A Rap Renaissance is Booming in Istanbul’s Shanty Towns
In this piece, I would like to take you to the shanty towns of Istanbul and provide a brief taster of the rap renaissance that is booming in these shantytowns. This will be a multimedia tour, and I will provide links to several Turkish rap songs below. You can think of this piece as a 7-minute crash course on the emerging Turkish rap scene.
If you haven’t listened to Turkish rap until now, feel free to click on the song links below. You will see that there is a very rich rap ecosystem in Turkey, and there is an ever-increasing range of diverse talent in this dynamic music market. Watch the videos below, give them a shot, and see if you will like Turkish rap.
The first wave: Founders of Turkish Rap
In this section, I will look at the history of Turkish rap and notable figures who have led the rap movement in Turkey.
In my view, it all started with Cartel in 1995. A group of Turkish German rappers stormed the country with their hip-hop songs. They were unlike anything else during the 1990s and created their unique style of oriental hip hop at that time.
