In the early 90’s when the musical bad boy of all genres, hip-hop, was getting popular all around the world, Gastarbeiters’ following generation in Germany were amongst the ones who heard the first timbres of this energetic genre. Turkish youngsters who were trying to fit into 90’s communities in Germany were influenced by the children of the American Army families. This is where they got the first taste of hip-hop. The interaction between these two youth groups became the origin of the Turkish hip-hop culture. Every aspect of the hip-hop culture manifested itself in this period from rap and graffiti to break dance, as well as its sub-cultures that were heard by the Turkish crowds in the beginning of the 90’s.
Let’s dive into Turkey’s biggest hip-hop record label Hiphoplife.PRO and ask them a couple of questions about how they created their structure and how they still continue to shape hip-hop culture in Turkey.
What or who is Hiphoplife.PRO?
Hiphoplife.PRO emerged as a consequence of our curiosity of technology and our entrepreneurial mindset. We thought a lot about the start-up plan to take the rap music business to the next step and with that concept .PRO was determined to make “professionalism” the motto of every project. When Arda from the team began it was just a professional music sharing platform based on SoundCloud and Myspace. We worked hard in this period and managed to prepare a business plan, a 130-page start-up document. Another team member, Ulaş Demiröz was eager to take the whole sector to the next level and to focus on production and publishing aspects of the business. In the next phase Hiphoplife.PRO turned into a digital hip-hop label under DokuzSekiz Müzik and now the label continues to work on projects with the direction of Ulaş Demiröz.
Who are you currently producing?
Sansar Salvo, Allame, Joker, Ados, 90BPM, Fate Fat, ER-D and Karaçalı are amongst our many artists.
How does the label function?
First of all, Hiphoplife.PRO seeks to work with the artists with skills that it can trust. We don’t tend to work with young artists but we always motivate them by sharing ideas or information regarding market dynamics to implement into their content while they are trying to make their best music. Hiphoplife sustains a certain quality for the 12 years it has been active and we are putting our best efforts into our exclusive brand Hiphoplife.PRO.
What kind of characteristics does Hiphoplife.PRO seek in an artist to work with and how does Hiphoplife.PRO find new talent?
Like we mentioned, Hiphoplife is the only star shining for the hip-hop culture in Turkey. Hiphoplife.PRO’s focus is always on new projects, improvements and dynamics. It is always the playmaker of the market and can successfully change the game. Apart from these, Ahmet Çelenk’s, one of the most important producers in Turkish music industry and experience and knowledge lead us on the right path in this business.
What are your most successful releases of 2016?
Joker – Microphone Show, Ados – Vertigo
Which of your artists should we focus in 2017?
Sansar Salvo, Allame and Joker!
What do you think about the hip-hop Culture’s future in Turkey?
We always believed Turkey’s hip-hop culture in our heart. Graffiti, break dance, rap everything is changing rapidly in our country. Even the corporate brands started to take graffiti seriously. From advertising jingles to soundtracks and documentaries in every aspect of the media you can see hip-hop culture getting more and more important and popular. For 12 years, without stopping, we have done our best to succeed and we still continue moving forward. It’s not our hobby; on the contrary it became our profession. We believe that hip-hop culture will rise and it is going to be more effective by getting people closer to art.
