Top Ten Songs from Kollegah's "Alphagene"

In 2007, "Alphagene" (his third release after "Zuhältertape" and "Boss der Bosse: Zuhältertape Vol. 2") was the first Kollegah record that received massive praise and critical attention. But he wasn't all too famous yet and it was only a minor chart success.
His rapping is awesome as always, but most of the beats aren't that well produced. The time where he is backed up by epic orchestral beats is still to come when he became a superstar. But nevertheless, retrospectively this is a classic no German hip hop fan should miss.

The Top Ten

1 Ein Junge weint hier nicht

This song definitely has the best beat on the album (in fact, it's one of the greatest of all Kollegah releases), also a very emotional chorus by Tarek, and actually meaningful and personal lyrics: Slick One delivers the first verse and the first half of the third verse, talking about his family's poverty and how it turned him aggressive - Kollegah, rapping the second verse and the second half of the third verse, tells a story of how his sister and her husband fought everyday and how Kollegah wanted to solve it, but ended up getting beat up himself.

2 Selfmade Endbosse

This is pure crazy fun. Kollegah, portraying a violent prone but laid back gangsta, and horrorcore rapper Favorite, a deranged and outrageous, on a tour full of violence, sex and drugs, while in full boasting mood - all of this with some of their craziest rhymes and a chaotic beat. Kollegah's calm delivery of pimp inspired lyrics and Favorite's over the top psychopathic voice acting just work together perfectly. I wish they would record a collaboration album.

3 Kuck auf die Goldkette 2007

This became a fan favorite. No wonder, it has some of Kollegah's most intelligent word play, and a rap-along chorus. It was also one of the first songs by him whose video received airplay on MTV Germany, and it contains much of what would be his trademarks: complex rhyming, double time rapping, and him boasting with luxury. Actually, it's a wonder it wasn't a smash hit back then (in the meantime, German hip hop is an album genre, but back then it also spawned successful singles but was not such the huge major genre it is today).

The original "Kuck auf die Goldkette" is from his 2005 debut album "Zuhältertape" and shares the intro and parts of the chorus with this song, but has different verses and a different beat.

4 Alphagene

Also one of the few songs from the album that have a great beat. It's hypnotic and dreamy, I love the mystic and unsettling atmosphere, which is helped by Kollegah's delivery that gets more and more drowzy and stoned as the song goes on. I must say this song, in its flow and beat, is very outstanding in Kollegah's discography. While the lyrics are still mostly word play and Kollegah's pimp persona, the overall sounds is kind of ghostly. The far distant pitched vocals in the background echoing over the soft beat, Kollegah's delivery,... you almost wait for him to say "Return the slab or suffer my curse".

5 Veni, vidi, vici

Kollegah turns to the German Tech N9ne in this song. Also: the Meat Loaf sample makes it sound all the more exciting.

6 Vom Dealer zum Star

I would rate this song if it wouldn't have such a terrible chorus. The song samples the 90s eurodance favorite "There is a Star" by Pharao. While during the verses you can hear the original song's vocals far in the background, in the chorus a woman that is not credited as a guest singer sings with TONS of Autotune, and also uses far too many syllables, to the tune of the original song. She sings "der kilogrammweise", which has six syllables where the original singer sings "believe the". Four of those syllables are sung over "-lieve".

Apart from that: Kollegah sings about how he ended his drug trafficking career after having been caught with coke, shortly before "Alphagene" was released. Then he decided to devote his life to his music. Even though much of the criminal activity he boasts with in songs in exaggarated or even fictional, this story os actually true. Kollegah is not only technically brilliant in this song, but actually talks about something personal - plus I love the ...more

7 Endlevel

About the songs I did not write an individual comment for: all of the songs have great rapping by Kollegah. He always delivers complex rhyming, several clever homophones and double entendres and sometimes showcases his doubletime skills. The songs mostly center around his pimp persona. The beats are somewhere between average and cheap.
My overall rating of this album is 4 out of 5 stars, even if my comments sound harsher. It's just hard to describe Kollegah's witty and intelligent lyrical abilities in English, because I can't use examples. Kollegah's raps are top notch throughout the album. Low points are only some of the beats and choruses.

8 Pokerfacekönig