Lucio101: Resilience and the New German Rap Scene

A deep-seated voice that rumbles along with gravel and gravitas is, for some musicians, the primary gift. It can either project a hypnotic authority or serve as the passport stamp for an artistic persona. Underwriting his scorched-earth rhythms on Berlin's Rosenthaler Platz, a basso profondo has become the hallmark of the rapper and Mitte-native Lucio101 as his star has risen in the German rap scene.

In some ways Lucio’s ascent has been unusual. Few figures have built their reputation on Mitte street corners, a neighborhood that often signals the destination of a work commute or acts as a byword for a post-cool Berlin. Ever since the 2016 release of the sleeper hit “A oder B” on SoundCloud while still a teenager, Lucio has spent his career excavating an alternate history of the city center with a calculated nonchalance. In “Parkplatz,” a single released amid the summer’s heatwave slump, Lucio dishes in a blasé monotone about stashing a gun in his girl’s Chanel handbag and the cashflow ennuis of a newly successful businessman. “Kann nur gut schlafen, wenn mein Bündel alle Farben hat,” he drones with the right degree of disenchantment about the grind.

Lucio’s career is remarkable not only for the loyalty to his birthplace of Rosenthaler Platz, but also for the consistency of his social circle. Many of his collaborators—such as Lacazette, Omar101, and Karamell19—have recurrently featured on his tracks over the last ten years. Even among this field of colleagues, however, Lucio’s work with Nizi19 stands as an exceptionally close musical partnership. Starting with the founding of the label 1019—a mixture of their native Mitte and Charlottenburg area codes—the careers of Lucio101 and Nizi19 have progressed in tandem, and the pair are set this year to release the second part of their 2019 collaboration 1019.

The approaching release date of 1019 Teil 2 parallels the announcement of Lucio’s partnership with G-SHOCK. A watch, as Lucio tells us in conversation with 032c, is the one thing he needs to feel fully dressed. As a new ambassador of G-SHOCK, Lucio selected the GA-2100LXB-1AER from the new luxury black series as his personal favorite, which combines the typical robustness of the G-SHOCK line with a subtle and modern self-presentation. Over the course of the interview, Lucio spoke about his artistic evolution as a rapper, the challenges he’s faced in his career, and his favorite destination for late night food in Mitte.

Fionn Adamian: What music was played at home when you were growing up? What did you most enjoy listening to?

Lucio101: My mom started listening to Brazilian Bossa Nova and Brazilian Jazz when she was pregnant with me. This was the first music I grew up with. It was really calming. When I turned six and got to school, I started listening to the charts. All the songs that people were sending around with Bluetooth. When I turned eight, I started liking hip hop music, scratching, dj-ing, and all of the hip hop styles. I listened to old-school US rap, like NWA. After that, I started exploring the German rap scene, what the cool people used to listen to in Berlin. I could identify myself more with the style of hip hop people more than anyone else, how they dress, how they act.

FA: How did you start rapping and what was your reaction when “A oder B” took off on SoundCloud during your teenage years?

L101: I was fifteen years old when I recorded and uploaded [A oder B]. I uploaded it on private and sent the links to a few of my friends. After one month, it had a lot of streams even though it was still on private. I knew that the people that had the link were listening to it a lot and they gave me so many compliments, so I decided to make it public. This is how it all started. I did my first fan picture in the supermarket next to my mom when she didn't even know I was rapping.

FA: How did she find out that you were building this career as a rapper?

L101: My little sister told her. When people recognized me on the street and I was next to her, I couldn't hide it any more. At this time I only had the attention from the hood, I didn't bring one cent home with me.

FA: You once referred to the streets around Rosenthaler Platz as your “work office”...

L101: One hundred percent. This is where I hang out, where I know everybody, where I know every street, all the places, all the corners. It's my safe space, you know? Where I feel like home.

FA: How have you seen the neighborhood change and evolve since you started rapping, and what's remained constant?

L101: It changed a lot -- Gentrifizierung. They built a lot of new houses, they changed the whole system, and it's getting hip for people from outside to live there because there are a lot of night bars and clubs. Back then, nobody wanted to live there.

