Recommendations of the Editorial team
Even before the actual concert begins, the whole schizophrenia of this evening is brought to the point in a DJ set. For his – this time really – last tour, Bushido has his old companion DJ Gan-G with him, who takes the stage shortly before 8 p.m. to warm up the audience in the Uber Arena. Gan-G chooses an artfully staged set that constantly oscillates between New York hip-hop underground vibe and obscene large-scale disco aesthetics. It is precisely the tension that will characterize this entire coming evening.
Because it’s no longer a big secret: Anis Ferchichi is no longer interested in Bushido and would just like to be Anis Ferchichi. And yet there should be a worthy farewell for Bushido, the greatest figure that German gangsta rap has ever produced. A final album has been announced, a final tour started here, in Berlin’s Uber Arena, on Monday evening. But how much Bushido is actually left in there?
The question arises at the latest when you take a quick look at the well-filled hall. The audience here is at least largely no longer made up of the classic gangsta rap audience that Bushido has supported in recent decades. This is more about the so-called “RTL audience”, as the derogatory term for the newly acquired mainstream Bushido fans is, which he recruited not so much with his music, but rather through numerous reality TV documentaries about his family’s everyday life. Older men and women who, even with the greatest imagination, couldn’t have been among the cool kids in any schoolyard in this republic, rotating Bushido albums in their Discmans.
Ferchichi hardly gives Bushido any space anymore
The alienation is mutual: Ever since Bushido gave German rap the cold shoulder, the scene has also turned away from it. But Bushido probably couldn’t care less. While his burned-out ex-comrades are ranting about him in front of a handful of viewers on Twitch live streams, he announces that he and his family have moved into a multi-million euro villa in Grunewald. And what’s more: Even when he still enjoyed maximum credibility in the scene, he only filled large halls, but not arenas. New audience, new strength. But more of a large disco than a hard underground?
At least partially. The largely replaced audience wouldn’t even be that bad in itself if the show hadn’t been so focused on exactly this so-called RTL audience. On stage, Ferchichi hardly gives his fictional character any space; his speech between the songs that evening feels more important than the musical performance. That’s a shame, because if Ferchichi lets the old Bushido off the leash again, he’ll still be a force. The songs sit. The setlist is fantastically ruthless.
“When we come”, “Never again”, “Tempelhofer Junge”, “Nie ein Rapper”, “Electrofaust/Bei Nacht”, “Alles los” – this is really a homage to the really great, the really bad times. In “Stress without Reason” the bass literally weighs you down. In “Stars” he rewrites a line of text and dedicates it to a rap colleague who is currently having to deal with accusations of pedophilia: “You’re not in it like Sinan G is in an adult.” Yes, Ferchichi can still do Bushido.
Nobody dominates a stage like he does. And in these moments he clearly still has fun with it. But these are just snapshots. Because on the whole, you can tell that Ferchichi wants to have as little to do with Bushido as possible.
Dare to do more Bushido!
The fact that the set list is almost identical to the one from the last tour (only “Schmetterling” and “Du lieb mich nicht” are new additions) would be forgivable, if only one didn’t have the feeling that the repetition wasn’t just a concept, but rather a lack of enthusiasm. Instead of filling the show with more songs, the time is filled with stage interaction. Ferchichi alternates between stage Bushido and live podcast host who seeks closeness to his audience.
The interaction stage classics are not only latently overused: Who can scream louder, the women or the men? Which district of Berlin do you come from? So, what do you do for a living? Who wants to go back on stage to “Sonnenbank Flavor”? Plus lots of family anecdotes. The song performance degenerates into an accessory. The so-called RTL audience doesn’t seem to mind, but for the old Bushido fans the dilution is hardly bearable. Daring more Bushido would have been the best advice for this evening, but Ferchichi keeps him on a leash.
It seems as if he is so unfamiliar with his alter ego that he no longer wants to put him on stage without being classified. But what does one of his songs say? “I’m incredibly sorry for so many things today / I had to change in order to be something.” Bushido raps no line more credibly that evening. By the way, the song is called: “Times change you”.
Transparency note: Dennis Sand wrote his autobiography “Anis” (Riva Verlag) together with Bushido in 2022.