I realized that there’s one MAJOR type of music we for some reason haven’t talked about at all here on Germaniac.com - rap. I can’t really see how we’ve managed to overlook Germany’s hip hop scene for so long, since especially German rap has seen a significant upswing in popularity in Germany in the last few years. And who would be a better artist to start covering hip hop than one of the most popular, famous and controversial German rappers? Ladies and gentlemen, I present you: Bushido.

Anis Mohamed Youssef Ferchichi, alias Bushido, grew up with his mother in Berlin. His Tunisian father he never met until he had already broken through the German sales charts, and he lived a troubled childhood where his criminal tendencies led him into a lot of trouble and he eventually quit school early. In the late 90s he he came into contact with the hip hop scene through graffitti-painting circles, and finally in 2001 he released his first solo recording, King of Kingz. 2003 saw the release of his first official album, Vom Bordstein bis zur Skyline, on the label Aggro Berlin, which Bushido later left to form his own label erstguterjunge. His next album, Electro Ghetto (2004) was his first huge success in his home country, reaching the 6th position in the official album chart. His consecutive releases were each more successful than the last, and this year Bushido’s newest album Heavy Metal Payback, released this Octover, took positions #1 in Germany and #2 in both the Swiss and Austrian charts. The album actually sold gold before its release. Equally successful was his autobiography Bushido which was released just last September, as the book instantly gained bestseller-status in Germany.

Bushido has been provoking controversy from the very beginning of his career. He and his music and lyrics have been accused of extreme right-wing, racistic and sexist tones, and also of promoting and glorifying violence, especially the youth kind. The artist has, however, repeatedly distanced himself from these claims and in addition to himself having a Tunisian background, he has worked with a lot of artists from minorities. In the end, his very numerous fans are a highly diverse group of both immigrants and Germans from all walks of life, so perhaps one can be fairly confident that such extreme claims should be taken with a grain of salt for the most part and understand the volatile material in the artist’s works as tools of provocation, which is, after all, an integral part of rap music. I for one really do hope that all his hundreds of thousands of fans are right about him… They can’t be wrong, right?

Surprisingly, there’s quite a woeful amount of free sample material that you can check out if you’re interested in Bushido’s rap. He has a MySpace site, but there’s just one song. At least it’s full length. Your best bet would probably be to listen to the short samples on Amazon.de, which is also most likely the best place to shop for Bushido’s records. They have the latest album Heavy Metal Payback for 14,45 € (or 15,95 € for a limited double CD edition), and a brand new single Für immer jung (feat. Karel Gott) for 3,95 € (or 6,95 € for an enhanced version). There’s also a video available for the single track, viewable here.