Artist

Trettmann

Ronny Trettmann

Chemnitz, Germany • b. 1973

Trettmann is a musician from Chemnitz, Germany, active since 1973. Their discography on Gatefold includes 6 records.

Photo of Trettmann

6

Albums tracked

11

In collections

1973

Since

Biography

Trettmann (born Stefan Richter on 9 October 1973 in Karl-Marx-Stadt, now Chemnitz) is a German hip-hop, RnB and dancehall singer. He became widely known from 2016 with German-language trap and cloud rap, performing his lyrics in a style between rap and modulated vocals. Trettmann worked with the production team KitschKrieg up to and including the album Insomnia, released in 2023. Trettmann (* 9. Oktober 1973 als Stefan Richter in Karl-Marx-Stadt, heute Chemnitz) ist ein deutscher Hip-Hop-, RnB- und Dancehall-Sänger.

The Arc of Trettmann

The pivots — what forced Trettmann to reinvent.

  1. The Saxon Dancehall Years

    Starting out as Ronny Trettmann around 2006, he leaned hard into comedic, East German dialect reggae and party tunes like 'Der Sommer ist für alle da.' The circuit loved the energy, but the novelty tag boxed him into a corner of German dancehall that had no real ceiling. Albums like 'Zentralgestirn' proved he could write hooks, yet the production kept him sounding like a regional novelty act. He spent a decade grinding out sound clashes before deciding the entire persona had to die.

  2. The KitschKrieg Rebirth

    Connecting with the production trio KitschKrieg in 2016 erased the comic veneer overnight. They stripped the drums to brittle, spacious grayscale trap and wrapped his melodies in precise pitch correction across three fast EPs and the 2017 breakthrough '#DIY'. The guest spot on Bonez MC and RAF Camora's juggernaut 'Palmen aus Plastik' locked him into the center of the mainstream. He went from a struggling reggae journeyman to the most vital voice in contemporary German rap in eighteen months flat.

  3. Post-KitschKrieg Autonomy

    After closing out the KitschKrieg trilogy with 'Insomnia' in 2023, the creative partnership dissolved, forcing Trettmann to build a new soundboard from scratch. The 2024 'Your Love Is King' EP series pushed him away from the stark Berlin black-and-white aesthetic into warmer, club-rooted textures and raw soul samples. He proved the writing and emotional delivery weren't just studio tricks from his old producers. At fifty, he stepped into complete creative ownership without missing a step.

Influences

  • Super CatTrettmann learned vocal pacing and rhythmic cadence by dissecting 80s and 90s Jamaican dancehall sound clashes tape by tape. You hear that rapid-fire, off-beat deejay phrasing sitting just underneath the surface of his slower modern trap deliveries. It gave him an authentic rhythmic foundation that standard German rappers never had.
  • Buju BantonBanton's raspy roar and transition from raw party slackness into deep roots consciousness provided the explicit template for Trettmann's early sound system sets. That gravelly chest resonance is what keeps his heavily processed vocal chain from sounding thin on record. It is raw Kingston gravel run through modern German engineering.
  • SeeedSeeed showed German-speaking artists in the early 2000s that Jamaican riddims could be adapted to local urban culture without losing low-end punch. Trettmann cut his teeth in that exact era, sharing bills and learning how to project over heavy horn-and-sub bass arrangements. Their crossover opened the club doors that he kicked in years later.
  • King TubbyTubby's philosophy of subtraction—dropping the track out to just snare reverb, delay, and sub-bass—is the direct structural foundation of Trettmann's arrangements. You hear the dub spacing in the vast, empty pockets left open for his vocals on '#DIY'. The silence does just as much work as the beat.
  • Advanced ChemistryTorch and Toni-L proved in the early 90s that German-language street lyricism could carry real political and social weight. Trettmann took that East German post-reunification reality and applied their blunt, unvarnished perspective to his verses. It kept his songwriting grounded in working-class grit rather than industry glamour.

Discography

Their records — most-collected first.

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