Elvir Omerbegovic
Elvir Omerbegovic (born 1979) is a German entrepreneur of Bosnian descent who is mainly known as the founder and CEO of the hip hop label Selfmade Records and as President of Rap of Universal Music Germany. He is also the founder of the clothing label Pusher Apparel and the co-founder of Suckit. Early life and career Omerbegovic was born in Mettmann, West Germany in 1979, the son of Bosnian immigrants. At the age of 12, he began to play streetball and won the German championship with his team several times. From 1993 onwards, he performed his sport semi-professionally, playing for Bayer Giants Leverkusen and Brandt Hagen. At the age of 16, he competed against AAU teams in New York as a member of a selected squad. Prior to finishing high school in Germany, he also played basketball at a high school in Kentucky for one season. Upon graduation, Omerbegovic worked for RTL Newmedia in Cologne, Germany. He then earned a bachelor's degree in political science, media and sociology. Subsequently, he received a master's degree in political communication. In 1999, he met Philipp Dammann during a community service training in Herdecke. Dammann, alias Flipstar, was a member of the hip hop group Creutzfeld & Jakob. Omerbegovic then began to appear as a rapper under the artist name "Slick One". Flipstar also provided Omerbegovic with initial contacts in the German hip hop scene. In 2003, Omerbegovic was featured in the song "Game Over" for the first time on the Creutzfeld & Jakob album Zwei Mann gegen den Rest. In 2005, he recorded some songs in collaboration with Flipstar. "Wo ich herkomm" was used as one of the tracks for the sampler Schwarzes Gold. Within the next two years, he recorded contributions to five releases by Selfmade Records. On the track "Bruderkrieg", a collaboration with Edo Maajka on the album Chronik 2 in 2009, Omerbegovic appeared as a rapper for the last time. Business career Sefmade Records After the cancellation of the contract between Universal Music and the duo Creutzfeld & Jakob in 2005, Omerbegovic moved from Cologne to Bochum to establish a music label with Philipp Dammann under the name Selfmade Records. Initially, the label was only supposed to serve as a platform for Dammann's releases as "Flipstar", as well as for other hip hop acts in the region. Following a short-term cooperation with Jan Mehlhose from the sub-label Subword, Omerbegovic arranged a distribution agreement with Groove Attack. At this point, producer Rizbo and rapper Favorite from the city of Essen had already been signed as the label's first artists. In April 2005, the sampler Schwarzes Gold was released as the first Selfmade Records production. Over the course of the year, Shiml and Kollegah also received contracts as artists. With respect to his selection of rappers, Omerbegovic explained that it was his "intention to sign and develop artists who [...] have outstanding technical skills and brought something entirely new to the German hip hop scene." At the end of 2005, Dammann left