Snot in the headlights is just a question of timing. At the concert in the Olympiahalle, the rapper Bonez MC performs that salivation, that oh so badboy-like break with the rules of conduct of the past, so precisely, so perfectly lit, so much at the right moment, as if he had never done anything else in his life. For a close-up of him, which can suddenly be seen on all video screens at the same time, he rips his balaclava off his face. And does what footballers do when they feel unobserved. The gangster rapper’s ejection shoots through golden grillz – a brace that doesn’t want to correct any dental misalignments.
The appearance of the Hamburg 187 street gang leader Bonez MC with the West Viennese rapper and producer RAF Camora on Thursday evening marks the end of their “Plastic Palm Trees 3” tour. It’s the end of a trilogy that began in 2016 with the first “Palmen aus Plastik”, one of the most successful German-language albums of all time. To date, their groundbreaking Afrotrap record has been streamed more than a hundred million times and stayed in the German album charts for over two years. Inspired by French artists like MHD, they reinvented German dancehall. The sequels “Plastic Palms 2” and “Plastic Palms 3” also broke streaming records.
The album covers were created in front of a concrete staircase on Barcelona’s city beach. In the Olympic Hall, too, she is at the center of the jungle-like backdrop, in front of which the experienced entertainers Bonez MC and RAF Camora perform their hits with not unproblematic companions such as GZUZ. The big 187 show: deep bass, flamethrowers, product placement, large police force outside the hall. Yes, entertaining like a Marvel movie, but yes, just as surprising.
So back to the choreographed saliva: what’s supposed to look like a street fighter’s skip action could be part of a highly professional show. Because the picture direction in the hall should have known in advance when and in front of which camera it had to happen. Without an agreement, it would be pure coincidence that she would choose exactly the camera for the video walls from all the cameras in the room that captures his Frank Rijkaard moment. Unless Bonez MC had been recorded in advance. And would tape his spit every night. But wouldn’t that be weird?