Beauty Comes from Outside
I spent a good chunk of time talking to MC Fitti, the Berlin rapper who’s figured out how to conduct an entire conversation without saying anything real. He showed up with the grin of the Cheshire Cat, sunglasses and baseball cap fixed in place, ready to deflect every earnest question into something else.
I asked him about his song Penn’ in der Bahn
—was DMX an inspiration? He stares at me. Isn’t that a Philips soundsystem?
Of course he’d know a soundsystem before he’d know a rapper. That’s the kind of guy he is. Another time I asked about the video he’d shot for that song—three countries, Dubai to Bangkok to Nairobi, thousands of euros, a real film crew. When I asked where the locals were coolest, expecting some story about cross-cultural moments, he just said everywhere was cool and thanked everyone. No texture, no detail, just gratitude and a smile.
When I asked what he’d write in his diary from the last three days, instead of anything introspective, I got a list: girls at the video shoot, a merchandise box that arrived, interviews. He collects moments like postcards and hands them back unexamined. The specificity shifts enough that you’re never sure what’s genuine and what’s the next joke. He won’t give you the sincere answer because the sincere answer isn’t part of the game.
Ask him about his influence or his taste, and he’ll compare himself to Alexander Marcus and decide Marcus has more style. Ask him something vulnerable—who’s a real lady, what do you believe in—and he pivots to a neighbor with a good car, or his favorite flower (cornflower, very decorative), or that one time he fell asleep on a train. Everything gets defused into nothing.
There’s a moment where it all becomes clear. Someone asks if he’s embarrassed watching other artists, if he never wants to become a certain type of person. Some of them I’m ashamed about,
he says. But I don’t name names. Doesn’t matter anyway.
You get nothing. No beef, no substance, just the refusal to engage. Then someone gets to the inevitable celebrity question: we all lie more as we become more famous, right? What’s your lie? He smiles. When people ask how long I’ve had the beard, I always say something different. But maybe I’m lying about that too.
That’s the whole interview right there. He’s built his thing on refusal. Surface. Deflection. The persona is the complete answer and you’re never getting past it.
The final question, inevitably stupid: tips for staying fit and sexy? Be fit and sexy,
he says. Beauty comes from outside.
That’s MC Fitti right there—understanding perfectly that surfaces are enough, that you don’t owe anyone the real thing, that good sunglasses and consistent deflection can be a whole personality. Hard to argue with it.