Alpa Gun

One of the original voices of the gangsta rap scene which started in Berlin in the 1990s, Alpa Gun took on the persona of a swaggering, street-tough hard man, celebrated his devout Muslim beliefs and Turkish roots, and even rapped about his bald head and love of football.

Growing up in the diverse neighbourhood of Steinmetzstrasse in the Schoneberg quarter of Berlin, Alper Sendilmen started competing in rap battles in his teens and cut his teeth as part of the AK Ausserkontrolle collective alongside the likes of DramaKing and Fux. With the showmanship, braggadocio and attitude of the rap battles, Alpa told gritty tales of gang life in an area that was predominantly adopted by Russian, Kurdish and Turkish immigrants and frequently spoke of his loyalty to his community and his ambitions to rise from it. Becoming part of the Aggro Berlin hip-hop label, he released his first track 'Alpa fur Westberlin' in 2005 on the compilation album 'Aggro Ansage, Vol. 5', announcing himself with his debut solo album 'Geladen und Entsichert' in 2007. Portraying himself as a street kid hustling his way through the concrete jungle, his style bore the hallmarks of the great American gangsta rappers from the '90s, but his personal journey always made him a significant storyteller of the first-generation German immigrant experience.

He titled his second album 'Almanci' (a slang term used in Turkey to describe Turkish-German youth) as a nod to his background, but broke through into the German pop charts when 'Alles Kommt Zuruck' reached number seven in 2013 and the video for his self-effacing track 'Ich und Meine Glatze' ('Me and My Bald Head') went on to receive over 450,000 views on YouTube. 'Geboren um zu Sterben' was also a crossover success and made the top ten in 2014 and he kickstarted an acting career with his comedy movie 'Blutzbrudaz' about two rappers, before returning with his put-downs and a more contemplative outlook on his seventh album 'Zuruck Zur Strasse' in 2016.