Loop: Das muss eine Demokratie aushalten können

Waving The Guns

Album: Das muss eine Demokratie aushalten können
Release Date: 2019
Germany

Waving the Guns (WTG) are from Rostock and they are doing Rap music. Instead of big hype, they slowly grew over the year without being pushed too much. In their music understatement and overstatement are really important such as their attitude and just to been keen to make some music. [More on Audio Lith]

There is hardly any information about Waving The Guns in English. Will you please tell us about your group? 

We are a rap group from Rostock, Germany, a town with about 200.000 inhabitants located at the Baltic Sea in the region of the former GDR (northeast of Germany). We started out as a small project to pass the time and somehow managed to make a living out of it (no big business but we can’t complain). In the beginning, we were four members, two producers, and two rappers, by now we have reduced to only one producer (Dub Dylan) and one MC (Milli Dance). We are currently working with different producers on new songs, trying to conserve the vibe we are known for but develop it further. Our texts are considered political and targeting social matters, but with a battle rap- attitude to it. The music, having fun making it and entertaining are always our main concern. Our sound is sample-oriented with a more classic approach without being dogmatic about it.

We know how powerful the German hip-hop scene is. Where is Rostock, your hometown, standing in that sparkling hip-hop picture? 

Rostock is definitely not the centre of events, but with the artist Marteria, who grew up here and still represents the city, it has one of the bigger names in German rap music and there have always been people making music. Still, Rostock is not sparkling, rather isolated due to its geographic location. Getting known to people outside of town is not the easiest part. Nevertheless, the amount of artists actively releasing music has grown over the last few years. I read somewhere on Twitter: „You can’t throw a stone in Rostock without hitting a rapper“. Found that funny.

A huge element of German hip-hop culture is apparently immigrants. How do you think the approach to hip-hop music has been changing over the years in Germany? (Meaning; does hip-hop help fighting against racism or building better social justice, or uniting a divided country?)

I think this is hard to answer. There are so many struggles and different interests going on right now (the far right is rising strongly over the last years, society is polarising) that it’s hard to break the role of hip-hop down. However, a subculture that brings people together is always a good thing. A lot of german youths, who don’t have a direct background in immigration, are definitely more influenced by immigrant culture. At the same time, there is a lot of content that has no interest in changing anything or even thinking political. A big part of successful german rap is about consuming, buying, being successful. But that also is just a result of the focus a big part of society has. Even neo-Nazis are trying to appropriate HipHop- culture, and there are people who concern themselves HipHop who start talking right-wing bullshit.  I generally think there is a growing number of artists with a more progressive political stance, due to the fact that these are political times. So HipHop in Germany at least has a good chance to be a progressive voice.

Can you comfortably say hip-hop is the most popular genre in Germany now?

Concerning sales and streams, it definitely is. Rap music is dominating charts and market relevance right now. And it feels like everybody wants to be a rapper. 

We love musicians/bands with a political stance. Considering your group name, masks you’re always wearing; what is your political stance and what are some specific subjects you talk about in your songs?

In general, our stance is against oppression of any form, we are disgusted by racism, fascism, and propaganda against the weak. We question the neoliberal agenda and stress the importance of solidarity for the common good. That of course includes a critical view of lifestyles a lot of rappers are propagating, which is a good material for our battle-oriented texts.

Our stance is against the oppression of any form, we disgust racism, fascism, and propaganda against the weak. We question the neoliberal agenda and stress the importance of solidarity for the common good.

Milli Dance on the ideology of Waving The Guns

We have been running a loop-songs series where we have bands talk about one of their songs we pick. We have chosen your song, Das muss eine Demokratie aushalten können. Will you please tell us what’s it about and how it came together?

It’s basically a battle track, a classic representer praising ourselves, laughing at others, and celebrating the fun of putting words together in a way we find entertaining. Not more, not less. The hook and title of the song in English means „A democracy must be able to take that“. It’s a phrase we heard a lot concerning right-wing violence and fascist tendencies. The song mocks that attitude of the so-called „middle of society“, who in our eyes just are not willing to fight these tendencies with the needed determination. But I don’t want to make it a more important song than it is. Basically, it’s an entertaining piece of music with some punches to the guts.

You made that beautiful song, Das Privilege, in 2019. And then the very next year everything stopped on the planet. I know you had some concerts towards the end of the year but how was 2020 for you in general and what do you expect from 2021?

2020 was of course fucked up for everybody, but we were just unbelievably lucky because we were able to finish our big tour with big concerts in Hamburg and Berlin and were financially safe for the time being. 2019 was very successful for us, so that paid off last year. In some regards, it was good to have to take a break, we needed a new structure, had to break up with our founding member and main producer DrDmg, and see how and if we would go on. It was a year of time and finding structure, which we actually needed. We personally can’t and won’t complain about 2020. 

For 2021, we don’t expect much anymore. Maybe we get lucky to play some small open-air concerts under pandemic measures, but the way the German government is fucking things up in every possible way leaves us sad and at times hopeless concerning cultural events and opportunities. There is no visible concern to control the virus, „the economy“- which basically means the profits of big companies- is put over the good of the common people and real solidarity is a foreign word to the most conservative politicians in power. BUT: I (Milli Dance) will release a small LP in May, 11 songs with a friend of mine who made all the instrumentals. This is something I am looking forward to right now. Apart from that, we will try to stay -somehow- positive, make a new WTG album, and hope for better days for culture and society. All we can do is do what we can and keep solidarity up and never start kicking below us.

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