Abusive artists, problematic song lyrics: This is what the book “Row Zero” tells about. It appears a year after the Rammstein scandal. You can read a preprint here.
For their book “Row Zero: Violence and Abuse of Power in the Music Industry,” the authors Lena Kampf and Daniel Drepper spent almost a year researching the music industry. The case surrounding rapper Samra provides an example of the change in the industry. The influencer Nika Irani accused him on Instagram in June 2021 of raping her a year earlier. Samra, an artist with the record company Universal, denies the crime, and an investigation by the Potsdam public prosecutor’s office was closed at the beginning of 2024 after two and a half years. An excerpt from “Row Zero”:
But how can a company respond adequately to something that goes viral on Instagram but has not been examined by journalists or a public prosecutor? Especially because of a suspicion that is not reported by the person presumably affected at this point in time or substantiated with evidence? Is there appropriate communication that does not stab the artist or those presumably affected in the back? And does the company even have to react?