Sido (rapper)

Paul Würdig was born to a German father and a Sinti mother. Würdig stated in an interview with the radio station BigFM that he's one-eighth Iranian . At the age of eight years Sido and his younger sister were brought up by their mother in East Berlin in the Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood. In 1988, the family moved to West Berlin, where they first lived in emergency accommodation in Wedding along with many asylum seekers. They then moved into Märkisches Viertel, a high-rise residential area in the Berlin borough of Reinickendorf. During his childhood and youth, Märkisches Viertel had a high proportion of migrants and low-income families. There he attended the Bettina-von-Arnim-Oberschule and afterwards began an apprenticeship as an educator, which he never completed.

Sido has been active in the music business since 1997. Together with his best friend B-Tight he released several EPs and demos under the name Royal TS, which were never officially published, at the Berlin underground hip hop label Royal Bunker. SIDO had been friends with DJ Tomekk for a long time. The two made a dubplate from Arschficksong and DJ Tomekk played them in clubs all over Germany, presenting SIDO to a wider audience for the first time. Specter was Art Director for DJ Tomekk at that time. At a concert the duo got the attention of Halil, Specter and Spaiche - the later founders of the Aggro Berlin label. [10][11][12]

Sido's mask on the cover of the premium edition of "Ich"

Sido's solo career began in 2002 with the "Arschficksong" ("Ass-fuck song") on the sampler Aggro Ansage Nr. 1 and the "Weihnachtssong" ("Christmas song") on Aggro Ansage Nr. 3.

In 2004, Sido's debut album Maske was released, reaching #3 on the German charts and selling more than 180,000 copies to date, achieving gold status. The lead single "Mein Block" (My block) reached #13 on the German charts, the second single "Fuffies im Club" (€50 notes in the club) reached #18 and the third single "Mama ist stolz" (Mum is proud) reached #25.[13] The original album was indexed because of the song "Endlich Wochenende" ("Finally weekend") which, according to the BPjM, glorified the use of drugs. The album was rereleased under the name "Maske X" with the song "Arschficksong" in replacement of "Endlich Wochenende". The song was also published (with the video slightly censored), for the first time as a single.

In September of the same year, he won a prestigious German music award for "Best Newcomer." The best-known song from that album, "Mein Block", describes life from a resident's perspective in the Märkisches Viertel, a low-income neighborhood of Berlin, detailing the narcotics trade, alcoholism, problems with police, and poverty in Sido's Block, or building.

After this debut album, together with his Label colleagues B-Tight and Fler, he released two label samplers: Aggro Ansage Nr. 4 and Aggro Ansage Nr. 5 (which featured the new label artists Tony D and G-Hot).

In 2005, Sido performed with Brainless Wankers and represented Berlin in the Bundesvision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Mama ist stolz", placing 3rd with 113 points.[14]

Later he collaborated with rapper Harris, as the rap duo Deine Lieblings Rapper ("Your favourite rappers"). In 2005, they released their debut album Dein Lieblings Album ("Your favourite album"), with "Steh wieder auf" (get up again) as the only single.

In December 2006, Sido released his second album Ich, which reached #4 in the German album charts. Three singles: "Strassenjunge", "Ein Teil von mir" and "Schlechtes Vorbild" were released. The album achieved gold status.

2007 Sido and B-Tight (alias A.i.d.S. (=Alles ist die Sekte, engl. Everything is the sect) formed their label Sektenmuzik and a rap-crew named Die Sekte (with Rhymin Simon and Vokalmatador). Tony D joined later.

His third album Ich und meine Maske was released at the end of May 2008. It reached #1 in the German album charts. The singles "Augen auf"/Halt dein Maul", "Carmen", "Herz", "Nein!" and "Beweg dein Arsch" had success in the charts.

On August 2008, Sido joined the seventh season of Popstars, called "Just 4 Girls", as a jury member, along with Detlef D! Soost and Loona. Many people were surprised, wondering why Sido, the Aggro-rapper with his provocative and aggressive lyrics, would join a TV show like Popstars? At the end of Popstars the band Queensberry was formed.

On 1 April 2009, the label Aggro Berlin was closed. Sido was then signed by Urban Records, a division of Universal Music Germany.

On October, 30th 2009 Sido released his fourth studio album Aggro Berlin. The lead single "Hey du!" ranked #4 in the German Charts. In this song Sido talks about growing up in GDR and his later life in West Berlin. He reported that he kept his East Berlin origins secret for a long time for fear of bullying.

Würdig has a son, whose name and date of birth are not known publicly, but he references him in the songs "Aggro Gold", "Ein Teil von mir" and "2010", amongst others.

He began dating former Nu Pagadi lead singer Doreen Steinert in mid-2005 and on 14 February 2010 they became engaged.[15] But in April 2012 they broke off their engagement.[16] Just a few weeks later, in early May 2012, Würdig confirmed rumors that he had started dating German TV presenter Charlotte Engelhardt.[17] Sido had a second son with Engelhardt in 2013.[18]

Würdig is the second cousin of the German DSDS participant Menowin Fröhlich.[19]

July 2004, Sido performed live in Stuttgart for the festival MTV HipHop Open. During his performances he insulted Frankfurt rapper Azad's mother saying: "If we had a bed right here, I'd bang Azad's mother". A week later Sido and Azad met each other backstage and after a short dispute it escalated into a brawl that involved the artists of Aggro Berlin and Bozz Music.[21] The security and the police arrived to stop the conflict, but Azad and his crew had fled already.[22]

• #Beste (2012)
• Kronjuwelen (2018)