County – 19 years dreaming of his own rap album. Now Kankanoid from Moosburg made it: Since one week you can buy ,Atom Plak. On Sunday he presents it at the shore lot. In the interview he talks to us about music, rap cliches and Peter Pan.
Since two decades a Moosburger dreams of his own rap album. Now he has made it under the stage name Kankanoid: Since one week you can buy "Atom Plak" as CD and download. This Sunday, 1. May, Kankanoid presents it to the public for the first time at the Uferlos Festival. The FT met him in advance for an interview: about the love for music, rapper cliches and Peter Pan.
Freisinger Tagblatt: Kankanoid, your lyrics are almost completely in Turkish. Clarify us on: What are you rapping about?
Kankanoid: Mainly about what I have experienced in my life and what happened in my environment. The first title and the very first word is "Merhaba" – „Hello". I would like to greet the people first of all. In the track it is about the whole world is so broken, because we are so controlled by materialism. Principles like "Love your neighbor are hardly lived more.
FT: Quite philosophical for rap. Isn’t the genre all about raking in money and driving big cars??
Kankanoid: I can understand when the great artists who earn millions want to show: I came from the streets and I made it. But I find rappers who work shifts somewhere during the day and go gangster in the evening with a gold chain unbelievable. I know a few musician colleagues who study and are totally gscheid. But when I watch their music videos, I think: Oh my god, what’s going on there? Of course: Sometimes you have to use cliches in rap to appeal to certain people.
FT: If your music is not about getting rich, then what is it about??
Kankanoid: I tell for example in track 4 "Hayallerim Vardi" Of my childhood and how my generation grew up. About the fact that we didn’t write WhatsApp messages on our smartphones all day long, but went out instead. You could also translate the track with a name: Peter Pan.
FT: Peter Pan?
Kankanoid: (laughs) Yes, I never wanted to grow up. I think it’s good if you don’t kill the childishness in you and keep something of it. As a father today, I can take it out on my kids and be on the same wavelength if need be.
FT: How was your childhood?
Kankanoid: Nice. We didn’t have much, but we shared a lot in our circle of friends. Sharing was always the be-all and end-all. And we were always outside. Back then everything was much more relaxed. Today the parents are automatically controlled: Hey, now you have to drive your children to school or bring them there. Everything has become more complicated.
FT: You came to Germany when you were six years old. Can you still remember that time?
Kankanoid: I know nor that it was cold. (laughs) Everything was suddenly different, even the air tasted new. My luck was that we lived next to a playground and I immediately had a connection. So hab’ I learned the German words pretty fast.
FT: Many German Turks say that they have experienced an identity crisis because they were Turks in Germany and Germans in Turkey. Does this sound familiar?
"Here I thought to myself: Yay, the first Turk on the moon!"
Kankanoid: I didn’t have a crisis. But from time to time, when I was visiting Turkey, I’ve heard a lot about it I already let the German hang out. (laughs) Cause I can’t have it at all when someone is not on time. But what I like even less is to make someone wait. Here in Germany I’m the Turk every day. Just currently, with all the coverage of what’s going on in Turkey. Then my German environment comes to me and says: Hey, what happened to you again?? Or when Galatasaray soccer fans act up somewhere, the next day at work they say: You Turks again!! I say Then: I wasn’t even there. And yesterday I was still the German for you. Make up your mind what I am!
FT: Linguistically speaking, you pass for a Bavarian in any case. Can you rap as fast in German as you can in Turkish?
Kankanoid: Yes. But do I want to? I know not it. Deutschrap has been dragged into the negative by many artists. Of course many say to me: Rap in German. But I want to make it in Turkish, too. This is my challenge. Besides, I feel more comfortable in Turkish, and the language flows much smoother in sound.
FT: How do you talk to your children at home??
Kankanoid: With our first son, my wife and I thought long and hard about how to do it. The plan was then: I talk only Turkish and my wife only German. But a pediatrician advised us against it. She said: Just teach the kid Turkish. Then we were flabbergasted. She explained to us that kids automatically learn German in kindergarten at the latest. And otherwise memorize: You speak Turkish with the male gender, German with the female gender. It was a hard time, we had to work really hard. But we have pulled it through. Our big boy is now four, and he knows Turkish and German very well. The little one, he is two, learns everything from his big brother anyway.
FT: How would you react if one of your sons wanted to become a rapper later on??
Kankanoid: No matter what they want- as long as it is decent, they are supported by us. I believe But not that the big one wants to be a rapper. His first career wish was to be an astronaut. Then I thought to myself: Yay, the first Turk on the moon! (laughs) But no, now he wants to be an archeologist. I didn’t even know what it was when I was four years old.
"I was never driven home by the police. But we visited them a lot."
FT: Rappers like to cultivate their bad-boy image. Were you a bad boy?
