Moses Pelham (born 24 February 1971 in Frankfurt) is a German rapper, singer and producer.
In 1993, together with Thomas Hofmann in Frankfurt, he started the Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt. Pelham is a member of the German band Glashaus. In 2019, in a lawsuit against the German band Kraftwerk, Pelham lost a groundbreaking case before the European Court of Justice for unauthorised sampling. The ruling means that samples which are recognisable infringe copyright law where no permission has been sought from the rightsholder. However, there is no infringement if the sample is unrecognisable. The case was referred back to the German court who gave the final decision. The German court decided that the sample was recognisable, and therefore ultimately, Pelham lost his 20 year legal saga.
Works
Albums
1989: Raining Rhymes
1992: The Bastard Lookin' 4 the Light (1992 produced, but first published in 2000) 1994: Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt – Direkt aus Rödelheim (with Thomas Hofmann) 1995: Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt – Live aus Rödelheim (with Thomas Hofmann) 1996: Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt – Zurück nach Rödelheim (with Thomas Hofmann) 1998: Geteiltes Leid I 2004: Geteiltes Leid II 2012: Geteiltes Leid III 2017: Herz 2020: Emuna 2021: Nostalgie Tape
Singles
1988: Ay-Ay-Ay (What We Do for Love) (with Rico Sparx) 1988: Twilight Zone 1989: Can This Be Love 1989: Raining Rhymes 1990: Muscles (with Harold Faltermeyer) 1998: Hartreim Saga 1998: Schnaps für alle 1999: Skillz (with Illmat!c & Xavier Naidoo) 1999: Mein Glück 2000: Bonnie & Clyde 2000 (with Cora E.) 2004: Ein schöner Tag 2004: 77 Minutes of Strugglin (with Illmat!c & Kool Savas) 2006: Gott liebt mich 2009: Strugglin' (2009 ISAS Remix) (with Illmat!c, Kool Savas & Cassandra Steen) 2012: Für die Ewigkeit 2019: Notaufnahme 2020: Weiße Fahne 2020: Wunder (with Faiz Mangat) 2020: Juli 2020: Emuna (acoustic) (with Stefanie Kloß) 2020: Backstein 2020: Du 2021: Lappen wie Du
References
External links
ImGlashaus.de (in German)
Website by Moses Pelham
Stadt Frankfurt am Main zeichnet Moses Pelham mit der Goetheplakette aus (in German) Spiegel.de: Moses Pelham und Kratwerk vor Gericht, Eugh Urteil zu Sampling, Sampling ist gestattet (in German)