Farid Bang

Early life

Farid Bang was born in Melilla, Spain, and grew up in Málaga, Spain. At the age of eight, he moved to Düsseldorf, Germany with his family. Inspired by his friend "Tekken", Bang started rapping at the age of 19 and, with the help of his friend Summer Cem, soon met Eko Fresh, who had already achieved a certain level of fame in Germany. He signed to Fresh's label German Dream and was featured in three songs in his 2005 mixtape Fick immer noch deine Story ("Still fucking your story"), which was Eko's diss against his former mentor and friend, German-based rapper Kool Savas. At this time, Bang was still using the pseudonym Farid Urlaub (mocking German singer Farin Urlaub).

2009–2010: Jung, brutal, gutaussehend and Asphalt Massaka 2

In March 2009, Farid Bang was featured in the song "Westdeutschlands Kings" ("West Germany's kings"), released on Chronik 2, a collaboration album by the Düsseldorf-based hip hop label Selfmade Records. The song also features Kollegah and Favorite, and was released online for free before the album's release.

In July 2009, he collaborated with Kollegah and Selfmade Records to release Jung, brutal, gutaussehend ("young, brutal, good looking"). The album reached #30 in the German Charts. Its only single, "Mitternacht" ("Midnight"), features a music video shot in Belgrade. Two tracks of the album, "Wir ficken die Szene" ("we fuck the game") and "Ghettosuperstars" were released previous to the album release and free of charge on 19 May 2009 and in June 2009, respectively. In addition, a snippet of the album was released.

On 12 March 2010 Farid Bang released his second studio album, entitled Asphalt Massaka 2, which ranked #56 in the German Album Charts. The song "Wer will Beef" ("who wants beef") as well as an album snippet were released for free on 5 February 2010 on Bang's official homepage. The first single, "Teufelskreis" ("devil's circle"), released on 11 February 2010, includes a download code for the track "König der Nacht" ("king of the night"). Videos of both tracks were released on 11 January 2010 and 9 February 2010 respectively. "Teufelskreis" was not able to enter the charts. The music video for "Es ist soweit" ("it's time") was released on 25 February 2010. It features appearances of Bang's mentor Eko Fresh and German soccer star Kevin Kurányi. On 10 March the video for the song "Gangsta Musik" was released, featuring Bass Sultan Hengzt. The release party took place on 12 March 2010 in the club called "Noir" in Düsseldorf, where all the guest artists from the album were present.

2011–2012: Banger leben kürzer and Der letzte Tag deines Lebens

On 18 February 2011 Farid Bang released his third studio album, Banger leben kürzer, which peaked at number 11 in the German albums chart, number 25 in Switzerland and number 32 in Austria. These ratings were the highest Bang and his label German Dream had ever achieved. Before the album's release, he had released a ten-part videoblog on YouTube, which promoted his upcoming album. As of December 2014, the album has sold over 10,000 copies.

2013–present: Killa, Asphalt Massaka 3 and Blut

In 2013, Farid Bang released the lead single from Killa titled "Bitte Spitte Toi Lab". It was his first and as of 2016 his only solo single to reach the German and Austrian top 40. The album, released on 14 February 2014, reached number 1 in Germany and Austria. His following album, Asphalt Massaka 3, was released on 27 March 2015 and debuted at number 1 in Germany and Switzerland, as well as number 3 in Austria. His seventh akimbo album, Blut, was released on 27 May 2016.

Discography