The Aggro Berlin vs. ersguterjunge feud was a German hip hop rivalry between the members of the two well known Berlin labels, which has started in 2004 and ended 2011. It was mainly a dispute between the rappers Sido, B-Tight and Fler of Aggro Berlin and Bushido, who founded his own label ersguterjunge after leaving Aggro Berlin in 2004. The feud was sometimes referenced as Aggro Berlin vs. Bushido feud or Sido/Fler vs. Bushido feud.
The feud was often been interpreted as a marketing gag of the two labels to increase their sales and to draw media attention onto them.
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In 2001, Bushido got signed onto Aggro Berlin and worked together with Sido, B-Tight and Fler. In 2002, they released the albums Aggro Ansage Nr. 1 and Aggro Ansage Nr. 2, which features Sido, Bushido and B-Tight. In the same year Bushido and Fler released Carlo, Cokxxx, Nutten, which achieved cult status. Bushido released his second album Vom Bordstein bis zur Skyline in 2003, with guest parts from Fler, A.i.d.S, Sahira and Joek2.
Bushido's debut album King of KingZ, which originally was released in 2001 over I Luv Money Records, was re-released in 2003, entitled King of KingZ (Digital Remastered).
Time after time it came to disputes between Bushido and his label bosses Specter, Spaiche and Halil because he accused them of disrespecting him and to have betrayed him for his money. In 2004 Bushido left Aggro Berlin and asked Fler to join him, who refused to do so. Since then both of them had broken all ties. Bushido later explained to the media that his departure from his former label was just because of musical differences and personal reasons: "I just wanted to leave Aggro, because of personal reasons, that was nothing for no person other who had been involved. [...] And the outcome of that was a starkly personal conflict [...]"[1]
Bushido and D-Bo founded the label ersguterjunge in the same year and thereafter signed Baba Saad, Bass Sultan Hengzt, DJ Ilan, and DJ Devin. Bass Sultan Hengzt left shortly after he released his album Rap braucht immer noch kein Abitur. DJ Ilan left ersguterjunge to work for Aggro Berlin, which Bushido took badly.
In 2004, Eko Fresh released his single "Die Abrechnung", that mainly disses his former mentor Kool Savas but also insultes several other German rappers, including Sido, Fler and Bushido.[2]
Fler responded in late 2004 to Eko Fresh, with a track called "Hollywoodtürke", that also mocks Bushido. Later released Eko Fresh's mixtape Fick noch immer deine Story, that contains the track "FLERräter" (a word play of Fler's name and "Verräter"; German for "traitor"), a diss to Fler, that features also Bushido.
Fler and B-Tight released the track "Du Opfer", an insult to Eko Fresh, where Fler also responds to Bushido's claims and said that he was never going to insult his mother or family. After he had reacted on Bushido, he made unkind remarks at Eko Fresh. Fler claimed that Eko Fresh is nothing but a victim and also referenced Valezka, Eko Fresh's wife at the time. B-Tight dissed him as well because he himself was insulted in "Die Abrechnung".
In an interview with magazine Bravo HipHop Special Bushido and Fler spoke openly about their feud. Bushido told the magazine that Fler had refused to leave with him Aggro Berlin. He also said, that Fler had asked to produce his album Neue Deutsche Welle but Bushido had refused to work any more with the label. "He was since then with those people together, who had wished me the badest thing in the world", added Bushido. When Bravo interviewed Fler, he told them: "In 2004 Bushido wanted to leave Aggro Berlin. He said that they had treated him unfairly. He never talked openly about this". He also said that he felt betrayed that his former friend had made a deal with Universal and that he teamed up with Eko Fresh.[3]
After this exchange Fler and Bushido became enemies and began to release diss tracks and make fun of each other in interviews. Sido got more involved in the beef from time to time. Since Bushido had released Electro Ghetto he turned as successful as Sido did with Maske. Both rappers and their labels had considerably good sales and were considered very successful and popular.
On Bushido's albums Von der Skyline zum Bordstein zurück and Heavy Metal Payback, he attacked Sido in some lines. Heavy Metal Payback contained the title "4, 3, 2, 1 (Vielen Dank Aggro)", a track attacking his former label. In August 2008 Bushido released a 10 minute video on YouTube, where he runs Sido, Fler and also Bass Sultan Hengzt down and claimed that he once saw Sido kissing a man backstage.[4]
On December 2008, Aggro Berlin released its sampler Aggro Anti Ansage Nr. 8 containing a track by Sido called "Du bist Scheiße" ("You're crap"), where he made fun of Bushido and other artists including Kay One and Oliver Pocher. During the hook of the song he mentions them as well as Chakuza, Karel Gott, Kollegah, Thomas Godoj and Michel Friedman and calls them "shit".[5]
Bushido released his response with Kay One some days later, titled "S.I.D.O.". In the song Bushido insulted Sido's mother by calling her a "junkie", which insulted Sido deeply.[6] He and Alpa Gun released on the 26th of December their answer titled "Frohe Weihnachten" ("Merry Christmas"). In the track Sido draws Bushido's attention, saying that he had gone too far by insulting his mother. In additional he insults Bushido and ends his verse with the words: "Merry Christmas you asshole". Alpa Gun also insults Bushido in his verse and tells him to retaliate, while also attacking Kay One and ersguterjunge as well.
