Mohamed El Moussaoui, known by the stage nameMoTrip, is a Germanrapper of Lebanese ancestry. His stage name uses the first syllable of his name and plays off the Arabic word for singer or lyricist. MoTrip came into his own with such hits as his 2013 Guten Morgen NSA and his 2015 So wie du bist. Since 2011 he has been under contract with Universal Music.
Early life
Mohamed El Moussaoui was born in Beirut, Lebanon, though his family fled the country during the Lebanese Civil War. He grew up in Aachen, on Germany's borders with Belgium and the Netherlands. El Moussaoui's older brother was an aspiring rapper, and the young MoTrip began writing his first lyrics at the age of 15. Aachen was also the hometown of Turkish-German rapper Kool Savas, who took notice of the up-and-coming MoTrip. With the promotion of Kool Savas, MoTrip was able to make important industry connections and promote his work.
Career
According to MoTrip, he has written or contributed to writing many German-language rap tracks performed by other artists. He says that all of the lyrics he performs, however, are his own words. While MoTrip has not indicated for whom he has written music, in 2011 the rapper Eko Fresh claimed on Twitter that MoTrip wrote the Fler album Airmax Muzik II. MoTrip is also credited as a coauthor on the 2012 album AMYF by the Berlin rapper Bushido. MoTrip's first album, Embryo, appeared in 2011. His first charting single did not come until 2013, however, when his Guten Morgen NSA appeared. In the context of the United States' National Security Agency spying controversy, MoTrip mocked NSA surveillance for "hacking Game Boy." Comparing the NSA to the Stasi, the East Germansecret police, MoTrip was echoing a comparison first made by German ChancellorAngela Merkel. The song also remarks on MoTrip's status as an Arab in Europe. The 2015 album Mama featured the smash hitSo wie du bist, which became MoTrip's highest charting single. It reached number 3 on the official German charts. This track featured the German vocalist Lary, who appeared as a stripper in the music video, romantically pursued by MoTrip. The song stood at number 51 on the charts until it was featured as background music for a Beats by Dre commercial, which focused on German soccer playerBastian Schweinsteiger and his leaving long time club Bayern Munich to join Manchester United. The ad catapulted the song to the top of the charts.
