Soundscaping Berlin: Female Agency and Urban Performance in Till Hastreiter’s Status Yo!

This study investigates Till Hastreiter’s critically acclaimed hip-hop film Status Yo! (Germany/Switzerland, 2004) in the context of the “sonic turn” in German Studies. As one of the few German “generation films,” Status Yo! demonstrates its particular relevance by engaging hip-hop’s participation in the shaping of a collective German identity in the new millennium. My study focuses on three sets of relationships: soundscapes and gender politics, soundscapes and ethnic differences, and soundscapes and renegotiations of (national) belongings. For the Turkish German character Yesim, sound, and how it relates to the palimpsest of Berlin, becomes an important tool in negotiating social norms and agency.