Post-modernity is thought of as an era of contradictions. Mass media, the Web 3.0, and cor-porate governance cause an increasing level of insecurity regarding the validity of infor-mation. Furthermore, liberty is renamed into freedom to legitimize polluting and exploitive actions which appear altogether grounded on managerial interests. In Marcusian thought, this dissertation contributes to the function of the arts as means of knowledge production, while focusing on German rap as one of the most consumed forms of post-modern popular culture. The work at hand argues that to keep society under control, the metaphysical element of time has been gradually turned into a tool of surveillance. Drawing on Kutschera’s con-cept of aesthetics, a critical, textual analysis of eight contemporary German rap lyrics is conducted. The two-sided argumentation firstly focuses on a vertical time axis of post-in-dustrial society, in which time has become the object of a trade-off calculation between physical and digital control and one’s individual material wealth. The second part argues along a horizontal time axis. Physical control mechanisms have been in place since the days of imperialism, as the principles of colonialism moved through time and space to secure the current hegemony of Western nation-states. Hence, climate change and the refugee move-ments were caused and are fostered. The dissertation closes with a change of perspective, which is achieved through two affirmative rap lyrics. In turn, possible lines of further re-search are generated
