At the same time that the social relevance of songs like "The Message" (Grand Master Flash & The Furious Five, 1982), began to direct the worlds attention to the socio-economic reality of many African Americans living in the South Bronx -- Turkish-German youth were beginning to draw parallels between their circumstance and US American reality. As Germany's second class citizens -- faced with poor education, discrimination, and financial hardship --many found the Hip Hop forum to be the best place to present their platform.

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At the same time that the social relevance of songs like "The Message" (Grand Master Flash & The Furious Five, 1982), began to direct the worlds attention to the socio-economic situation of many African Americans living in the South Bronx -- Turkish-German youth were beginning to draw parallels between their circumstance and US American reality. As Germany's second class citizens -- faced with poor education, discrimination, and financial hardship --many found the Hip Hop forum to be the best place to present their platform.

Inspired by activist and pioneer, KRS-One and his assertion of the Hip Hop Nation as a non-territorial nation-state, I chose to document the Kreuzberg Hip Hop community because, as with many international citizens of our generation, Hip Hop culture has provided an alternative option within which to express outsider or border identity. The individuals reflected in these images are both Turkish and German yet not wholly either – thus Hip Hop culture for many youth in Kreuzberg has become that additional space for the creation of a transcendent identity.

--- avj 2005