Bushido Von Der Skyline Zum Bordstein Zuruck CD

At the height of his popularity, following the commercial blockbusters Electro Ghetto (2004) and Staatsfeind Nr. 1 (2005), Bushido conceived Von der Skyline Zum Bordstein Zurück, an album whose title harks back to his classic solo album debut, Vom Bordstein bis Zur Skyline (2003). (The title of Bushido's solo album debut translates to "From the Curb to the Skyline" whereas Von der Skyline Zum Bordstein Zurück translates to "From the Skyline Back to the Curb.") Free of the guest features that had sometimes plagued Electro Ghetto and Staatsfeind Nr. 1, Von der Skyline Zum Bordstein Zurück is rapped entirely by Bushido. With the exception of a couple Kingsize productions, Bushido also produced the entire album himself. He had also produced Vom Bordstein bis Zur Skyline himself a few years earlier, along with the pair of Carlo Cokxxx Nutten albums, and indeed, these self-produced albums more or less sound similar to one another from a production standpoint, laden with hardcore beats and cinematic samples. For instance, much like how Bushido had repeatedly sampled the mid-'90s East Coast hardcore rap of Mobb Deep for Vom Bordstein bis Zur Skyline, the ambient-gothic music of Nox Arcana was repeatedly sampled for Von der Skyline Zum Bordstein Zurück (without permission, as it came to be known later). The album's pair of Top 20 hit singles, "Von der Skyline Zum Bordstein Zurück" and "Sonnenbank Flavour," are career highlights. The title track closes the album on a somber note as Bushido looks back at his rise from the ghetto to national fame. "Sonnenbank Flavour," one of Bushido's most impressive songs to date, boasts masterful raps and hypnotic beats. The song references up-and-coming rappers Eko Fresh and Baba Saad as well as rival rapper Sido ("Doreen, maskenmann, AIDS test, positive"), and is succeeded by the terrorizing "Kurt Cobain," a gunshot-riddled song referencing the late Nirvana frontman. Like its predecessors, Von der Skyline Zum Bordstein Zurück sprawls out over the course of more or less 20 tracks. Largely autobiographical, the album covers a lot of ground lyrically, from violence ("Kurt Cobain") and sex ("Sex in the City") to drugs ("Dealer vom Block") and suicide "("Janine"). ~ Jason Birchmeier