Top Ten Songs from Bushido's & Shindy's "Cla$$ic"

In 2015, the rappers and producers Bushido and Shindy released a collaboration album called "CLA$$IC" that went straight to the top of the German charts. The album was produced by the two rappers themselves, along with Beatzarre and Djorkaeff.

Shindy is a light hearted, laid back swagger with a taste for fashion, luxury and movies, who brought several flow innovations to German hip hop in the 2010s, and Bushido is a dark, sinister gangster with menacing lyrics and a controversially violent attitude. Shindy started off in the 2010s and immediately became huge, this being his third album, and Bushido has been around since the early 2000s, brought German hip hop mainstream recognition and became arguably the most influential German hip hop artist of all time. Shindy's beats use light modern drum kits and soul samples, Bushido uses hard kicks and snares, often with darkly melodious violin, piano or orchestra samples. They connected their different styles by giving the album a dark and experimental atmosphere and lyrically involving around their status as rap's elite. Their common demeanor is their ego and mutual respect for each other's talent. It harmonizes very well, and you have many elements of both artists, but they both reduced those that did contradict with the style of the other. Shindy is not as hipster-ish and Bushido not as gangster-ish. The violence was toned down and so was the relaxed attitude.
The album has often been called the German "Watch the Throne" by the music press. There are many other collaboration albums by famous German rappers, but probably due to the album's creative and experimental ambitions, the fact that the artists aren't just rappers but producers, the megalomania of claiming the throne (along with royal aesthetics), the two rapper's personas, and the overall tone, this album immediately drew associations to Jay-Z's & Kanye West's instant classic from 2011. Nevertheless, the critical reception was mixed, but it was popularly acclaimed.
The Top Ten
1 Adel

This song is one of the darkest hip hop songs I have ever heard. The beat is basefd around a montage of weird music fragments. Shindy and Bushido end each other's part, often altering line for line or saying sentences at the same time - it appears to not have a proper structure. At two points you hear fragments of creepy dialog samples, "Examples, paranormal tape recordings" and "Do you want to hear more then? ". The music video ends after 2:25 minutes, but on the album the song continues after one or two seconds of silence but the beat changes. It sounds somewhat similar, but slower and more calm, less surreal and more straightforward. Lyrically, they involve around how they are the elite. The entire album has about the feeling you entered the masked ball of "Eyes Wide Shut".

2 Brot Brechen

This opening track was the album's biggest hit. It starts off with a melodic, emotional piano, and echoing vocals, without any drums at all. Over this Bushido delivers his verse, before all of a sudden distorted, diabolical synth lines start playing and Shindy starts his chorus, then the wild drum work starts playing and Shindy delivers his verse before Bushido raps the chorus and the song stops.
When you hear this you immediately know this isn't going to be an ordinary hip hop album.

For the creepypasta fans and conspiracy theorists out there: in the limited deluxe box edition of the album, there was an issue of the album on cassette tape as a bonus, which unlike the CD isn't a popular medium anymore. The chorus usually goes like this: "You can't break the bread with us / Can't sit on one table with us / We are a few steps above and not next to you / Of which wood we've been carved? " It doesn't rhyme in German. Now, on the tape both rappers finish the chorus off by ...more

3 Gravitation

This song has an amazing verse by Marteria who is simply a scene stealer. Marteria usually is the open minded pothead who toys around with the German language at a maximum level of creativity, but on here he fit into the album's surreally dark cult-like tone while still keeping his carefree attitude, with images of sharks swimming in the pool in your garden and bank accountants jumping off the roof - while getting a coconut from far away islands. Oh, and he claims to habe a ghostwriter: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who happens to be Germany's greatest classic poet and writer, much like Shakespear is to the English.

4 Glänzen
5 Über Alles
6 G$D
7 $onny

This is Bushido's one and a half minute solo song. The string sampling oldschool beat and heavily aggressive lyrics are typically his style, which has been toned down and fused with Shindy's for the album.

8 Cla$$ic
9 Faz
10 Megalomanie
The Contenders
11 $hindy

This is Shindy's one and a half minute solo song on the album. The soul samples, carefree lyrics and laid back attitude are typically his style, which has been toned down and fused with Bushido's for the album.

12 Verlieren Hassen
13 Freier Fall Nach Oben
14 Rapleben
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