Oh, if only rappers in the US would embrace such things, but since they aren't, we have German rapper Doppel U (really 23 year old Christian Weirich), telling Deutsche Welle that Goethe and Schiller were the Slim Shadys of their time, and thinks it's time they were shown some respect. The realization came when he was approached about adapting the classics to mark Schiller Year in 2004. Initially skeptical, he was soon convinced that the German poet knew at least as much about poverty and prejudice as 50 Cent. "Schiller was a killer," he's been known to say.

Since then, he's released a CD of Schiller's verse set to rap rhythms, called "Zeitgeist," and initiated an educational project aimed at getting school kids into the classics with the help of hip hop. He's now the official face of the project "Young Writers and Thinkers" and regularly gives workshops in schools. He's even developed a teaching aid in the form of an interactive audio CD. So that one particular poem by Goethe? It might have won a rap-off with Eminem in the movie EIGHT MILE.