Xatar

Xatar (1981-2025), born Giwar Hajabi into a Kurdish family of musicians from Başûr and raised in Germany, became one of the defining figures of German rap: an artist and label builder whose life story, from flight and prison to platinum records and film adaptation, itself became modern folklore. He carried his Kurdish identity visibly through a career at the top of Europe’s biggest rap market, and his death in 2025 drew tributes far beyond it. For the diaspora’s youngest generation he proved that Kurdish roots and mainstream summit are not opposites.