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. In 2001, Ferchichi released his demo King of KingZ, which later led him to sign a record label deal with Aggro Berlin. Ferchichi's first official release was Carlo Cokxxx Nutten in 2002, a collaboration with Fler.
Early life 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.
Career 1998–2004: Demo releases, King of KingZ and Aggro Berlin signing
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. 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.
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.
2004–2005: Label forming, Electro Ghetto, CCN II and Staatsfeind Nr. 1
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.
2006–2007: Von der Skyline zum Bordstein zurück and 7
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 and renovated a mansion for himself and his mother in Berlin-Lichterfelde for €1,200,000.
2008–2009: Autobiography, Heavy Metal Payback and reunion with Fler 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."Bushido rappt den Spiegel – Biografie ist Platz 1 der Bestseller-Liste". rap2soul. 17 September 2008 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. Bushido wrote in his forum on the topic that:"Bushido: Rapper bricht mit MTV und VIVA – laut.de – News". laut.de.
Cooperation between Bushido and MTV ended afterwards.
After Fler left Aggro Berlin and the label shut down on 1 April 2009, Bushido reached out to his former partner to end their feud. The renewed friendship led to the production of a sequel to the 2002 album Carlo Cokxxx Nutten. The album is titled Carlo Cokxxx Nutten 2, as distinguished from the Carlo Cokxxx Nutten II sequel, recorded with Baba Saad in 2005. The album was released in September, with the single "Eine Chance/Zu Gangsta" and a music video promoting it.
2010–2011: Film debut, BMW reunion, Jenseits von Gut und Böse and reunion with Sido
The movie Zeiten ändern dich was shot in and around Berlin from July to mid-September and released in February 2010. The movie is based on Bushido's autobiography, featuring Bushido as himself, directed by Uli Edel and produced by Bernd Eichinger.:de:Bushido (Rapper)#Karriere 80,000 people watched the movie on the release date.Jens. . Filmkritiker.
The soundtrack to the movie, also titled Zeiten ändern dich, was released in three different versions on 19 February 2010.""Infothread" Zeiten ändern Dich". kingbushido.de.
At some point, Bushido and Kay One wrote and recorded "Fackeln im Wind", which was dedicated to the Germany national football team in honor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and was released in June. Bushido got the idea for the song after meeting football player Sami Khedira during the "Zeiten ändern dich – Live durch Europa" tour.Bushido: Fackeln im Wind – WM-Song Radiopremiere! iloveradio.de. 10 June 2010
In August, Bushido reformed the group, Berlins Most Wanted, which originally consisted of himself, Bass Sultan Hengzt, and King Orgasmus, in 2001 during the King of KingZ era, and added Kay One and Fler to the group. Together they released the album Berlins Most Wanted with a single also called "Berlins Most Wanted"."Berlin's Most Wanted | MeinRap.de" . meinrap.de.
In late-March 2011, Bushido released a video on his YouTube channel, in which he confirmed plans for a new album titled and the guest appearance of French rapper Booba.Bushido – Jenseits von Gut und Böse (Ansage #1). Rapnewser. 31 March 2011 On 19 April, his second statement video was published, where he first thanked singer J-Luv for his vocal parts on the single "Vergiss mich", which was released on 22 April, in digital format along with the music video. He also presented the producers Rsonist and Benny Blanco and confirmed that Xavier Naidoo from is featured as guest performer on the song "Du bist ein Mensch"."Bushido – Album Ansage Nr. 2 (Jenseits von Gut und Böse)". YouTube. 19 April 2011. His third statement video was published on 28 April on his YouTube channel. In this video, Bushido confirmed that his labelmate Kay One has a guest appearance on the album, and introduced DJ Desue as producer. Bushido also announced that the song "Wie ein Löwe" could be downloaded on iTunes the following day."YouTube". YouTube.
American record producers DJ Premier, Swizz Beatz, Araab Muzik and R'sonist each contributed one beat for the album.Dennis Fiedler (13 March 2015). "DHH – Bushido – Jenseits von Gut und Böse Album 13.05.2011". deutscher-hip-hop.com. A meeting with Dr. Dre was also intended for the album, but Bushido cancelled the meeting due to the high price."Bushido: "Ich hatte eine Verabredung mit Dr. Dre, für einen sehr hohen Preis" (Video) | hiphopholic.de". hiphopholic.de Hip Hop Portal. Later, DJ Premier became disappointed that new vocals were added to the song "Gangster" and that his DJ cuts were edited without giving him a chance to hear the new version before it was released. However, it is currently unknown if the edits were Bushido's idea or that of his production team."Bushido: DJ Premier ist enttäuscht – laut.de – News". Laut.de.
In 2011, after having ended their long-term feud, Bushido reunited with former Aggro Berlin labelmate Sido to form the short-lived rap duo, 23. Their self-titled collaborative studio album was released in October 2011. It spawned the singles "So mach ich es" and "Erwachsen sein".
2012–2014: AMYF, "Stress ohne Grund" controversy and Sonny Black
On 14 June 2012, Bushido announced in an interview with the Bild newspaper that he would form a political party in order to become mayor of Berlin. The same month he completed an internship for CDU deputy Christian von Stetten in the Paul-Löbe-Haus in Berlin,"Bushido macht ein Praktikum im Bundestag". Süddeutsche.de. which led to a lot of criticism due to Bushido's controversial song lyrics and his criminal past.Günther Lachmann (30 June 2012). "Bundestagspraktikum: Bushido und die Banalisierung des Politischen – DIE WELT". DIE WELT.
Bushido, at some point, had announced his eleventh album, AMYF, via Facebook, which was also available for pre-sale on Amazon. Later the tracklist and the iTunes version were published. The first announcement video was released on 22 August 2012, via YouTube on his channel. Bushido confirmed in the announcement that the deluxe version of the album features a DVD that shows footage of the recording period and also announced Sido, Eko Fresh, Julian Williams (aka J-Luv), MoTrip, and Joka as guest performers."Bushido – AMYF Ansage Nr. 1". YouTube. 22 August 2012. On 19 September 2012, Bushido released the second announcement video, in which he announced several producers, including Beatzarre, Djorkaeff, X-Plosive Beats, and Phat Cripsy, and represented the other guest performers King Orgasmus One (who is only featured on the Premium edition) and Brutos Brutaloz."Bushido – AMYF Ansage Nr. 2". YouTube. 19 September 2012. The third and last announcement released on 26 September 2012, where Bushido introduced Frauenarzt and Elmo as last guest features and announced the premiere of his music video for "Kleine Bushidos" (released via YouTube on 4 October), and the next day the song was available for any digital platform."Bushido – AMYF Ansage Nr. 3". YouTube. 26 September 2012. On 12 October, released AMYF and ranked No. 1 on the album chart position in Germany and Switzerland."Album Charts Deutschland KW 42: Bushido auf Platz 1. Lena 2". Musik Charts News / OLJO Blog Magazine.
The second single "Theorie & Praxis" (featuring Joka) was released on 9 November 2012, but failed to reach the charts.Bushido feat. Joka – Theorie & Praxis. swisscharts.com The third and final single release of the album, "Panamera Flow" (featuring Shindy), was released on 15 March 2013 and ranked no. 51 in Germany and Austria.Bushido feat. Shindy – Panamera Flow. hitparade.ch