LMS by Kool Savas (1999)

LMS was Kool Savas's first solo underground hit, a 1999 twelve-inch on Put Da Needle To Da Records with Schwule Rapper on the other side, and together they announced Berlin battle rap by insulting everyone else. The title is the hook and the hook is the instruction; the verses tell the rappers of Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart that they are wack, in terms the record's own era found hard to print.

The maxi was indexed by the Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Minors, which bars it from sale to anyone under eighteen and from advertising, and in 2024, after twenty-five years, the listing was renewed, the German state having checked and confirmed that the instruction was still rude. Savas built a career as the King of Rap on the audience LMS found, and has since given the letters their second meaning without disowning the first.

Its afterlife is the argument about what it did. The homophobic and sexist lyrics served, by the account of the scene itself, one purpose: to tear apart a comfortable, socially conscious German rap of the late 1990's and replace it with Berlin. The song is foundational Deutschrap history and is on this list with its context stated, because the hook qualifies and the rest of the record does not get a pass.