Kankanoid: There have been times when we weren’t or didn’t want to be the decent ones. Of course: When you are constantly on the road with rap music, you also absorb all the cliches like the ghetto life and such. A German friend of mine told me: They always want to get out of the ghetto over there in America, to make something out of their lives. And you always want to go into the ghetto. It took me a while to realize..: She’s right. In Germany we all have it so good, we have social and health insurance. But to get back to the question: We did a lot of shit back then. I’ve never been driven home by the police. But we visited them often. (laughs) If my kid was out and about like that today, I’d probably freak out.
FT: Where does your love of music come from??
Kankanoid: Music was always a refuge and a staple for me. With music I could express feelings, relax, fall asleep.
FT: When did you start making music yourself??
Kankanoid: That was in 1993: There was Hip Hop on TV in German, which I knew from my big brother until then only in English. The group was called Fresh Familee, they were German Turks like me. And one of their titles was "Ahmet Gunduz". I did which is constantly rapped and used my name, Mehmet Gunduz. At the latest the music of Cartel and Torch has triggered a wave with me. And at some point I thought to myself: Nachrappen can anyone. Why don’t you do something of your own? ÜI don’t want to talk about my first texts (laughs)- but I have them still. It took me 19 years to make my first album. In the summer of 1997 because I decided: I also want to have an album. I want to be able to buy it in the store, tear off the foil, sniff it, read everything I’ve written’.
FT: How did it go on?
Kankanoid: In 2000 I stood in a studio for the first time. I have’ worked on many joint projects, here a mixtape, there an EP. But the goal was always something of my own. At some point the music became too time consuming for me, I was just out partying and partying. But I did sensed: something is bothering me. After my comeback with another collaborative album, I got in touch with Tony Crisp, an old musician buddy of mine. He asked: What do you want? And I said: I need beats. The direction was clear: I was influenced by the Eastcoast sound of the 1990s, I don’t go full on Wu-Tang Clan and NAS.
FT: If you listen to your song "K To Da D" sounds, however, one feels rather reminded of Cypress Hill of the Westcoast.
Kankanoid: Because at the same time I love the quaint westcoast flow. The number is a tribute to their music.
"It"s important to me that the beats melt like chocolate in my mouth"
FT: From your album you can hear the turkish roots over and over again. Intention?
Kankanoid: Yes, we embellished it with Turkish elements. Not too cliched oriental, just in a way that you can hear where I"m coming from. It was also important to me that the beats have a warm sound and melt like chocolate on the tongue.
FT: What is your big goal? Where do you want to go?
Kankanoid: I have arrived exactly where I wanted to be. That’s also what my album cover tells: I’ve arrived at the station now, and everything around me is moving. I’ll wait and see. Actually, I wanted to enjoy my rest now after four years of intensive work on the album. But at the moment I have to charge my cell phone two or three times a day, because so many people call and give me feedback or order CDs. That’s also a great feeling.
FT: Of course we still want to know: What does the name "Kankanoid" mean??
Kankanoid: When I started rapping with friends, we called ourselves blood brothers in Turkish it’s called "kan kardesler". We shortened it: Kanka. A lot of people thought that was my real name for a long time. The ambition to prove it with my comeback to everyone, went with me partly already into the paranoide. And this is how Kankanoid came into being.
"I am always hungry
FT: And "Atom Plak"?
Kankanoid: The music I make is so tiny compared to the huge humanity and music industry that I was looking for the smallest unit of measurement- an atom. „Plak" is the Turkish word for record.
FT: This Sunday, 1. May, you will be on stage at the Uferlos Festival and present your new album for the first time. What does the performance there mean to you??
Kankanoid: About it hab’ I’m not even big yet thought. I am someone who is extremely nervous before performances and has stage fright. When I stand on stage and hear the first bars of my music, everything falls away. I will definitely bring a good mood- and my boys. On the shoreless I go also privately with pleasure. It is very versatile, and there is something for every age. It doesn’t matter if it’s with the music or with the food. This is good for me: I am always hungry!
About the person:
Mehmet Gunduz, Kankanoid is the son of a Turkish family of migrant workers. He was born in 1982 in Ankara I was born and came to Germany at the age of six Moosburg. There he lives until today- meanwhile with his wife and two sons (2, 4). The 34-year-old works as a trained Machine systems engineer at Driescher, he has been doing music for many years as a hobby.
Raffle – Sources of supply – Performance
The album "Atom Plak" by Kankanoid can be found as a download on all popular music services like iTunes, Spotify, Google PlayStore or Amazon. Those who want to buy a CD have the opportunity to do so at concerts or after contacting the artist via social networks such as Facebook.
Who would like to experience Kankanoid live, has in addition on this Sunday, 1. May, the possibility at the Uferlos-Festival in Freising. The performance takes place as part of the stage program "Keep it Rap" from 18 clock in the Freisinger Bank tent.