Casper | |
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 Casper at the 2018 Splash! festival | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Benjamin Griffey [1] 25 September 1982 |
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| Years active | 2003–present |
| Label | Four Music |
Benjamin Griffey (born 25 September 1982), better known by his stage name Casper, is a German rapper and singer with US roots signed to Sony Music. [2]
Casper was born in Lemgo in North Rhine-Westphalia to a German mother and an American father, Arlen Griffey, who was a soldier stationed in Lemgo. [3] His family moved to Augusta, Georgia, in the United States, when he was two weeks old, where he lived in a trailer park. [3] [1] At the age of 11, he moved back to Germany with his mother and younger sister. [4] Despite his mother being German, he had not been raised bilingually and therefore struggled at school initially. [3] For university studies, he settled in Bielefeld. [4]
Casper was involved in many studio recordings with other German rappers, such as Abroo and Separate. Together they founded the hip-hop group Kinder des Zorns. In 2004, they released Rap Art War, their first and only album.
In 2006, he released a mixtape called Die Welt hört mich with the label 667 – One More Than the Devil. In the two years following the release of Die Welt hört mich, he toured through Germany, and on 9 May 2008, he released his first album, Hin zur Sonne via the 667 record label.
In February 2009, he left 667 Records and signed a contract with Selfmade Records. Together with Kollegah, Favorite and Shiml, who were also signed to Selfmade Records, they released Chronik 2 in April 2009.
In October 2010, Casper left Selfmade Records and signed a new contract with Four Music. [5] His second album, XOXO, was released on 8 July 2011. [2]
Casper is known for his slightly hoarse sounding voice: this was as a result of him having played in punk and hardcore bands in the early days of his music career which resulted in some damage to his vocal cords. [6]
Casper has often been labelled as an "emo rapper", which he also uses to describe himself, stating that he was fed up of being asked about his style. [7] His lyrics are mainly autobiographical, in particular in the song "Hin zur Sonne", describing his early life in America.
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