The duo of Willie The Kid and V DON has given listeners many great albums. Let’s take a look at why the dope rapper and talented producer mention Germany in the title of their most famous album and uncover some indelible Deutsche marks in American rap.
Volkswagen (W)
Willie The Kid, a rapper from Grand Rapids, Michigan, does not have even half the fame he deserves. The artist with the given name Willie Jackson, born in 1985, is the younger brother of La the Darkman, a rapper that belongs to Wu-Tang Affiliate. So Willie was thrown into the world of hip-hop at a young age, and as it usually is in the stories of rappers, his story too was affected by the drug underworld since that was the only option for him to do something with himself. Gladly, he did not fall for drugs but turned his experiences into the lyrics of his songs. He studied at Clark Atlanta University, where he gained all the necessary knowledge to understand how the musical industry works. During his years at the university, he befriended a group named The Aphilliates that helped him get his career off the ground and start working in music professionally. His first official album was released in 2006 with the collaboration of DJ Drama and was named The Day The Game Changed. Since then, he has released fifteen LPs and an uncountable number of other shorter projects; he also has a few business ventures. Willie co-founded the brands GRUSA and Motu Viget Spirits Company.
Volkswagen (V)
In addition to Deutsche Marks, producer V DON has collaborated with Willie The Kid on Blue Notes (2018), Heather Grey (2019), and Deutsche Marks 2 (2020). However, the producer’s beats can already be found on The Fly 2 (2011). Born in Harlem, V DON has worked with the likes of Vado, Eto, Dave East, Ransom, Bodega Bamz, Smoke DZA, and the Griselda trio over the course of his career. He has also produced tracks such as A$AP Rocky’s Ghetto Symphony. As is usually the case, he also tried rapping, but at the age of eighteen, he began to devote himself fully to production. He is one of the greatest talents to revive the raw and gritty sound.
Deutsche Marks
The album cover shows a Volkswagen Beetle DeLuxe Sedan (probably a 1959 or 1962 model) arriving in New York. The cover, despite its simplicity, manages to catch attention and evoke a certain idea of what the listener can expect on the album. The image of a German car entering an American city evokes a certain sense of the exceptional and the sumptuous. References to German or European brands often appear in American rap, which, in most cases, reflect the luxurious lives of the artists. Willie The Kid is uniquely positioned due to his hard-life beginnings, connections to the drug underworld, and experience as a successful entrepreneur. No rapper, except perhaps Roc Marciano, can so perfectly blend a life of luxury with cold gangster stories as Willie.
References to Germany and other rich European countries and their premium brands and cars serve as a kind of satisfaction and reward in American rap. These references are all the more powerful for smaller, independent rappers like Willie The Kid.
„My never ending need for more, might blow the budget
And I don’t for the likes I do for the Lući, Charlie Lućiano, wolfing down the sushi
Pulling down in that Bavarian, it’s daytime the lights on, talk to your boyfriend, I bury him“
In the song You Know About Me, the rapper mentions his BMW or the Italian gangster Lucky Luciano. Prints of European luxury can be found in every Deutsche Marks track, such as premium spirits Glenlivet and Sambuca. We recommend the album to all lovers of cold rap and hard, raw beats.
FXCK RXP
We would like to dedicate a few lines to indie musical label FXCK RXP, which was founded in 2017 in a German city called Dortmund. Label that, since his beginning, has helped to release more than 70 albums in their physical form. They are mostly dedicated to American underground rap, but in their collection you can also find some jazz. From their catalog, we would like to mention Fly Anakin & Koncept Jack$on – Chapel Drive; Eto & Ritz – Motion Picture/A Piece of the Action; or ANKHLEJOHN & DA$H – Honey Sweeter Than Blood; and of course Deutsche Marks. Small labels like this gave a new life to American indie rap and helped move the whole scene forward.
So as you can see after reading this little article, there are so many more German marks on the American hip-hop scene than it might seem at first glance.
Sources: Throwup, Thejournalistsinseer, Djchuckt
Translated from Czech by Rado.
