Musician
“Last Words”: Rap pioneer Moses Pelham steps down
Moses Pelham, musician and producer, is considered a pioneer of German rap. photo
© Helmut Fricke/dpa
He is considered a co-founder of German rap and became famous almost 30 years ago with the Rödelheim Hartreim project. Now Moses Pelham announces his retirement. But a lot has to happen before that.
“I’m a living legend and I’d be retired a long time ago,” rapped Moses Pelham in the 90s as part of the Rödelheim Hartreim project. Now the time should have come. The 52-year-old, considered a pioneer of German rap, wants to step down. “I have the desire to finish this work sensibly and self-determinedly. And I want to do that with all my strength,” Pelham told the German Press Agency.
His final album “Last Words” is scheduled to be released in the fall of next year. Making this record was a bit like “planning your own funeral,” says Pelham. The very last concert is planned for December 21, 2024 in his hometown of Frankfurt. He is really looking forward to celebrating together again “with the people who have had this in their lives over the last 30 years.” “So also knowing that this is probably the last time we’ll come together like this.”
First single in the charts in 1989
Pelham has been thinking about his departure from the stage for a relatively long time. He’s been working on the album for several years, collecting ideas and writing songs: “If you want to perform a magic trick, i.e. pull a rabbit out of a hat, it’s really good to have put one in at some point.” Some guests should be heard on “Last Words”. Who will not be revealed yet. In the past he had collaborated with Marteria, Johannes Oerding and arrest warrant, among others, and he was on stage with Lena and the Böhse Onkelz.
Pelham was born in Frankfurt in 1971 – the son of an American blues musician and an insurance saleswoman. As a teenager, he landed in the charts in 1989 with his first solo single “Twilight Zone”. He later founded “Pelham Power Productions”, or “3p” for short, which produced Sabrina Setlur, Xavier Naidoo and Pelham’s band Glashaus. And: According to his record company Sony, he is the only rapper to have been in the German charts for over five decades.
As part of the Rödelheim Hartreim Project, founded in 1993, Pelham created the blueprint for what would later be called street rap. The combo appeared more aggressive compared to other early German-speaking representatives of hip-hop – such as the Fantastischen Vier. With hits like “Höha, Schnella, Weita” they made the Frankfurt district of Rödelheim famous.
Dispute with power plant
Pelham later attracts attention with both positive and negative headlines. In 1997 he broke Stefan Raab’s nose in a dispute. The following year he was named “Producer of the Year” by the Echo. In 2020 he will receive the German Record Critics’ Honorary Award. Pelham shows “that he plays in his own Champions League in German rap and hip-hop,” said the jury. And the singer Mark Forster once said about him: “Moses Pelham is the godfather of urban German-language pop music.”
His career is also accompanied by a legal dispute with the band Kraftwerk that has been going on for around two decades. For a Setlur song, Pelham, without being asked, used a two-second rhythm from the electro-pop pioneers from Düsseldorf. The procedure went through the courts and is now once again a case for the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
In the interview, Pelham himself finds it difficult to name the personal highs and lows of his career: “I believe that the final album will answer this question much better.” In general, it is a wonderful privilege for him to be in the lives of his fans. “If someone says, I want a play by Moses to be played at my funeral, then you have somehow intervened in their life, you have become part of the family.”
Pelham as an amateur chef and vegan
But of course there are also things that he regrets: “There are terrible regrets, terrible ones. But I will do anything to give them even more space now.” And, he emphasizes: “Art doesn’t want to make compromises. If we want to please everyone, then it won’t work.” This sometimes goes hand in hand with offending or being seen as controversial.
In addition to music, Pelham also pursues other projects, such as a joint podcast with the journalist and author Jan Wehn. The amateur chef and vegan also recently published a vegan recipe book. He hasn’t given much thought to what will happen in the future, especially since the step means the end of his career as a rapper who records albums and plays tours. Not working as a producer or writer.
“There are really a lot of things that interest me that have certainly been neglected in the last 30 years,” he says. But what is much more important for him at the moment is to prepare his farewell. And with what feeling does he want to step off the stage at the last concert? “I hope I can then say I finished it well.”