Bushido

Anis Mohamed Youssef Ferchichi (born 28 September 1978), better known by his alias Bushido, is a German rapper, hip-hop producer, and entrepreneur.

He is also the co-founder of the record label ersguterjunge.

Raised in Berlin, Ferchichi came in contact with hip-hop through graffiti and his friend and fellow rapper Fler.

Ferchichi was born on 28 September 1978 to a Tunisian father and German mother in Bad Godesberg, Bonn, West Germany.

His father left the family when Ferchichi was three years old while his mother decided to move to West-Berlin.

He grew up with his brother in Berlin-Tempelhof, where he had attended two gymnasiums before dropping out in eleventh grade.

According to his autobiography, Ferchichi was found guilty of drug possession and property damage and was given the choice to either face a jail term or to complete an officially recognized vocational training program.

During his training, he met Patrick Losensky, also known as Fler, who introduced him to hip-hop and graffiti.

Bushido and a then amateur rapper, Vader, formed a duo, Search & Defeat, in early 1998.

They had worked on an album titled Unbreakable, but ultimately the album never finished.

At some point, another Berlin rapper, King Orgasmus One, had joined the group, together forming the 030 Squad.

They recorded a demo titled Westberlin Represent, selling some copies to friends.

During his time with King Orgasmus One, Bushido had his first guest appearance on the track "Rap ist out", on Frauenarzt's 2000 demo album Tanga Tanga.

Following the release of Tanga Tanga, Bushido, King Orgasmus One, and Bass Sultan Hengzt formed the group Berlins Most Wanted.

In 2001, Ferchichi released his demo King of KingZ, which later led him to sign a record label deal with Aggro Berlin.

This ultimately led to the creation of the record label I Luv Money Records in 2001.

Bushido's first demo as a solo artist, King of KingZ, was released in 2001.

Ferchichi's first official release was Carlo Cokxxx Nutten in 2002, a collaboration with Fler.

In 2002, Bushido and Fler joined Aggro Berlin, with Carlo Cokxxx Nutten (often abbreviated to CCN), a collaborative studio album by Bushido and Fler, was released in October 2002.

On the record, the two rappers performed under their aliases Sonny Black and "Frank White", respectively.

The album marked the first major release for both and is now regarded as highly influential for gangsta rap in Germany.

Bushido followed this up with the release of his debut solo album Vom Bordstein bis zur Skyline in July 2003.

The album again included several collaborations with Fler, and is considered a milestone of German hip hop.

In summer 2004, Bushido left Aggro Berlin and signed with Urban/Universal.

Together with DJ Ilan, he produced a remix of Rammstein's song "Amerika".

Bushido's second studio album, titled Electro Ghetto, was released in October 2004.

The album reached number six on the German charts and spawned three singles, "Electro Ghetto", "Nie wieder", and "Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt", all of which placed in the singles charts for several weeks.

In April 2005, Bushido's second collaborative studio album, Carlo Cokxxx Nutten II, was released, once again under his alter ego "Sonny Black", but this time in partnership with Baba Saad instead of Fler.

He followed this up with the release of his third studio album, titled Staatsfeind Nr. 1, in November 2005.

On 1 September 2006, he released his fourth solo album, Von der Skyline zum Bordstein zurück (abbreviated as VDSZBZ).

The second sampler, Vendetta – ersguterjunge Sampler Vol. 2, was released on 1 December 2006.

In early 2007, Bushido founded a girl band, Bisou, featuring former candidates of the casting show Popstars.

He also bought a mansion for himself and his mother in Berlin-Lichterfelde for €1,200,000 and spent an additional €800,000 to redecorate it.

In January 2008, it became known that Bushido and his unknown business partner had founded a real estate business, which yielded a million Euros in the first ten months.

Bushido released his autobiography Bushido on 8 September 2008, which had reached number 1 on the bestseller list Der Spiegel.

His eighth album, Heavy Metal Payback, was released on 10 October 2008.

The music video for his single, "Für immer jung", caused controversy when MTV stopped airing it after two days of heavy rotation.

The main editorial office had decided that the feature with Czech musician Karel Gott did not fit the image of MTV.

In a meeting with Bushido, the chief editors offered to air the video on their other music channel, VIVA.

Bushido, however, refused this and later forbade MTV and VIVA from airing his videos because he couldn't reconcile their decision with his conscience.