This Rapper Backs Limits on Speech : Germany’s Jens Mueller spreads his anti-fascism message in song and a weekly newsletter.

Thanks to such causes celebres as 2 Live Crew and Ice-T, rap has frequently had to fight for its right to free speech. Jens Mueller, however, is a rapper who is calling for tighter restrictions on that right.

An East German-born rapper who goes just by the initial J., Mueller not only supports the recent bans in Germany on neo-Nazi rock bands but calls for even stronger government steps to curb a resurgence of fascism among German youth.

“In America you can afford to protect all speech,” the 21-year-old said softly, sitting recently in the Hollywood offices of A&M; Records. “But in Germany we must not allow that freedom to those who would take it away from everybody.”

Mueller is spreading his message both in his debut album, “We Are the Majority,” which will be released in this country by A&M; on Jan. 26, and through Germany Alert, a weekly newsletter that he faxes to news media offices around the world.

Musically, the album is a solid, one-man-band rap-rock collection reminiscent of the Dutch group Urban Dance Squad. Lyrically, it’s a mix of frisky, romance-oriented numbers and politically themed work, including “First They Came,” based on a noted statement attributed to Pastor Martin Niemoller chronicling how no one stood up to challenge the Nazis as they came to power.

The newsletter, which he started in 1991 with money from a recording contract with Polydor (whose parent company, Polygram, owns A&M;), chronicles neo-Nazi activity and anti-Nazi reactions.

In recent issues, Germany Alert has followed the legal prohibitions and public rallies that have come in Germany in response to the rise of such neo-Nazi skinhead rock bands as Boehse Onkelz (Bad Uncles) and Endsieg (Final Victory). The increase of neo-Nazi activity has been tied to both the unification of the country and increased immigration, especially of Turkish nationals.

Some, including J. himself, blame the skinhead bands for inciting violence against immigrants, pointing in particular to the immolation murder of three Turkish women in November. Lyrics promoting violence against Turks are common in German skinhead songs. One song by Endsieg says that anyone seeing a Turk “looking at you annoyingly” should “give him a good punch and stab him 17 times.”

Mueller, though, believes that government response has come only due to pressure from outside of Germany. “(German Chancellor Helmut) Kohl kept trying to say that there was no problem and only took action when Germany looked bad to other countries,” he said.

Ironically, Mueller said that he himself “felt like a foreigner” after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Before that, he said, East Berlin was a fertile ground for his burgeoning creativity, although his chance for mass exposure was limited there. That started to change when London-based record producer Jack Reilly heard Mueller perform as part of a band in 1991.

Reilly didn’t care for the group but did see potential in Mueller. The producer arranged for the musician to temporarily leave the then-German Democratic Republic and record in London. After the Wall came down, Mueller, disillusioned by the explosion of German nationalism, moved to Paris.

Both the album, which was released in France in October, and the newsletter have drawn praise in much of Europe. In Germany, though, he has been subjected to criticism.

Peter Wagner, deputy chief editor of Munich Express/Sounds, a top German music magazine, believes that Mueller--and much of the world media--has overplayed the issue of Nazi rock, even though his magazine has enlisted German pop stars for its own editorial campaign against the skinheads. Boehse Onkelz, Wagner says, is the only neo-Nazi band that has even made the Top 100 on the German album charts.

“The anti-Nazi movement is much bigger (than the skinheads),” he said by phone from his Munich office. “The neo-Nazis are a problem but not a music problem.”

As for Mueller, Wagner said, “J. is a very clever young boy, but in our opinion he is having the good sense to promote himself (by taking an anti-Nazi stance).”

Mueller bristled at that suggestion. Despite the thematic overlap between his music and the newsletter, Mueller insists that he wants to keep the two separate and that he doesn’t want people to think he is just using a hot topic to further his rap career.

“My name isn’t even in Germany Alert,” he said.

POP DATE BOOK

Danzig will be at Universal Amphitheatre on Feb. 12. Tickets go on sale Sunday.. . . . On sale Monday is Suzanne Vega at the Wiltern Theatre on Feb. 18.. . . . New on the schedule for the Rhythm Cafe in Santa Ana are an “In Their Own Words” singer-songwriters showcase featuring Michelle Shocked on Jan. 29, Ugly Kid Joe on Jan. 30 and Zachary Richard on Feb. 11.

O.C. POP DATE BOOK (F12)

New on the schedule for the Rhythm Cafe in Santa Ana are an “In Their Own Words” singer-songwriters showcase featuring Michelle Shocked on Jan. 29, Ugly Kid Joe on Jan. 30 and Zachary Richard on Feb. 11 . . . . Added at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano are Green Apple Quickstep and Greta on Jan. 25 and Little Joe y la Familia on Feb. 5. Little Joe also will be at Ventura Theatre on Feb. 4.