From the moment he wrote his first bars aged 15, stardom was for the taking for Mohamed El Moussaoui, aka MoTrip. Born in Beirut and raised in Aachen, he’s risen to the top of German hip-hop with a distinctive voice—his lyrics often informed by his heritage. Over moody instrumentals, he spins David-and-Goliath tales of triumph in the face of adversity on tracks like the incendiary “Mathematik” and the triumphant “King”. He also finds new angles on more familiar fare: “Standort” is an evocative, unmistakably 21st-century love story.