Early underground artists included Cora E. and Advanced Chemistry. It was not until the early 1990s that German hip hop entered the mainstream as groups like Die Fantastischen Vier and the Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt gained popularity. German hip hop was heavily influenced by films, emphasizing visual and cultural elements such as graffiti and breakdancing beyond the music itself.

In the mid-1990s German hip hop was growing. John Clarke used the term 'recontextualization' to describe the process of borrowing cultural ideas and integrating them into a new society.

Today, the German hip-hop scene reflects the many dimensions that Germany has come to represent in a unified image of Europe. Everything from "migrant hip hop," which is known as hip hop to the large Turkish immigrant population, to the more humor-based groups paint a portrait of a vibrant and diverse hip hop community in Germany.