257ers

Formed in the late 1990s in Kupferdreh, the Essen district that the members call home, the 257ers came together as a humorous German rap group. Mixtapes accounted for their earliest output, among them Mit Essen Spielt Man Nicht in 2005 and Scheiss auf Rappen in 2008. Hokus Pokus appeared as their first proper album in 2009, succeeded by ZWEN in 2010 and HRNSHN in 2012, with the final title reaching number six on the German album chart.

Alligatoah and Zwieback appeared on the 2014 release Boomshakkalakka, which became the group’s most popular album to that point by entering the German charts at number one. Mikrokosmos, the 257ers’ fifth studio album, surfaced in 2016 and likewise topped the German rankings, propelled by the Top 20 singles “Holland” and “Wood.”