Common dropped the band Weimar, a German arduous rock group whose members had beforehand been in bands with lyrical content material that denied the Holocaust and contained antisemitic tropes
Common Music Group, the world’s largest music firm, has dropped certainly one of its bands after an investigation from German outlet Der Spiegel this week revealed that a few of the group’s members allegedly had Neo-Nazi affiliations in Germany and had been beforehand in bands that carried out songs that contained lyrics denying the Holocaust.
As Der Spiegel notes in its investigation, One member of German arduous rock group Weimar who the outlet recognized as Konstantin P. was beforehand in a neo-Nazi band referred to as Dragoner, which carried out songs with antisemitic lyrics about “six million lies,” referring to the variety of Jews who died within the Holocaust. One other member affiliated with the group named Christian P. had launched an album in 2002 that had a swastika on the quilt accompanied with textual content containing threats towards Jews, based on the report.
Der Spiegel additional experiences that Weimar itself has recorded songs with antisemitic tropes relating to the media alongside lyrics about wolves and rats, the language Nazis used to liken themselves and Jews. (A rep for UMG didn’t instantly reply to Rolling Stone’s request for remark.) In a press release to Billboard, which reported on the corporate dropping Weimar, the corporate stated it hadn’t beforehand recognized about Weimar’s historical past and wouldn’t have agreed to do enterprise with them if it was conscious of the problem.
“Primarily based on the knowledge we just lately realized from a journalist’s inquiry, we terminated our relationship with Weimar, which consisted of distribution of 1 album,” UMG informed Billboard. “That has been stopped with rapid impact. The data that has come to gentle made clear that any relationship with the band was completely unacceptable to us and inconsistent with our values. We really feel deceived by the band. If we knew then what we all know in the present day, we might by no means have launched the album within the first place.”
UMG isn’t the one music firm that’s just lately needed to reply for antisemitic language from artists it had beforehand signed. Final week, the New York Instances reported on how German music firm BMG had signed French rapper Freeze Corleone in 2021, earlier than dropping him just a few weeks later over earlier music Corleone had launched that contained antisemitic lyrics. Because the Instances reported, BMG knew of the lyrical content material and weighed whether or not or to not signal Corleone earlier than giving him a document deal. BMG reversed that call and dropped Corleone inside a month of signing him, and two BMG workers left the corporate following the incident.