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On Wednesday, Germany’s BVMI music industry association announced that it would scrap its main annual prize after it was awarded to a rap duo whose lyrics were deemed anti-Semitic.
“The Echo brand is so badly damaged that a complete new beginning is necessary,” the BVMI announced, adding that the “Echo will be no more.”
“The events surrounding this year’s Echo, for which the board apologized, cannot be reversed, but we can ensure that such a mistake does not happen again in the future,” the BVMI statement said.
A firestorm of outrage erupted after the Echo’s Hip-Hop/Urban prize was handed out earlier this month to the rap duo of Kollegah and Farid Bang, who in a song titled “0815" say their bodies are “more defined than Auschwitz prisoners.”