Alpa Gun – Berlin Berlin

Berlin is a magnet and a place of longing for people around the world. For the rapper Alpa Gun the city is much, much more: It is where he lives, it is his home. It is the city that has everything he needs to live, the city that he never wants to leave again. It is his Berlin. It’s no wonder then, that the life and musical career of Alpa Gun is very connected to Germany’s capital city.Born in 1980 in the Schöneberg neighborhood of Berlin as the youngest son of a Turkish guest worker family, Alper Sendilmen, aka “Alpa Gun,” grew up on Schöneberg’s Steinmetz Street, a problem area in Berlin. After high school he was initially successful learning the trade of restaurateur, but then got on the wrong track and started dealing marijuana.

Through his illegal business dealings on the streets of Berlin, and as he was building, together with a group of friends, the rap group AK (Außer Kontrolle, or “Out of Control”), Alpa Gun got to know the rapper Sido and AK got its first album deal through him. Differences of opinion between Alpa Gun and the other AK-members led to the group disbanding soon thereafter. That’s when Alpa Gun decided to join “The Cult”, “Germany’s most mysterious hip hop crew” whose driving force was Sido.

Alpa Gun’s solo career started when he was signed by the label Sektenmuzik (Cult Music). His first single Ausländer (Foreigner) from his debut album Geladen und Entsichert (Loaded and Unlocked) landed at number 31 on the German charts in 2007. Since then Alpa Gun has brought out five additional albums, most recently in 2015 with Ehrensache II (A Point of Honor 2).

Aside from his career as a rapper, Alpa Gun has also been active as an actor for quite a while. In 2011 he appeared together with Sido in the movie Blutzbrüdaz (Blood Brothers). After the premiere of the film there was some disagreement between Sido and Alpa Gun and the longtime friendship came to an abrupt end.

What fuels the Berlin rapper to keep making music? Alpa Gun’s goal is to expand into new dimensions: “It is like with sports. When you see the results, when you see how you’ve developed, it’s really a lot of fun. My album mirrors exactly the Alpa Gun that I currently am. I recognize through my songs that I’ve really evolved.”