German rapper Frederik Hahn aka Torch lives in Zurich

He likes how people in Zurich live with the lake. how they use it. “What can you do by the river in Heidelberg?” Torch asks. “Sit on the bank, have a drink.” It’s nice, but you can’t swim there. The river is an industrial river. How many bodies of water in Germany are industrial bodies of water. He likes being here by the water, looking at the people. Torch’s real name is Frederik Hahn, he’s been living in Zurich for almost twenty years – not exactly anonymously, but relatively unrecognized. He, the hip-hop icon, the teenage idol of some who are now in their 30’s or 40’s.

Already in the early 1990s he often came to Switzerland; to Basel, to Biel to meet people. You always needed a reason to travel to Zurich. Because everyone there was “cool” and for themselves and less accessible than elsewhere. He grew up in Heidelberg, the university town in Baden-Württemberg – and from there he helped shape German rap. He wasn’t the first to rap in German, he says. It’s important to him to keep that in mind. Just as no one before him had rapped “freestyle” in German – i.e. rhymed spontaneously and improvised over the beat.

Away from the joke rappers

Maybe Torch didn’t invent German rap. But he has helped him to popularity. This genre, which today dominates the charts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. And that also repeatedly brings songs into the international top 50 of the streaming provider Spotify. This requires several hundred thousand streams in one day.

In the beginning there were a lot of “ugly rappers” in Germany, says Torch. With his group Advanced Chemistry he gave consistency to German rap; as in 1992 with “Foreign in your own country”, a socially critical song about racism and discrimination. A whole generation of hip-hop grew up with his music in Germany.

He came to Zurich because of love. His children are from Zurich, he says. He has just turned fifty. In his home town of Heidelberg, there was a five-day festival to mark the occasion, including a concert in the castle and the presentation of the medal of honor by the mayor. For his services to hip-hop in Germany. And for his services to the city.

This recognition was important to him. With this act he was able to end; let go of what he created there. Now he could arrive in Zurich. When asked why he hasn’t arrived after so many years, the answer doesn’t come immediately. Then he says: “I probably didn’t even know that I had to do this.”

Researching rap for science magazines

Torch lives on Langstrasse. He wanted to live where something is going on, where he can always meet someone. He wanted to be “right in the middle”. Here he can look out the window and see life. When the big football tournaments are on, he flies his Haiti flag. He, the Haitian.

He also appreciates being able to turn up the music in the neighborhood without anyone complaining. As a DJ he produces mixtapes. One of these self-mixed music cassettes is dedicated to the pioneers of German rap.

He also deals scientifically with this genre of music. He researches them from various aspects, makes surveys, derives infographics. Graphics that show the musical development. “It’s my thing,” he says.

The work is published in scientific journals. A next article by Torch will be published by Palgrave Macmillan, an academic publisher in London. He has also just published a book. A monograph on how his successful solo album «Blauer Velvet» came about. “I do a lot,” he says.

As a matter of fact. In Zurich, too, he wants to set something up, mediate – pass it on; Torch also means the torch. He had never described himself as a Zurich resident, and had always held back here. He didn’t want to “rearrange the shelves” for the people of Zurich, as he puts it; come into her living room and rearrange everything. Nevertheless, he has already left his mark, for example with his booking agency Booking Good, with which he brought artists from here to Asia.

Above all, he wants to gain a cultural foothold here. influence. Make a difference. He is now ready to create something with Zurich – to get involved with the city. Although he lives on the party mile, he’s not the pub-goer – even if he has his own wine, as he adds.

At the beginning of his time in Zurich, he bought a bike to explore the city. And he wanted to show his children that there is more than just Langstrasse. In two or three weeks he saw everything that would have taken others years. Also to participate. He wants to get out a lot.

A love song for the hometown

In his hometown of Heidelberg, which he first made known to many people as a rapper, there is no neighborhood like Langstrasse. Heidelberg is the city of poets, scholars, the Oxford or Cambridge of Germany. And a popular tourist destination. “A bit like Lucerne,” he says, where the Chapel Bridge is photographed.

In Heidelberg, this is the Karl Theodor Bridge, also simply called the Old Bridge. Much is old town. And because it was also the NATO headquarters, there was always a large mix of tourists and soldiers. The city did that internationally.

Torch dedicated a love song to her called “Beautiful”. Rappers’ declarations of love for their own city have always been part of rap music.

He travels a lot in Zurich. It’s everywhere that hip-hop lives. Otherwise he attends lectures at the university and then talks to the professors. Or he goes to the opera house. Sit in a cafe there.

He likes to socialize in places like this with people who don’t know him – older people. In general, he likes to sit in “old ladies’ cafes,” as he calls it himself. And in Zurich he would find everything right next to each other; the banker alongside the autonomous. It takes time and patience to get here. He didn’t find out himself, but he knows that it’s difficult to make friends here. There is always a certain distance.

In Zurich he is not seeking the same recognition as in his hometown. On the contrary. Rather, he wants to help ensure that local rappers get the respect they deserve. Pioneers like EKR, who was one of the first to rap in dialect and is “a hero” here. In Switzerland there is still a great distance to one’s own music. Too big, as Frederik Hahn thinks.

Patric dal Farra alias Tinguely dä Chnächt is one of the best-known rappers in Switzerland.