Hip hop has come a long way from inspirational records of American soliders stationed in Germany. Much props goes to the Fantastischen Vier, the pioneers, of who set the stage with "Die Da" back in the early reunification years. They continue to reinvent themselves with thoughtful yet entertaining music. Their latest album Fornika is fresh, modern and coupled with a little moral guidance that keeps them in the pop culture ecosystem.

Other early 90s bands followed suit. Fettes Brot from Hamburg, who still rock, the short lived Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt, now the label 3p and of course Absolute Beginner with their anti-police track Keine. In the late 90s, the market was filled with hip hop centers across the country and the dissing game started to heat up.

Today, especially Muslim immigrants dominate the scene: Bushido and Azad are two front runners. Their themes cover social inequalities, drugs, violence and fall into the growing genre of the American inspired gangsta rap. Just last Tuesday, violence was real when three men attacked rapper Fler with a knife at MTV hq in Berlin. Whether it was scandalously PR inspired just before the release of his new album, or really for real is up for grabs.

Manuellsen was not involved and chose to hit LA, or better The Valley, to shot his latest Deutschrap single "Vor-Bye" seen above. From Mühlheim in the Rhine Rhur region, he's the first German rapper to film in Cali, although DJ Tomekk and Lil' Kim put together an anglofritz related clip earlier. Take special notice of the pimped out cars in Vor-Bye, word is that we'll see this video pop up in another form some time soon. Manuellsen speaks English, Dutch, Turkish and Arabic, so watch out, he might release an album overseas.