Between their 1997 debut and their split in 2016, Blumentopf evolved from their old-school hip-hop sound and embraced eclecticism and diverse musical ideas. Sampling Christmas songs and using the sound of a skateboard to provide beats: the German rap crew’s ears were open to innovation. Despite this, they never strayed far from their central raison d’être—reportage—using hip-hop to explore social and political issues. Meanwhile, they always found arresting ways to underscore their storytelling, with insistent piano, suave sax and syncopated scratching and sampling.