to have an impact. The strengths of the two complemented each other perfectly. After all those years in Germany, Raf had a lot of connections and he knew how to approach it. Plastic palm trees have triggered a huge hype. Before that there was nothing remotely like this.
How much Vienna is in him?
Emirates: 100%.
He lived in Berlin for quite a long time.
Emirates: I’ve been living in Vienna for 30 years and I’m 100% Bosnian. You are at home where you feel at home.
A lot of people don’t even know how big RAF Camora is in the Balkans. Were you on tour?
Emirates: I was at a festival in Sarajevo. It was really fun. RAF grew up with us, so he knows our culture, our mentality and he gets along with the people from the Balkans. Many left there after the Yugoslav war and later returned. That’s why many speak German. You have a special connection to Germany and Austria.
RAF has with the Bosnian stars Jala Brat and Buba Corelli collaborated.
Emirates: These are top artists, friends of ours, I think it’s cool when you collaborate with people from abroad, we had them Family Bizz sometimes even five languages in a single song.
In his autobiography acts RAF Camora like someone who sets extremely high standards for themselves?
Emirates: He’s private like you and me. But as a musician, I think you can only be successful if you’re like that. Nobody with real success in life says to themselves, okay, that’s fine. You always have to work on yourself and develop yourself.
He did that with “Beste Leben” and “Blaues Licht”, among others.
Emirates: Exactly.
What are you doing now?
Emirates: I was at Sony for a few singles. I do this as a hobby, I have a job that I’m really happy with. Thank God it fits my life. I’ve been making music for 25 years, I’ve seen a lot in my late 30s and achieved what I wanted. Performing in the Stadthalle in front of 15,000 people and seeing people go wild are memories that will stay with me forever.
Will you be at the Donauinselfest?
Emirates: Naturally! A performance on Donauinselfest is something special. I think a lot of people have been waiting for that too.
Thank you for the interview!
Stefan Niederwieser
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Links:
Emirez (Instagram)
Emirez (Facebook)
RAF Camora (Instagram)