XATAR

German rapper Xatar was born Giwar Hajabi on December 24, 1981 in K&h-e Qal’, Kordestan, Iran. He came to Germany as a refugee and started to rap in 1999. He released his first tracks in 2007 (“Bonn Brüser Berg” and “Lilane”), then founded his own label, Alles Oder Nix Records, in 2008. After appearing as a “rap coach” in RTL2′s failed TV show Der Bluff (where the rapper was supposed to turn a literature student into a credible gangster rapper), Xatar released his first solo album, Alles Oder Nix in November 2008. The album was put on the German index in February 2010 (meaning it cannot be sold to minors or advertised due to its violent lyrics). After several run-ins with the law (he was, among others, wanted for drug dealing from 2005 to 2007, and convicted of assault and battery in 2007 and 2009), Xatar was sentenced in December 2011 to eight years in prison for raiding a gold transporter. In the first few months of his prison term, he wrote and recorded his second album, Nr. 415, which was released in April 2012. ~ Christian Genzel