In a shock move, Germany’s prestigious Echo awards have been scrapped after the recent controversy involving two rappers with allegedly anti-Semitic music.
As TMN reported earlier, there was an artist and public backlash after rappers Kollegah and Farid Bang got nominated – and then won the hip hop/urban category– with an album containing allegedly misogynistic, homophobic, violence-glorifying and anti-Semitic lyrics.
References to one time inmates of the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Holocaust were particularly galling to some artists who returned their trophies in protest.
The awards are decided by sales, and the rappers’ record sold 150,000 units. Their distributor BMG has since cut ties with the duo
Germany’s recorded music trade association Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI) initially allowed the nomination to go through on the grounds of artistic freedom but made it clear it didn’t agree with the record’s lyrical content.
Read the article on The Music Network.