COMPARING TURKISH-SPEAKING RAP SCENES IN GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDS

The main purpose of this article is to explore to which degree socio-political differences between Germany and the Netherlands particularly from early 1980s to late 90’s, where the Turkish population has a high density, affect developments of the Turkish-speaking rap music scenes in early 2000s. Here, the basic question is why Germany generally comes to mind when many people think of Turkish-rap music, but the Netherlands does not. To answer this question, I basically examined to what extent political (particularly as regards migration policies) and social conditions in the two countries have influenced the development of Turkish-language rap music. Cultural and political differences between these two countries and also the attitudes of the host society towards foreigners have led the Turkish rap scene in the Netherlands to remain less “developed” than that of Germany