In the course of the burgeoning MeToo debate in the German rap scene, the artist Cashmo raised serious allegations against Bushido.

In a video published on Saturday evening, Cashmo accused his colleague of having sexually assaulted an allegedly underage girl around 2005, and shows a corresponding recording.

Bushido confirmed the authenticity of the video shortly afterwards and apologized.

The video shows how Bushido sits bare-chested in front of a bed on which is a girl whose face has been made unrecognizable. She repeats several times that she does not know what to do now. "What do you want to do now? Do you want to get dressed and go Where do you want to go Out in the forest? ”Replies Bushido. When the girl continues to react insecurely, the rapper gets louder, shortly afterwards he says: "You pretend we are Neanderthals (...) should I send you somewhere?" He presses her several times to make a decision - presumably it is about sexual acts. It also becomes clear that Bushido, who according to his own statements was 26 years old at the time of the admission, has doubts about the young woman's age. "I'm eight years older than you,if you're even 18, ”said the rapper. A later statement about an age difference of eleven years raises the suspicion that the girl may only be 15 years old.

Bushido: "I want to apologize"

Bushido responded shortly after the publication with a 28-minute video statement on Instagram in which he extensively admitted the allegations and apologized.

"Yes, what was shown there actually happened," said the now 42-year-old, whose real name is Anis Ferchichi.

"The way you treated girls back then is absolutely not right." Corresponding behavior was part of his "lifestyle" at the time and was "the only possible way" for him to deal with girls after concerts.

This also applies to other colleagues, but he does not want to name names, “this is all about me”.

He hopes that his daughters “don't run into people who are the way they were back then,” Bushido continues.

"At this point I would like to apologize not only, but above all, to this girl." He takes full responsibility for the incident and does a lot to get rid of appropriate behavior.

He also did not respect his wife for a long time, which he is very sorry for.

Today he could say: "Those days are over."

He will not ask Cashmo to delete the video, Bushido said.

“I can take it like a man.” However, he questioned Cashmo's motives and accused him of wanting to benefit from the publication himself.

Cashmo: "Make an example"

He had previously announced that he had explosive material, which he would not publish until he had at least 100,000 followers on Instagram. “You want a scandal? No problem. 100K and you have something to talk about, ”the 37-year-old rapper, whose real name is Achim Welsch, wrote in his Instagram story. Numerous fans called on Cashmo to follow. Bushido met with criticism: "If the matter had really mattered to you, you could have said (...) I'll put the video online in half an hour." The whole thing is above all a marketing campaign and a personal one Attack, no serious confrontation with the victims and dealing with women.

In the rap scene, numerous victims have been reporting on their experiences with abuse of power and sexual violence under the hashtag #deutschrapmetoo for days.

The trigger was a report by the influencer Nika Irani, who described an encounter with the rapper Samra in which sex had taken place against her will and demanded an apology.

Samra denied the allegations.

Cashmo also described the allegations against his colleague in his video from Saturday as "unoccupied" and criticized the resulting "cancel culture".

But there are people "who are really guilty," said Cashmo.

The artists in question were too big to say anything against them.

"That's why it's time to make an example."

Bushido himself spoke up again on Instagram on Sunday morning: He has now received the video material in full and is planning to publish it in the evening. "The video at Cashmo was shortened to harm me as much as possible." Scenes were left out and the content twisted, which is why the rapper announced: "What you will see tonight is a completely different story."