FA: You just put out a new single “+49” with Lacazette, Nizi19, and Zuzu19. What do you imagine as the ideal setting for someone to listen to the single?

L101: From a mobile phone speaker close to the ear at three percent battery in the corner of the street.

FA: Several collaborators have accompanied you throughout your career...

L101: I was outside the home my whole life. As soon as I turned fourteen, I went out on the street and met people. Lacazette, Hasan K, all of these people, I’ve known them for ages, more than ten years, and they know me. It's family, you know? They're super big artists, but they're super humble.

FA: I can imagine if you've been with each other from the start, there's this trust and bond...

L101: They do their thing, I do my thing, but they always respected me.

FA: You've worked especially closely with your rap partner Nizi19. How did you two meet and what does collaboration in general mean for your work?

L101: We're both really different people. We have a really different mindset, but in some ways we're really similar also. This is what makes it so interesting. You wouldn't think of these two people, Nizi and Lucio, the one Arabic and one Latin guy, chilling together. First, there's the age difference. Then, there's the difference in the areas we’re from: he's from West Berlin, I'm from Mitte. I'm from 101, he's from 19, that's how the label 1019 got it’s name. I met him in jail, actually. I knew he could rap. I showed him I could rap too. We decided to open a label as soon as we got out and that's what we did.

FA: How did you meet each other while you were there?

L101: I just got out of my cell on the first day, and he was the first guy that I saw. I used to see him a couple of times, because he was a friend of my friend, quick hi and bye, you know? So he was already familiar when I was in jail and didn't know anybody. I started talking to him and we became friends really fast. It all worked out.

FA: What are you most excited about for the projects you're working on?

L101: 1019 Part 2. [The album 1019] is how everything started. That's the first take that Nizi and I were dropping after we started making the label. It was seven years ago. We've had enough time to make Part 2.

FA: You have these two contrasting albums with seven years between them. What do you see as the biggest differences between how you two are now compared to when you first made the album? How does that resonate with the music?

L101: The experience we had during this time. One became a father—so many things happened in these seven years that we’ve lived enough to reflect all of the stories. We don't have to make up some fantasy stories and rap about this. We can rap about real stuff that happened to us and that we experienced.

FA: Do you have a dream collaboration in mind?

L101: Dead or alive?

FA: Let's hear both.

L101: [Dead,] Bob Marley, Michael Jackson. Alive, probably 21 Savage. Young Nudy, his cousin. US artists.

FA: What's your music taste red flag?

L101: I really like a lot of music but probably the most annoying one is hard techno. I cannot enjoy this.

FA: It's a bad city to be in.

L101: I like house music and electronic music, but not this jump-style techno.

FA: One of the values that G-SHOCK underscored with the announcement of your brand partnership is resilience. What's been the most unexpected challenge of your rap career and how have you dealt with it?

L101: Jealousy, evil eyes. You take in a lot of what's happening around you. You hear every time when someone walks by, you know that as soon as he’s behind you, he’s whispering your name. Small things, the price that you always pay. My G-SHOCK is a daily reminder of that mindset. Its toughness and durability reflect my own journey and the resilience it takes to keep pushing toward your goals. I am resilient and every challenge I've faced has made me stronger. Thank God, I get along well with everyone. I can still take a walk through Berlin with my family and my sister and drink a coffee. 

FA: Do you have favorite fashion accessories that you can’t go without?

L101: I always have to wear a watch, otherwise I feel naked.

FA: I had just a few rapid fire questions on Mitte to round out the interview. Best place for late night food?

L101: Shout out City Chicken. You can get anything there.

FA: Most iconic meet-up point?

L101: Rosenbänke.

FA: Most overrated tourist destination?

L101: Alexanderplatz

FA: Mitte's music anthem?

L101: All of my songs.

FA: What would you change in Mitte if you were mayor for a day?

L101: Let's not get too political. Döner prices? Actually, I think that you shouldn’t be allowed to turn Berliners away at the door. You have these bouncers working at bars that want to turn down people that have grown up in this city for thirty years. These people know the guy that owned the last place, and the one before that, and the one before that. Berliners should always have a small bonus.