OG Keemo Is Rewriting the Album Rollout With “BERSERKER”

German rapper OG Keemo and longtime producer Funkvater Frank are approaching their next era differently. Ahead of the November 2026 release of BERSERKER, the pair have flipped the traditional album rollout entirely, releasing the deluxe EP BERSERKER + before officially revealing the album it belongs to. It's an unconventional move, but for an artist whose career has increasingly favored world-building over streaming-era formulas, it makes complete sense.

The five-track BERSERKER +, connected by narration from German rap veteran Azad, functions less like a collection of bonus tracks and more like a prologue. Across just over twelve minutes, OG Keemo moves through personal trauma, resignation, and the uneasy determination to keep pushing forward. Focus track “Blind” provides one entry point into a much larger story that will ultimately unfold on BERSERKER.

That story is shaping up to be intensely personal. Positioned as the loose conclusion to a trilogy beginning with 2019's Geist and continuing through 2022's acclaimed Mann Beisst Hund, BERSERKER confronts loss, depression, fractured family relationships, fatherhood, and responsibility. The perspective has shifted, too. This is less about OG Keemo's past and more about Karim, the person behind the artist, reckoning with what adulthood looks like when a child, a career, and an entire creative ecosystem depend on you.

The process has also been documented through IN VERTIGO, a four-part ZDF series following Keemo and Frank for nearly two years as they created the record. Rather than presenting a polished behind-the-scenes victory lap, the documentary captures depression, self-doubt, family life, and the genuine uncertainty over whether an album would emerge at all.

Even the eventual album announcement rejected the standard digital playbook. At the duo's sold-out Südüd Festival in June, 6,000 attendees received physical flyers containing unique QR codes and one-time tokens unlocking a limited vinyl edition. There was no conventional social countdown or teaser campaign. The announcement existed first as a moment shared between artist and audience.

“We always want to do things differently, and with BERSERKER that becomes very visible,” Keemo explains. “If people take one thing from all this, I hope it is the feeling that there is still space in music for projects that are not built backward from a marketing plan.”

In an industry increasingly engineered around keeping listeners clicking, OG Keemo is betting on the opposite: patience, physical connection, and enough trust in the audience to let a story unfold slowly. BERSERKER + may have arrived first, but it is only the opening chapter. The real statement comes this November.

You've deliberately rejected the traditional streaming-era rollout by releasing BERSERKER + before the main album. What inspired that decision, and what statement were you hoping it would make about how music can be released today? 

We started working on the album while a production team from ZDFkultur was following us around for a documentary about my producer Funkvater Frank and me. They were with us on and off for almost two years, and in the studio we had cameras installed that were filming us constantly. That was strange at first; obviously, you had to get used to it. But that's where the idea came from: to let people in on that process not just visually but on the musical side too. And on a very basic level, I don't want tech platforms telling me how, where, and when I release my music. I think artists should decide that themselves. Whatever feels right for them and for the project.

Fatherhood, depression, and personal responsibility play major roles throughout BERSERKER. How did writing from your current stage of life change the way you approached storytelling compared to your earlier projects?

To be real, not that much changed. I was writing very personal songs before this too, and I always go through the exact same process. It's painful, and it's not fun, but I feel like it helps me, and songs come out of it that give people something.

The IN VERTIGO documentary gives fans an unusually honest look at the creative process, including moments of doubt about whether the album would even be finished. Was it difficult to be that vulnerable on camera?

Yeah, of course. As I said, it was really strange at first, and it took us a while internally to make our peace with it. We also thought about it and discussed it for a long time beforehand, whether we should even go there. But the production team from BasisBerlin was genuinely great, very sensitive, and easy to be around. I think in the end it was the right call.

You continue to prioritize vinyl, physical experiences, and real-world moments over chasing algorithms and playlist culture. Why do you think those tangible connections still matter in today's music industry?

I think it matters more than ever. The algo is the devil, for real. It's not good for your mental health, it's not good for society, it's not good for us as human beings, and it's not good for the planet. A whole generation has basically grown up digital by now. They want to go to a show and go stupid; they want to walk into a record store and find a vinyl that only exists 500 times and then own one of them. It's about real emotions, about experiencing something for real. That will always be stronger than anything digital

Many listeners outside Germany have connected with your music despite the language barrier. What do you think it is about your storytelling and artistic approach that resonates with audiences around the world?

Thanks for the kind words, first of all. Honestly, no idea; that's for other people to answer, not me. I think maybe it comes back to those real emotions I just mentioned. You get that without understanding the language, I guess. I think Franky's sound plays a part in it too. You feel that whether you're from Mannheim, Brooklyn, or Marseille.