Eko Fresh

Eko Fresh (2015)

Eko Fresh (real name Ekrem Bora ; born September 3, 1983 in Cologne ) is a German rapper and actor . He is the owner of the independent label German Dream .

Life

Beginnings and Optik Records (1999-2003)

Eko Fresh was born as Ekrem Bora in Cologne and grew up with his single mother in Mönchengladbach and in the Cologne district of Kalk . His mother comes from the Turkish city ​​of Sivas and has Kurdish roots, his father is the Turkish musician Nedim Hazar , who came to Germany in 1980 as a political refugee. He started rapping at the age of 15. Two years later he met rapper Kool Savas , who invited Eko Fresh to Berlin. In December 2001 Eko Fresh released his first EP Now Let's Come To The Stuff , which was produced by Savas' producer Melbeatz through the Royal Bunker label . At the same time he headed for the track Hooo the Kool-Savas single house and boat a guest post and became his permanent back-up - MC .

In 2002 Eko Fresh signed a contract with Savas' newly founded label Optik Records and was then represented with several guest contributions on Kool Sava's debut album The Best Day of My Life , the single of the same name and the sampler Optical Elements . In addition, Eko Fresh released the maxi single König von Deutschland on July 7, 2003 , which reached number 15 in the German single charts . Because of internal differences, he left the label. In November Eko Fresh's debut album I am young and need the money , which was able to place 16 in the German album charts, was released. In the single charts, the single of the same name reached number five.

Between Rap & Pop and Battle with Kool Savas (2004-2005)

Then Thomas Stein , the then chief manager of BMG , became aware of Eko Fresh and hired him as the songwriter for the singer Yvonne Catterfeld . A song co-written by Eko Fresh was released as a single in January 2004 under the title Du hast mein Herz broken and immediately reached number 1 in the German single charts. With König von Deutschland , Eko was nominated for the Echo Music Prize in the Newcomer-Video National category at the 2004 Echo Awards. A Comet nomination as Newcomer National followed in the course of the year .

In the same year Eko Fresh released the album LOVE together with his girlfriend and singer Valezka , which is more likely to be assigned to the music genre R'n'B . With the single LOVE , which was recorded at number 16 , Eko was able to achieve another success, but the album placed at number 54 and made a name for itself in the German hip-hop scene, especially from the environment of his former mentor Kool Savas, due to its mainstream orientation for criticism. Together with the rapper Azra he released the album Dünya Dönüyor - The world is turning on his old label Royal Bunker, with which he missed a chart entry.

At the same time, Eko Fresh founded his own record label German Dream Entertainment , to which other rappers are also under contract. In addition, Capkekz , G-Style, Hakan Abi , SDiddy , Kingsize and Prodycem belong to the immediate environment of the record label. Kay One , who moved to ersguterjunge in 2007 , was also under contract with German Dream for a short time. The label was later renamed German Dream Evangelium .

At the end of 2004, Eko Fresh released Die Abrechnung, a musical all-round hit, in which he verbally addressed many actors of the German rap scene such as Bushido , MC Rene , the Aggro Berlin rapper Fler , B-Tight and Sido , but above all his former label boss Kool Savas. With this song Eko kicked off a whole series of Disstrack responses. After Fler and B-Tight responded with the title You Victim , Eko Fresh followed up with another title together with Bushido. Meanwhile, in February 2005, Kool Savas published his answer The Judgment . At the Myfest 2005 in Berlin-Kreuzberg , Eko Fresh was hit by a spectator with a beer bottle and suffered a laceration. In autumn 2005 Eko Fresh was hospitalized in Bielefeld with a ruptured lung .

Ersguterjunge period: Hart (z) IV , Gheddo and Ekaveli (2006–2007)

Eko Fresh (2007)

From 2006 Eko Fresh was represented on several publications by Bushido and the samplers Nemesis and Vendetta from his label ersguterjunge. On June 2, 2006 he released the single Gheddo , on which Bushido has a guest appearance. Eko Fresh's highest chart position in three years was ranked 15th. The album Hart (z) IV was released on June 23, 2006 . On the Turkish Remiks of the single, he raps in Turkish for the second time after the album Dünya Dönüyor . In December 2006 he finally signed a contract with Ersguterjunge .

In 2007 Eko Fresh made several appearances in the German wrestling league German Stampede Wrestling as manager of Murat Bosporus and also wrote his run-in music. In January 2008 he also fought against wrestler Eric Schwarz himself. He lost this through knockout in November 2007. Murat Bosporus then released the single Ring recorded together with Bushido in the music video for Eko Fresh , which reached number 64 in the singles charts at the end of 2007. The solo album Ekaveli , released at the same time, reached number 100 in the German album charts.

