Tus (rapper)

Career

Tusis was born in Parga in July 1986, and has been active in rapping from a very young age. His first album came out in 2007 (Mana X Ouranou); this was followed by LOONEY TUS in 2009, Mana X Ouranou 2 (2011) and Filakia 2015). He has also starred in several TV advertisements.

He has collaborated with many famous Greek music artists, such as Lefteris Pantazis, Angela Dimitriou, Elisavet Spanou etc.

Controversial song about human trafficking

In August 2016, Tus released a song called "Voulgares" (Bulgarian women), describing human trafficking in Greece, and (according to critics) glorifying it. In the song, Tus proudly boasts of illegally importing Bulgarian, Romanian and Russian women for a cheap price, so that they can be "used" by young Greek men.

The song has provoked harsh criticism from Greek feminist organizations, as well as from Central and Eastern European immigrants to Greece. The Greek General Secretariat for Gender Equality (an official government agency) has officially condemned the song as sexist and racist, and has stated that it will try to have the song removed from all Greek media.

Tus himself denies being racist or sexist, and states that the aim of the song is to raise awareness to the issue of human trafficking, which, he claims, is hypocritically and superficially dealt with by Greek media; he has also stated that he will not cowed by the media's attempts to silence and censor his work.

Background to the song

Human trafficking is prevalent in Greece, especially in Athens. Most of the women trafficked are from Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Nigeria, Poland, Slovakia and Moldova; Albanian mobsters and corrupt Greek police officers dominate the industry.