Trettmann at Lido Berlin / Wednesday, 25.10.2017

Counting good German rappers is easy. It only takes one, possibly two hands to capture the amount of interesting artists operating within the genre of Deutschrap today. When it comes to sonic inventiveness, worse even, we’re left with nothing but the uncomfortable feeling that German hiphop heads have sold their hearts and ears to either testosterone-soaked traprap dilly willy or to some nostalgic stoner’s jazzed-up MPC-excesses.

But that’s okay, because here comes Ronny Trettmann, a middle-aged man from Karl-Marx-Stadt (modern-day Chemnitz) who has meedled in R’n’B and Dancehall for some years and whose sunglasses and slim-fit basecap make his face look even leaner than it already is. Accompanied by gloomy instrumentals courtesy of opaque producer-collective Kitschkrieg, Trettmann spits simple, memorable lines, drenched in sadness, hopes and a heavy dose of autotune.