Back to the roots (2009 to today)

In August 2009 Eko Fresh released the EP Now We Come Again On The Things , which contains five songs and a guest contribution by Farid Bang . The title as well as the cover was clearly based on Eko Fresh's first publication, the Now We Come To The Things EP from 2001. According to his own statements, he wanted to take a step back to his roots. So is the song Please Spitte 2010 with Farid Bang on the sound carrier, which is the follow-up to the 2003 song Please Spitte , then with Kool Savas.

On June 25th, 2010 his fourth solo album Waskosten die Welt? , the double single Queen of the Night / Asshole was released in advance . The album includes guest contributions by G-Style, Stefan Lust , Farid Bang, Sentino , CJ Taylor, Summer Cem, Cetin, Bass Sultan Hengzt and Ado Kojo . The sound carrier reached number 36 in the German album charts. In October the mixtape Freezy Bumaye 1.0 was released - There can only be one . Eko Fresh then raps exclusively to US beats that have already been used. The edition of the mixtape is limited to 500 pieces. Features were from Sentino, Ado Kojo, Farid Bang, Summer Cem, Ali A $ , Pretty Mo, Money Boy, and Hakan Abi. Two months later, the second part of the Freezy Bumaye series came out, this time with the subtitle It was all my idea . Two videos for Hey! and Kai Ebel Style decoupled.

On September 2, 2011 Eko Fresh released his fifth solo album Ekrem , which entered the German charts at number five. In Switzerland the album reached number 15 and in Austria number 33.

In 2011, Eko Fresh also got involved in the social project “ From the street to the studio ” (VDSIS).

With the double album Ek to the Roots released in August 2012 , Eko Fresh made it to number 3 in the album charts. His seventh solo album Eksodus was released in August 2013 , with which Eko Fresh reached number 1 in the German charts for the first time . In 2014 he was on the cover of Juice and released the Juice EP 1000 Bars. Charles Rettinghaus , voice actor for Vin Diesel and Jean-Claude Van Damme , among others , leads from song to song with skits.

In July 2014 Eko Fresh signed with the new label Punchline Records. It was founded by the music distributor Groove Attack and Aggro Berlin co-founder Spaiche.

On November 14, 2014, the eighth studio album Deutscher Traum , which reached number 6 in the German charts, was released.

After the sexual assault on New Year's Eve 2015/16 , the Cologne rapper published the song Domplatten Massaker . The ninth solo album Freezy was released on April 22, 2016 . The album entered the German album charts at number 4.

Eko Fresh's tenth solo album König von Deutschland was released on September 22, 2017. In July 2018, the song Aber was released , in which the actors Patrick Mölleken and Yunus Cumartpay rap about the resentments that right-wing Germans and migrants have against each other, and Fresh then takes a balancing position. The video received over eleven million clicks on YouTube.

Others

Eko also works as a songwriter. In addition, there was a single with the English-speaking rappers Xzibit and Raptile , in which he participated (but only on the German release) with his group Anti Garanti (Eko Fresh & Summer Cem). The single is called Make Y'all Bounce .

At the TV-total -Autoball-European Championship 2012 Eko Fresh competed for Turkey. Since he had no driving experience at the time , he drove into a gang at about 30 km / h during the first game and operated the windshield wipers in his car for a longer period of time during the event. The audience then initiated the La Ola in time with the windshield wipers. In 2014 Eko Fresh competed again at the TV-total-Autoball World Championship .

In cooperation with the manufacturer ICY BOX, Eko Fresh has developed its own headphone model, which was launched on October 31, 2012.

In 2015 Eko Fresh was seen alongside Kostja Ullmann and Kida Ramadan in the German comedy 3 Turks and a Baby .

In January 2016, Eko Fresh married his girlfriend, model and singer Sarah Bora . They had a son in June of that year.

In December 2018, he defeated star Sarah Lombardi on the ProSieben show Schlag and won 100,000 euros.

In January 2020, he participated in a startup in Cologne called “Liefertuete.de”, a delivery service for kiosk items.

In May 2020 he took part in the Free European Song Contest for Turkey and finished in 6th place.

Awards

• Juice Awards: Best Newcomer 2002
• Juice Awards: Best Newcomer 2003
• Bravo Otto 2003: Hip-Hop National
• HipHop.de Awards 2009: Best Single National for Now let's get down to business again
• Webvideopreis Deutschland 2018: Special prize for social responsibility for Aber

