Bushido might be the most successful rapper in Germany but Dendemann is the best - By Thomas Winkler

They are both rappers and sing in German. But the similarities between Bushido and Dendemann end there.

The most successful German rapper's real name is Anis Mohamed Youssef Ferchichi. The son of a German mother and a Tunisian father, he grew up in Berlin, dropped out of high school, and dealt drugs. Afterward, Ferchichi's career took off like a rocket: He took the stage name Bushido and became Germany's "most controversial rapper," according to the daily New York Times.

How did he manage that? According to Bushido himself, he did it with lyrics that could have been written by "a Neanderthal." And many say Bushido is just your average anti-social, homophobic, violence-glorifying sexist writ large.

On the surface, Bushido has simply transferred the gangsta rap model from the ghettos of the US to the reality of big German cities. But most of all, he and his barbaric lyrics have incorporated the fears felt by a majority of Germans toward the sons of the first generation of immigrants. Representing the stereotype of the unemployed, petty criminal children of Turkish guest workers and Arab refugees, Bushido has become the nightmare of a satiated republic. He has been tagged a "brute" by the weekly Der Spiegel, the "gentleman provocateur" by the weekly Die Zeit, and he calls himself  Germany's public enemy number one. His mission is to jolt the uptight bourgeoisie out of its lethargy by applying as much juice as possible.

Bushido's brutal beats are booming out of young people's bedrooms, shocking their parents. His business plan is so successful that the rapper is one of the highest earning entertainers in Germany. His autobiography is a bestseller.

In interviews, Bushido quickly reveals himself as intelligent and eloquent but that doesn't stop the German public from still perceiving him as a primitive, dangerous guy. Neither does the fact that he thinks of hip hop as a job, listens to classical music when he needs to relax, has admitted going to a psychotherapist and is happy to talk about his role as an antihero on talk shows.

Bushido even calls himself a mama's boy. Meanwhile, he and his girlfriend lead a nice, bourgeois life in a villa in a Berlin suburb. He works as a real estate agent on the side and successfully manages his own label. Yet this has not harmed his carefully developed image as a model proletarian in the slightest so far.

On the contrary, last year his oh-so-marginal biography was turned into a movie produced by Bernd Eichinger, Germany's best known producer, and directed by Uli Edel - the team whose 2008 film, "The Baader Meinhof Complex," was nominated for an Oscar. Bushido played himself.

The critics panned the biopic but the masses went to see the film anyway. The rapper might still terrify German society but his popularity shows that he has already entered its mainstream.

Dendemann will probably never make it there, although many believe he is the best rapper in Germany. Hardly anyone else raps as eloquently and elegantly, as technically perfect in German as he can. And nobody is as witty.

When Daniel Ebel aka Dendemann opens his mouth, German rap becomes German literature. He is completely in control of the internal rhyme, metaphors and alliteration he uses. Nobody else in Germany can play with words as freely as he does and comply with the structures and strictures of rap at the same time.

There is only one catch: Dendemann belongs to a dying breed. The art of rapping does not sell in Germany. The fact that he and his first band, Eins Zwo, were one of the first to prove that rap works in German without the clichés that come with the music in its country of origin, does not count for much. What matters is that Dendemann does not play in the big concert halls that Bushido easily fills.

Dendemann raps in small clubs, and sometimes even plays teen centers. His latest album, "Vom Vintage verweht," a play on words of the German title for "Gone With the Wind," will only sell a fraction of those of Bushido.

That is mainly because Dendemann does not have the kind of racy autobiography that his gangsta colleague from Berlindoes. Instead, Dendemann's songs tell of his real experiences and his own life.

He relies on verbal wit instead of verbal violence and has become the last remaining symbol of a genre - whether he wants to or not. The rap he represents is disparagingly referred to as student rap or Müsli rap, which is why most of his former comrades-in-arms no longer perform.

Take Beginner for example. A successful, intelligent rap group in the early 1990s, the band has not been active for six years. One member, Jan Delay, is now a successful funk singer, while another, Denyo, is now a singer and songwriter. Samy Deluxe, another popular rapper, has switched to reggae and Fettes Brot has turned to pop.

One small comfort: Now that model bad boy Bushido has become a mainstream phenomenon, his days are numbered. The only question is how long it will take for his fans to read the writing on the wall.