Bushido appearance in the trial against Arafat Abou-Chaker: A stage for the "voice-over artist"

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Bushido in the process: Hall 500 of the Berlin Regional Court is its stage on this day

He, the "voice artist", as the public prosecutor calls him, can tell stories. Anis Mohamed Youssef Ferchichi, better known as Bushido, speaks freely, with humor and self-irony. If he is nervous, you will not notice it that day. Hall 500 of the Berlin Regional Court is his stage. Even the accused, Arafat Abou-Chaker, head of a Berlin clan, and three of his brothers hang on Bushido's lips. Sometimes a smile even flits across Arafat Abou-Chaker's face. The clan boss is said to have locked, threatened and injured Bushido in 2018 because the rapper wanted to separate from him. Arafat Abou-Chaker is charged, among other things, with attempted severe predatory extortion, deprivation of liberty, dangerous bodily harm, coercion, insult and infidelity.

Bushido's testimony is a ride through the beginnings of his career and through West Berlin in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, which Bushido delivers at the request of the court on the first day of his testimony. It begins in 1993, when young men who want to become rappers were still recording their songs on cassette in their nursery. One of these young men was Bushido. He says, "We're really talking about cassette tapes. There weren't any CDs."

The mop microphone

Bushido dropped out of high school at the age of 18, then completed training as a painter and varnisher. Even then, his passion was the graffiti scene, breakdancing and American rap music. One day a younger classmate took him to a breakdance competition in Hanover, where he got access to the hip-hop scene. Bushido began to write his own songs. At home in Berlin-Marienfelde he made a microphone out of a mop, a yoghurt pot and a Gameboy headphone, he says, and finally convinced his mother to take out a loan so that he can buy studio equipment.

The presiding judge, Martin Mrosk, pointed out right from the start that he wasn't familiar with the German rapper scene. "I'm completely unlucky there." Anis Ferchichi, 41, won't forget the hint. Again and again he speaks directly to the judge. For example when he reports that other artists have visited him in his nursery studio. Before he mentions a few names, he warns the judge: "The names will scare you a little now." Bushido lists among other things "Frauenarzt", "King Orgasmus One", "Taktlos" and "Messer Mesut". Then he says: "King Orgasmus One is really called Manuel, so everything is not as hot as you cook it." He continues to speak in a relaxed tone.

"The subject of taxes was not really in focus"

He talks about his "030 clique" with whom he - still in the 1990s - recorded a first album on cassette. Judge Mrosk asks who was part of the clique at the time. "King Orgasmus One, Vader, like Darth Vader from Star Wars, and me," says Bushido. The judge laughs. "They laugh", says Bushido and also laughs: "But as Bushido I had the funniest name of all back then."

Bushido continues to speak rapidly. At the turn of the millennium he produced his first successful album with other artists in a studio in Hanover, "King of Kingz" is the title. He describes the cover: "Me with a cigar, behind it a woman's butt. It's a bit explicit." With ten "King of Kingz" cassettes he finally dared to go to the most important trendy store in Berlin-Schöneberg, the "Downstairs", "the most blatant shop for graffiti lovers". "My name is Bushido, could I sell them here?" That's how he tells it in court. The "Downstairs" placed its cassettes in a display case, "I was proud as Bolle". The album sold well. The scene became aware of Bushido. Ten cassettes sold turned into 800 to 1,000 cassettes sold a month, he says. He earned 2000 to 4000 marks a month. "I felt like I was incredibly rich." He gave most of the money to his mother, "the subject of taxes was not really in focus".

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Bushido (l.) And Arafat Abou-Chaker at the premiere of the movie "Times Change You" 2010 in Berlin

In the year 2000 or 2001 the owner of the "Downstairs" asked Bushido into his office and told him about the label Aggro Berlin, which he founded with two others. Bushido also knew the names of these two men. "Spector" and "Spaiche" were greats of the breakdance and graffiti scene. The artist Sido was already under contract with Aggro Berlin, now they wanted Bushido. "That was of course a huge honor for me." Bushido tells how he initially pretended to have to think about the offer first. "At home I almost passed out." He accepted the offer. "I really wanted to be part of it. That was the absolute dream for me." Bushido looks at the judges. "If I talk too quickly or too much, you have to interrupt me." The court accepts the suggestion and interrupts for a quarter of an hour.

Then Bushido reports how he signed the contract with Aggro Berlin without any knowledge and without a lawyer. He knew that the conditions weren't the best, but he signed anyway.

After the break, Bushido also mentions the name of another artist: Patrick Losensky, better known as rapper Fler. It cannot be inferred from the descriptions that Fler and Bushido are in a clinch. Bushido speaks of an "intense friendship" that began in the 1990s. Fler is "a gifted graffiti sprayer, still". In 2002 they recorded their first album together, "Carlo Cokxxx Nutten". "I understood the first and last word," says the judge, only not the second. "Cokxxx", Bushido repeats. Fler is a special type, says Bushido. "We're almost made of the same cloth."

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Bushido mentions his first solo album "Vom Bordstein bis zur Skyline", "one of the most important albums in Germany". It was a great success. It was published in 2003. But the problems began shortly before success. Aggro Berlin suddenly claimed that Bushido had sold the label the master rights to the "King of Kingz" album. "That was utter nonsense," he says. Aggro Berlin only bought 1000 copies, not the right to reproduce and sell the album as often as desired. This is followed by a sentence that Abou-Chaker's defense must have noted and underlined. "I always had an overview of my business," says Bushido. That is what the process should still be about.

"Then it's about the exciting things"

Bushido continues to tell. In 2003 he decided to part with Aggro Berlin. He hired a lawyer and learned that it wasn't that easy. The label offered him to buy himself out for 400,000 euros, plus a six percent stake in his next four albums. "I don't have 400,000 euros and I don't know whether I'll ever produce four more albums," he told Aggro Berlin at the time. Bushido has mastered the art of storytelling. He ends his statement with an arc of tension: "And then it went on with what we don't want to talk about today."

He means the moment when Arafat Abou-Chaker entered his life. A name that Bushido does not pronounce once on that day. Abou-Chaker convinced Aggro Berlin to let Bushido go. The time began when Bushido and Arafat Abou-Chaker became business partners and called each other brothers. Today they are considered enemies. Bushido's testimony continues on Monday. "Then it's about the exciting things," says the judge.