Discography

→ Main article : Eko Fresh / Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
2003	I am young and I need the money	DE16 (7 weeks) DE	-	-	First published: November 3, 2003
2006	Hartz IV	DE24 (8 weeks) DE	AT70 (1 week) AT	-	First published: June 23, 2006
2007	Ekaveli	DE100 (1 week) DE	-	-	First published: November 23, 2007
2010	What does the world cost?	DE36 (1 week) DE	-	CH97 (1 week) CH	First published: June 25, 2010
2011	Ekrem	DE5 (2 weeks) DE	AT33 (1 week) AT	CH15 (3 weeks) CH	First published: September 2, 2011
2012	Ek to the roots	DE3 (3 weeks) DE	AT10 (2 weeks) AT	CH4 (3 weeks) CH	First published: August 31, 2012
2013	Eksodus	DE1 (4 weeks) DE	AT6 (3 weeks) AT	CH2 (5 weeks) CH	First published: August 23, 2013
2014	German dream	DE6 (3 weeks) DE	AT10 (2 weeks) AT	CH7 (3 weeks) CH	First published: November 14, 2014
2016	Freezy	DE4 (3 weeks) DE	AT14 (1 week) AT	CH13 (2 weeks) CH	First published: April 22, 2016
2017	King of Germany	DE4 (2 weeks) DE	AT16 (1 week) AT	CH10 (2 weeks) CH	First published: September 22, 2017

Filmography

• 2014–2017: Blockbustaz (TV series)
• 2015: 3 Turks and a baby
• 2015: In prison (TV series, 2 episodes)
• 2015: Blacktape (documentary)
• 2016: Alarm for Cobra 11 (TV series)
• 2017: The Teacher (TV series)
• 2017: Night Shift - Ladies First (TV series)
• 2018: Discover the Mandy in you (TV movie)
• 2018: Piss off, Snow White (movie)
• 2018: Amokspiel (TV movie)
• 2019: The Martina Hill Show (Comedy Show)

Radio plays

• 2018/2019: Edgar Linscheid and Stuart Kummer : Caiman Club - Director: Stuart Kummer ( WDR )

Web links

Commons : Eko Fresh  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Works by and about Eko Fresh in the catalog of the German National Library
• Eko Fresh in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Eko Fresh at filmportal.de
• Official website
• German Dream Label Site
• Eko Fresh at Discogs (English)
• Eko Fresh at laut.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eko Fresh: Eko Fresh - Hartz 7 (700 Bars) prod. by Phat Crispy & Ear2ThaBeat. January 21, 2016, accessed January 2, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Optik Records: Kool Savas separates from Eko ( Memento from January 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) laut.de August 7, 2003, accessed on December 22, 2013
3. ↑ Kool Savas: "I laugh about Ekos Kinderkacke" laut.de, April 20, 2004, accessed on January 5, 2014
4. ↑ Eko Fresh: Great love, real hate! ( Memento from December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) max.de, accessed on December 22, 2013
5. ↑ Dies Das: Eko Fresh Aggro.TV, August 15, 2013, accessed on December 23, 2013 (video)
6. ↑ Kay One signs with Bushido ( Memento from February 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on hiphop.de
7. ↑ I am so infinitely grateful to Bushido on suedkurier.de
8. ↑ Kool Savas: The Next Round in the Monster Battle ( Memento from December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) laut.de, February 2, 2005, accessed on December 23, 2013
9. ↑ Kool Savas: Eko Disstrack for download ( Memento from December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) laut.de, February 8, 2005, accessed on December 23, 2013
10. ↑ Kool Savas in an interview: I haven't been writing fuck songs for a long time brash.de, November 10, 2011, accessed on December 14, 2012
11. ^ Report against bottle throwers: Eko Fresh berliner-kurier.de, May 3, 2005, accessed on December 22, 2013
12. ↑ Eko Fresh: Hash confession in a "Free Bushido" shirt ( Memento from March 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) laut.de, August 10, 2005, accessed on December 23, 2013
13. ↑ Eko signs with ersguter Junge, collaboration album with Bushido hiphop.de, December 19, 2006, accessed on December 23, 2013
14. ↑ Eko Fresh - Now let's get back to business (video + interview)
15. ↑ Eko Fresh feat. Farid Bang - "Please Spitte 2010"
16. ↑ Following the chart of “What does the world cost?”. Accessed June 5, 2020 . 
17. ↑ German Hip Hop ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 11, 2012  
18. ↑ Eko Fresh - Freezy Bumaye 2.0 (Release: December 10, 2010)
19. ↑ MADE-IT.de: Eko Fresh signed with the new label "Punchline" with immediate effect . In: RapUpdate - Always up to date! July 16, 2014 ( rapupdate.de [accessed April 17, 2017]).
20. ↑ "Domplatten Massaker": Eko Fresh raps about New Year's Eve in Cologne , laut.de, February 8, 2016.
21. ↑ Rapper of the Hour. Süddeutsche Zeitung, July 24, 2018.
22. ↑ kopfhoerer.com: Eko Beats headphones - the device for sound from Eko Fresh , accessed on January 5, 2013.
23. ↑ Eko Fresh doesn't give Sarah Lombardi a chance. In: stern.de , December 9, 2018.
24. ↑ Christoph Pech: Rapper Eko Fresh starts kiosk delivery service. In: Online Retailer News. Dealer Association, January 22, 2020, accessed on January 22, 2020 . 
25. ↑ Eko Fresh raps for a web video price. Spiegel Online, November 30, 2018, accessed July 29, 2019 .