Red light floods the stage. The beat is restless. The Munich rapper ESC Rilla is on stage – or better: jumping, running and dancing. He performs his lyrics quickly, drivingly and energetically. With some lines he gets louder and shouts them directly into the audience. It almost feels like a punk concert rather than a traditional hip-hop performance.
“I think about music 24/7,” says ESC Rilla, 23, whose real name is Noah Kuckler-Kretschmann. A passion that is hard to miss: Since 2019, he has been shaping the Munich hip-hop scene as a rapper, DJ and producer. Noah is often not alone on stage, but enjoys sharing it with like-minded people. As the founder of the “Escape Collective”, he organizes two of his own event series in which local acts play on Munich stages together with artists from all over Germany.
He is in his element on stage, but so far he has only released one song. Noah says he’s too perfectionist: “The reason for this is that I want the next single to blow you all away.” His debut single “Snakes” has energetic, raw beats. Noah’s rap flow lies seamlessly on top – sometimes in English, sometimes in German, with the two languages flowing harmoniously into one another. Since his father is American, Noah grew up on the American east coast. Here he picked up hip-hop influences from New York, but also his parents’ love of music.
Noah often appears on stage with his fiancée Isabel Leila Gütlein, who performs in Munich under the stage name “Gündalein”. “We are two creative individuals who inspire each other and work very well together,” says Noah. The creative duo has already released the joint song “Mary Jane”. Originally he wasn’t even included in the song, says Noah. When recording, however, Gündalein spontaneously decided to include a verse from Noah. “Under time pressure, I wrote a text in the next room in 20 minutes, the lines of which I was only halfway convinced of,” says Noah and laughs.
Noah usually takes a little more time when writing a song, he says: “I feel like the song already exists before I write it down. It’s just waiting for someone to discover it.” For a while he worked as a delivery man in Munich and freestyled on his bike. “A lot of my hooks came about on these tours,” says Noah. “Stop briefly, write down the words, continue driving.”
ESC Rilla
Style: hip hop
Occupation: Noah Kuckler-Kretschmann
Since: 2019
Internet: instagram.com/esc.rilla