Attention Economy – Bushido: From the Curb to the Stock Exchange

Until a few weeks ago, Anis Youssef Ferchichi – better known as Bushido – had an excellent handle on the staging of his own life. Since his debut album “From the curb to the skyline” in 2003, he has served the attention economy perfectly. He presented his switch from Aggro Berlin to RTL, from rap to gossip, and the move from the Berlin suburbs to the glittering world of Dubai as a constant rise story.

But then three weeks ago he confessed in an interview with the Internet medium “Der Aktionär TV” that he was benefiting financially from the military conflicts of that time. “Of course, I also used the geopolitical problems in the world to actually make a profit,” he reported, visibly proud. He invested “very, very early” in the German weapons company Rheinmetall and his shares in drone manufacturers were also doing well. The rapper, who lives in the tower in Dubai, added without being asked that he would have gotten “a lot of money out of the armaments sector, regardless of whether it was offensive or defensive.” This caused rhythmic head shaking not only among former companions, but also elsewhere online. Scandal in chanting.

In order not to endanger his second career as an exotic character on RTL’s evening program, the rapper then apologized on Instagram for his shady activities on the stock market: “It wasn’t morally right.” He wants to sell his defense stocks and donate the money to Unicef. Armor and regret, that couldn’t have been scripted better.