23, the joint album by Sido and Bushido, is probably one of the most legendary collaboration albums in German rap history. In 2011, it ended the long-standing dispute between the two former “Aggro Berlin” icons and came up with music videos that were spectacular for the time. Now Sido spoke in the joint Twitch stream of rapper Fler and Gino Cazino about the process of creating the album. According to him, he co-wrote almost the entire album with Kay One – Bushido himself would only have dropped by the studio very occasionally.
Sido said in the stream:
“I wrote the album with Kay One (…) And he [Bushido] came to the studio in the evening, his time was around 7 p.m. in the evening, then he watched Big Brother because Cosimo was still in the Big Brother house. And then he had his verse recited by Kay… I think you can tell all that now, that’s all okay (…) I won’t break anything anymore.
Sido about Bushido: “I feel sorry”
Bushido is not doing very well at the moment. In recent years, he has increasingly transformed himself from the notorious gangsta rapper into a laughingstock who now depends on police protection. Bushido is currently conducting an endless process against Arafat Abou-Chaker and three of his brothers. It’s about serious predatory extortion, deprivation of liberty and dangerous bodily harm. However, an interim conclusion by the judge after two years of the process recently indicated that the Abou-Chakers could even be acquitted. Sido now even feels sorry for his rap colleague:
“To be honest, I’m really sorry to a certain point. Because I didn’t have this – what Fler has with him. Why Fler is so angry, or why your brother (Bass Sultan Hengzt) so pissed off, I understand that: they just have a personal thing with him. I never really had anything with him. For a while I saw him as my biggest competitor, who was also important (…) I think I know him too and that’s why I really feel sorry for him. I really feel sorry.”
The Album 23: A calculated success
Sido also retold the story of how 23 came about in the Twitch stream. After Bushido and Sido got along, they initially only wanted to do one song together. The idea of recording an entire album came up. A decision that also had financial reasons, because both knew that a collabo album could be a huge financial success.
And that’s how it happened: 23 entered the German Media Control Charts at number 3 with more than 36,000 copies sold in the first week of sales. The following year, the album went gold, selling more than 100,000 copies. But artistically, Sido is still happy at 23: “The album turned out really well”says the rapper on the Twitch stream, of which you can see the highlights here: