Kontra K

Hailing from Berlin, the German rapper Kontra K combines street smarts with a deep fixation on martial arts. During a difficult youth he drew motivation from American figures such as Nas and Notorious B.I.G., then turned to writing his own rhymes once he left high school at sixteen. While exploring kickboxing he teamed with fellow rapper KiezSpezial to create the duo Vollkontakt; Kaisa discovered them and placed the pair on his Hell Raisa imprint, which issued the Fight Club Mixtape in 2008.

After the label folded the next year, Kontra K struck out alone and established DePeKa alongside Skinny Al and Fatal. His first solo effort, Doberman—titled after his dog Chiko—appeared in 2010. A dubstep mixtape titled Electrosmog followed in 2012 and preceded the LP What Time Brings later that same year. Capitalizing on the strong sales of that second album, he delivered 12 Runden in 2013, which climbed to number eight on the German charts.

A 2015 agreement with Four Music accompanied the February release of his fourth album, Aus dem Schatten Ins Licht, which came within one position of the top spot in Germany. The following year Labyrinth finally secured the number-one ranking there and also landed inside the Top Ten in both Austria and Switzerland.