Xatar

Xatar
Birth name	Giwar Hajabi
Born	(1981-12-24) 24 December 1981 Slimany Kurdistan, Iran
Origin	Bonn, Germany
Genres	German hip hop
Years active	2007–present
Labels	Alles oder nix Records

Xatar (born Giwar Hajabi, on 24 December 1981 in Kūh-e Qalā‘, Iran) is a German rapper of Kurdish origin, though he is currently settled in Bonn. His stage name "Xatar" is taken from the Kurdish language and Persian language and means danger.

Biography

Xatar was born Giwar Hajabi in 1981 in the village of Kūh-e Qalā‘ (Kurdish: Qalue). He came as a refugee from Iranian Kurdistan to Bonn when he was a child. He grew up in the Brüser Berg district and was a member of the street gang Brüser Berger Assis.

Under pressure from his father, Xatar learned to play the piano at the age of nine. In 1993, he came into contact with hip hop for the first time when he heard Dr. Dre's album, The Chronic. He began rapping with his subsequent label mates Samy and Ssio. In 2008, he founded the label Alles oder nix Records which includes the rappers Samy and Ssio and the producers Maestro and DJ Bo Tex.

In August 2008, he worked with Bintia and Ali-As as a rap coach in the RTL II show Der Bluff. In the show, he played a literature student in the role of a credible gangsta rapper. The media response to the show was very negative.

In November 2008, Xatar released his first solo album, Alles oder nix. On the album are guest appearances by rappers such as Azad and Bero Bass. In addition, he published three related clips about Los Banditos Films. He gave concerts with other rappers such as Azad or Massiv and appeared frequently in the Cologne Street Cinema Fight Night or in the festival Rheinkultur. In June 2009, Xatar gave a thirty minute interview on Kurdistan TV.

In February 2010, the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons indexed Xatar's album Alles oder nix. Starting on 26 February 2010, the album cannot be bought by or sold to minors.

Besides Kurdish (Soranî and Bahdini), he can speak German, English, French, Italian, Persian and Arabic. Xatar has dual citizenship (German and Iranian) and is a Kurd.

Musical style

Xatar raps in high and simple beats in a slightly Bönnsch accent. The majority of his tracks are about life on the street. Xatar raps about drugs, nightlife, prostitution and armed violence. In the track Eine Geschichte 1, he tells a story of a friend who commits revenge against five people in a café or in the track Paragraf 31, he threatened all traitors with a vendetta. He often uses nationalist lines like "What a Kurd from Iraq, Turkey, Iran, I am a Kurd from Kurdistan" in the track Kurdistan or "The honour our pride famous for the battle, jiyana min bijî kurd û kurdistan (English: my life, long live the Kurds and Kurdistan)" in the track Platz ins Geschäft.

Controversy

Raid on a gold transporter

In December 2009, he and his seven accomplices, disguised as cops and taxmen, attacked a gold transporter on the A 81 near Ludwigsburg. They captured 1.8 million Euros worth of dental gold and jewellery. Four of the eight offenders were arrested, two of them are in remand and the other two were released presumed innocent. Xatar and his label mate Samy and the two other fugitives were wanted by Interpol, but were arrested in March 2010 in Iraq.

Discography

Studio albums

• 2008: Alles oder nix
• 2012: 415
• 2015: Baba aller Babas
• 2015: IZ DA 2060 ANverz
• 2016: Der Holland Job (with Haftbefehl)

Singles

• 2008: § 31 (e-single)
• 2009: Kopf oder Zahl (e-single; with Manuellsen)
• 2012: Interpol.com
• 2015: Original

Other releases

• 2007: Lilane (with Samy und Ssio)
• 2007: Alles oder nix Snippet (with Samy)
• 2008: Schachmatt (with Ssio)
• 2009: Was würdest du für Para machen? (with Ssio)