The Puppetmastaz
Encyclopedia
Puppetmastaz is a German
hip hop
group founded in Berlin
with members from Germany
, United States
and Canada
. Formed in 1996, the group perform their shows with hand puppets and meet music styles of Rap
, Funk
and Electronica
.
The founders and producers of the Puppetmastaz are Bomb 20, N1tro and in the German Gabber scene well known Patric Catani (E-De-Cologne) who produces the band's songs. A former member is also musician and songwriter Mocky
.
The band's frontman is Mr. Maloke, a mole rapper whose characteristic sign is wearing a glitter topper. According "to the legend" he founded the Puppetmastaz in the late Nineties. Step by step the band became bigger by puppets from all over the world. The puppets which later worked with the actually Puppetmastaz acted as first ones on shows in 1996 at Berlin's dance club Ex-Kreuz-Club.
The first shows as Hip hop act were organized in 1999, where was also their first music video made and titled with "Wick-a-Woo". On TV the puppet band were first seen in the year 2000. Their first Maxi EP Humans Get All The Credits was released in 2002 and let grown the band's profile nationwide.
2003 were produced the Maxi EP Pet Sound and Zoology as the album Creature Funk.
It followed a Remix Vinyl which was published as Prosettis Disco Balls but only as limited vinyl edition. In October 2005 were released the EP Bigger the Better and the album Creature Shock Radio.
The Puppetmastaz' shows were regional as also trans regional known as "first toy group". Especially in France, where their live shows got 5000 visitors they became well known and got a big and constantly growing fan community.
In 2007 the Puppetmastaz published a cover of John Lennon
's Give Peace a Chance in support of Amnesty International
what had warmed even Yoko Ono's heart how the Puppetmastaz said in an interview.
Their latest album The Takeover (CD and Double vinyl) was released in 2008.
They also started in June 2009 their own satire magazine with its title Puppetry Fair - The Glossy Gossip Gazette.
Currently (2009) the Puppetmastaz are touring in Germany
, Spain
, France
, Austria
, Japan
and Belgium
on their own shows as on festivals like Pukkelpop
in Belgium and Sonnenrot Festival in Eching, Munich.
The Puppetmastaz have broken up and released their new album "The Breakup" feature solo tracks.
They toured China in October 2010, the first hip-hop puppet crew to do so since the Opening and Reform.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
group founded in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
with members from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Formed in 1996, the group perform their shows with hand puppets and meet music styles of Rap
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
, Funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
and Electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
.
The founders and producers of the Puppetmastaz are Bomb 20, N1tro and in the German Gabber scene well known Patric Catani (E-De-Cologne) who produces the band's songs. A former member is also musician and songwriter Mocky
Mocky
Mocky is a Somali-Canadian singer, music producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and composer.-Biography:Mocky was born Dominic Salole in Saskatchewan, Canada. He later moved to Ottawa and Toronto, and then to London, Amsterdam and Berlin. His father is of Somali descent, but was born in...
.
Development
Their first trans regional known songs were Pet Sound (2003, New Noise Label) and The Bigger the Better (2005, Louisville Records). The band members of the Puppetmastaz Crew are always to seen as puppets on stage. Whilst music is played by their DJ the band members rap live by their puppets.The band's frontman is Mr. Maloke, a mole rapper whose characteristic sign is wearing a glitter topper. According "to the legend" he founded the Puppetmastaz in the late Nineties. Step by step the band became bigger by puppets from all over the world. The puppets which later worked with the actually Puppetmastaz acted as first ones on shows in 1996 at Berlin's dance club Ex-Kreuz-Club.
The first shows as Hip hop act were organized in 1999, where was also their first music video made and titled with "Wick-a-Woo". On TV the puppet band were first seen in the year 2000. Their first Maxi EP Humans Get All The Credits was released in 2002 and let grown the band's profile nationwide.
2003 were produced the Maxi EP Pet Sound and Zoology as the album Creature Funk.
It followed a Remix Vinyl which was published as Prosettis Disco Balls but only as limited vinyl edition. In October 2005 were released the EP Bigger the Better and the album Creature Shock Radio.
The Puppetmastaz' shows were regional as also trans regional known as "first toy group". Especially in France, where their live shows got 5000 visitors they became well known and got a big and constantly growing fan community.
In 2007 the Puppetmastaz published a cover of John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
's Give Peace a Chance in support of Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
what had warmed even Yoko Ono's heart how the Puppetmastaz said in an interview.
Their latest album The Takeover (CD and Double vinyl) was released in 2008.
They also started in June 2009 their own satire magazine with its title Puppetry Fair - The Glossy Gossip Gazette.
Currently (2009) the Puppetmastaz are touring in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
on their own shows as on festivals like Pukkelpop
Pukkelpop
Pukkelpop is an annual music festival which takes place near the city of Hasselt, Belgium in mid-to-late August. It is held within a large enclosure of fields and woodland—between a dual carriageway called Kempische Steenweg—in the village of Kiewit, approximately 7 km north of Hasselt...
in Belgium and Sonnenrot Festival in Eching, Munich.
The Puppetmastaz have broken up and released their new album "The Breakup" feature solo tracks.
They toured China in October 2010, the first hip-hop puppet crew to do so since the Opening and Reform.
All current band members
- Mr. Maloke: band leader, mole puppet
- Panic,the Pig: rapper, pig puppet
- Snuggles the Bunny: rapper, rabbit puppet
- Wizard The Lizard: rapper, lizard puppet
- Ducci Prosetti: rapper/Producer, dragon puppet
- HipHopNotist: rapper, gecko puppet
- Frogga: rapper, frog puppet
- Ricardo Prosetti: rapper/Producer, frog puppet
- Flix: rapper, bat puppet
- Turbid the Toad: frog puppet
- Ryno: rapper, rhino puppet
- Croucholina: toad puppet, dancer
- Croucho: toad puppet and brother of Croucholina
- Pit: Rapper, frog puppet
- Dino Prosetti: producer, fish puppet
- E-Wizz: Rapper, humanly puppet
- Midi Mighty Moe: DJ, fly puppet
- Big Eye: alien puppet
- Rita: reggae puppet
- Keil Pittler: demagogue puppet
- Bloke: clown puppet
- Lisa
- Buddha
- Richelieux
- Hammerhead
- Dogga Dacoda
- Harold
- BumbleBee
- Squidrick A.K.A. Squidone: Rapper, octopus with hat
- Yobo: rapper and entertainer, twin brother of Star WarsStar WarsStar Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
' YodaYodaYoda is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe, appearing in the second and third original films, as well as all three prequel trilogy films. A renowned Jedi master, Yoda made his first on-screen appearance in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back where he is responsible for... - Peppino
- Orango-Thang
Discography
- The Break Up - 2009
- The Takeover - 2008 (CD / double Vinyl - Discograph)
- Clones - Live in Berlin - 2007 (CD / DVD (Vicious Circle / Louisville Records)
- Creature Shock Radio - 2006 (CD Vicious Circle / Louisville Records)
- Creature Funk - 2003 (CD [Labels / EMI)
- Zoology - 2003 (EP (Labels / EMI)
- Pet Sound - 2002 (EP [Labels / EMI)