Are you celebrating the rapper? Then take a look and see if you already had these facts on your radar.
The friendly ghost next door almost became an educator, but in his free time he focused too much on baking Fanta cakes and performing in “Harry Potter” role-playing games. You only understand train station? Then it’s definitely time to expand your Casper knowledge a little. We dug up ten facts about the XOXO singer that you probably haven’t heard of before.
1st witching hour in the Griffey house
Most fans probably know that dear Casper’s real name is actually Benjamin Griffey. But how do you go from Benjamin to Casper? His own father actually gave him the nickname because he always remained very pale even in a lot of sun and was therefore reminiscent of the cartoon ghost of the same name. Plus: He even had a feature on Marsimoto’s album VERDE in 2019 under the name “Friendly Ghost”.
2. German as a foreign language
The rapper was born in Germany, but he still had to laboriously learn the language again at the age of eleven. The reason for this – he is the son of a US soldier and moved to the USA a month after his birth, where he spent the first eleven years of his life. The German language tended to fall by the wayside. Today, however, you can no longer hear Casper speaking, so he is a true linguistic talent.
3. High school diploma, studies… educator?
That’s right, Mr. Griffey almost took a completely different career path. After graduating from high school, he started studying pedagogy, in which he was not at all successful – until he simply dropped out shortly before the end after 14 semesters.
4. Not Now Not Ever
Not Now Not Ever: What does that mean? That was the name of one of Casper’s previous band projects. Before joining the hip-hop genre, he was the vocalist of the hardcore group Not Now Not Ever. In any case, the grater voice suits him perfectly.
5. Benjamin Griffey x Harry Potter
Ava Kedavra! While the musician was completing his high school diploma, he was also involved in his school’s theater group and appeared on stage as the “Harry Potter” villain Draco Malfoy. Unfortunately, there is no video evidence of this.
6. In love, engaged, married
It’s no secret that Casper has been married since 2019. In Las Vegas he said yes to his girlfriend Lisa Volz. What is not widely known, however, is that she was a “Germany’s Next Top Model” candidate in 2012 and can be seen on the cover of HINTERLAND and in several music videos for the record.
7. Bakery Benjamin
That could also have been Casper’s nickname. As a child, the artist wanted to become a baker and even completed an internship. But he didn’t like that so much – so he preferred to rap. Since his favorite cake is, according to him, “Fanta-Schmand”, that would probably have been his bakery’s specialty.
8. Who are Ariel and Michael X?
As beautiful as the songs “Ariel” and “Michael X” may be, the stories behind them are just as sad. Both songs are named after people from his environment who died during the creation of his albums. Ariel was the first name of his half-sister, who died in a car accident, and he dedicated the track “Michael X” to a friend who took his own life.
9. “Catch Me If You Can”
… is not only a film classic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, but was also the motto of several of Casper’s concert series. The 41-year-old has already organized a kind of scavenger hunt four times under the name “Catch Casper”. For example, fans were able to get access to a secret gig of his through letters, a pink bus and tips on the Internet. “CATCHCASPER3” and “CATCHCASPER4” can also be published as video blogs on his Youtube channel be tracked.
10. Fight against expensive concert merch
When Casper was on the road with Marteria on the 1982 tour, one thing he really didn’t like was the promoter’s merchandise prices. Without further ado, he announced that it would be better not to offer any products for sale on site. Instead, together with his rap colleague, he launched “pre-merch,” where fans could simply order the items they wanted online – of course at cheaper prices that he determined – and then pick them up on site on the day of the show.