On January 1, 2009 Kay One released a diss song called "Live2Live", which was recorded over the beat of "Go To Sleep" (a song by Eminem, DMX and Obie Trice), as answer to "Frohe Weinnachten".
On March 23, 2009, Fler left Aggro Berlin and the label closed down on 1 April. Fler wrote: "I thank Aggro for the support during 6 years. I had learned so much, with their collaboration. [...] But now comes the future and I will enjoy it!"[7]
After Bushido had seen the official statement from the three chefs Halil, Spaiche and Specter on the website of Aggro Berlin, he contacted Fler for ending their feud. After several speculations about an own forming label or a being signed to ersguterjunge, both rappers had added each other on MySpace to their Top Friends and started to bring their feud to an end.[8]
They officially showed their reconciliation with a photoshooting of the 6th Issue from Bravo HipHop Special. In the interview, where they talked about their new friendship, said Fler: "First of all, it's not about an collaboration album".[9] To the question, how their surroundings had reacted to their reconciliation, answered Fler: "The only person, with whom I first talked about that, was Sido. [...] He was like: 'No problem, cleared that up' [...]". Bushido answered: "From my side is everyone cool with it. There were no problems [...]".[10] He also promised to not diss Sido anymore, because of Fler.
Three months later, on July 2009, the Ich bin drin concert took place in Munich, which was a live reunion of former Aggro Berlin artists and their friends, including Joe Rilla, Shizoe and DJ Werd. However Fler didn't joined them. "The split between us and Bushido is unfortunately difficult", B-Tight explained to Bravo HipHop Special, Issue 9. "We aren't friends anymore. But I give him my best wishes".[11]
On July 10, 2009, Sido performed his song "Mein Testament" from Ich at the Open Air Frauenfeld, by changing following line:
Original:
In Frauenfeld, Sido replaced the word "never" with "always".[10] Later on Sido changed the line again and "deleted" Fler from his testament: "Fler gets nothing! There I have to disappoint you. He now has got everything what he needs at his new friends'".[12]
As Fler found out about that line, he stated in the forum of his website that he was disappointed about that. "I don't understand that reaction of Sido and actually I don't care about that."[10] According to Fler, Bushido rapped on Carlo, Cokxxx, Nutten 2 following line that seems to be a diss to Sido: “Nimm deine Doreen, Paul, und fick dich” ("Take your Doreen [Steinert], and piss off").[13]
After some months in which Fler had no longer mentioned or insulted Sido, Fler spoke to Bravo HipHop Special Issue 6 about Sido's diss: "Sido just is offended, because he can't no longer hang out with me [...] But the pressure coming from his friends and Doreen [Steinert] was too big, so he had to say: If Fler is cool with Bushido, then it can't be me any longer".[14] Fler also told the magazine, that he once had an appointment with Bushido at Universal and Sido had coincidently arrived the same time. According to the magazine, Fler re-introduced both of them to each other and they shook hands.[14]
Sido responded to this: "[...] I didn't thought about that too long, of course. He will no longer appear in my testament. He gets nothing".
On July 11, 2010 a video leaked on the internet where Sido is seen buying Alpa Gun's album Almanci. Then he is looking for another CD and discovered Flersguterjunge and painted on the album's cover Fler an beard.[15][16] On the same day Fler released his video for "Erst Ghetto, dann Promi", a diss track against Sido.[17]
On December 30, 2010, released Sido with then newcomer Haftbefehl the free-track titled "2010", in which both referred to the whole situation of German hip-hop. In one line Sido made a reference to Bushido:
German (original):
English (translation):
Bushido who had a disc protrusion that time and was brought to hospital, where he got operated. Sido was referring to that by wished him to get well soon. Bushido reacted to the track on January 12, 2011 via Twitter.[20]
An section of the conversation from Twitter (translated from German into English):[21]
The rest of the conversion has been displaced to be private.[22]
In additional to this, on August 15, 2011 Sony Music Entertainment released a press info that a collabaration album of Sido and Bushido titled 23 will release on October 14.[23]
During Aggro Berlin:
After Aggro Berlin:
Notes