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Rapper Bushido (archive): »My mistakes and my guilt«
Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa
In the course of the current #MeToo debate in the German rap scene, the musician Bushido, 42, has now also been overtaken by the past.
In an older video that was released on Saturday evening, the then 26-year-old rapper can be seen pressuring and sexually harassing a possibly underage girl.
Anis Ferchichi, as Bushido is called by his real name, crouches in the video topless in front of a young woman who is sitting on his bed. She says several times that she doesn't know what to do now. Bushido replies: »Do you want to get dressed and go? Where do you want to go Out in the woods? ' Then he tries to press her to make a decision, apparently it's about sex. "I don't feel like being awake here and squatting in front of my bed like an idiot," says Bushido.
When the girl continues to hesitate, the rapper is offended: "You're just pretending to be with some Neanderthals in the cave," he says.
It becomes clear that Bushido has doubts about the age of majority of the woman.
"I'm eight years older than you, if you're 18 at all," says the rapper.
He later says he is "easily eleven years older," a statement that suggests that the girl may only be 15 years old.
Bushido apologizes
In the meantime, the rapper has admitted the authenticity of the video in a 28-minute statement on Instagram and apologized for his behavior towards women.
Bushido admitted that the clip shows how he verbally harassed a girl in a hotel room: "Yes, what was shown there actually happened."
Concerts and "towing girls" would have been part of his lifestyle and "rap style" at the time.
The way in which girls and women were treated at the time was absolutely not right.
"At this point I would like to apologize not only, but above all to this girl," he says.
It was entirely his fault and his fault what was done to the girl "verbally in the hotel room," and he took sole responsibility for it.
As an elderly person and father of children, he now hopes that his daughters “don't run into people like me, like I was then,” said Bushido.
He also did not respect his wife for a long time, which he is very sorry for.
The identity of the victim, who is shown pixelated on the video, is not known.
It is also unclear who was in the room with Bushido at the time and who made the video.
MeToo debate shakes the German rap scene
The recording from the hotel room was put online by the rapper Cashmo, who staged the publication like an event.
In the days before, he promised to expose a "scapegoat" as soon as he had 100,000 followers on Instagram.
When the mark was reached, he commented on the "reveal video" live in front of the camera.
Achim Welsch, the real name of the rapper, reacted to the abuse allegations against the rapper Samra, which had rocked the scene in the past few days. The Youtuber and influencer Nika Irani had accused Samra of harassing and raping her in a recording studio. As a result, numerous women described similar experiences with well-known musicians under the hashtag #deutschrapmetoo. Samra himself denies the allegations and wants to take legal action against the allegations.
Cashmo had defended Samra, who had come under pressure, and announced that he wanted to “go to war” against the “real perpetrators”. Bushido, who condemns his previous behavior, therefore doubts the intentions of his rap colleagues. For those involved, it is not about the girl or how to deal with women. "You are not interested in changing the problem in German rap," he says in his apology video. The problem has been around since there was rap, "and you didn't care".
