Killa Hakan

Killa Hakan — Biography

Killa Hakan came into the world in the 1960s, the years when a family from Sivas (originally from Tokat) migrated to Germany as guest workers; his father was the national wrestler Ali Rıza Durmuş. Growing up in Berlin's Kreuzberg quarter, the racism he witnessed there drew him toward music, and it was during a stretch in prison that he began putting his anger into written verses. Counted among the pioneers of Germany's Turkish-language rap scene since the late 1980s, he put out the album Mesaj with the group Islamic Force in 1997 before building a solo career through records such as Çakallar and Semt Semt Sokak. Frequent collaborators have included Ceza, Fuat Ergin and Eko Fresh; the 2008 record he made with Ceza, Bomba Plak, is counted among the turning points of Turkish-language rap. His lyrics have circled back repeatedly to social criticism, street life and racism, and he has run rap workshops as part of youth-outreach projects. A co-founder of the 36 Boys collective, he showed up on screen in the 2019 documentary Harbi Getto, the 2020 documentary Killa about German rap culture, and the 2021 film Kovala. His father died in 2020; in 2026 it was announced that his life story would be adapted into Turkey's first rap biopic, with Killa Hakan starring as himself.