Fler

One of the lynchpins of the German hip-hop scene since the early 2000s, Fler made his reputation as part of the influential Aggro Berlin label, and remained a controversial, sharp-tongued voice of the streets, even as he later rose to become a chart-topping, headlining star of Deutschrap. Raised on the outskirts of Berlin, Patrick Losenský, professionally known as Fler, grew up in a tough neighbourhood without a father and first found a creative outlet through graffiti before turning to rap at the age of 20 under the name Frank White. A burgeoning hip-hop scene had already grown out of the basements of West Berlin in the 1990s and sparked a DIY culture built around cassette tape recordings, pirate radio stations and informal rap battles. Fler took naturally to the community known for their style of aggressive gangster rap. His first album was a collaboration with Bushido called 'Carlo, Cokxxx, Nutten' in 2002 and he quickly became a notorious figure alongside the likes of Sido, Kool Savas and Kitty Kat, but received criticism when his 2005 solo album 'Neue Deutsche Welle' was deemed to be dabbling in nationalism. There were also feuds with Kollegah, Farid Bang and Eko Fresh, however albums such as 'Flersguterjunge' (2010), 'Im Bus Ganz Hinten' (2011) and 'Blaues Blut' (2013) crossed over into the top five of the German charts as hip-hop cemented itself as the dominant youth culture of the time. He owned a clothing shop, too and mentored younger rappers such as Silla, Mosenu and Jalil on his own Maskulin label. His later albums 'Keiner Kommt Klar Mit Mir' in 2015, 'Vibe' in 2016 and 'Colucci' in 2019 all went on to top the German charts.

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