Kool Savas

Savaş Yurderi, known professionally by his stage name Kool Savas, is a German rapper. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful musicians in German rap history. Over the course of his career, he has been involved in several prominent musical groups and collaborative projects within the German hip-hop scene.

Yurderi was born on 10 February 1975 in Aachen, Germany, to a German mother and a Turkish father from Çorum. When he was one year old, his family moved to Turkey. Due to political issues, his father received a five-year prison sentence in Turkey. Yurderi eventually returned to Germany alongside his mother, and his father later rejoined them. The family subsequently settled in Berlin.

His music career began to take shape in the mid-1990s. In 1996, he became a founding member of the German rap crew Masters of Rap. Shortly after, in 1997, he joined forces with the artist Taktlo$$ to form the German rap duo Westberlin Maskulin. The group operated from 1997 until 2000 and became highly influential within the genre.

Savas continued to build his solo and collaborative career in the following years. In 2011, he released his studio album Aura, which featured a title single of the same name alongside the track LMS 2012, a collaboration with artist Xavier Naidoo. Savas and Naidoo had worked together on multiple releases prior to this project.

Building on their ongoing creative relationship, Savas announced a formal collaborative duo with Naidoo in May 2012 under the group name Xavas. The duo revealed a 15-track list in August 2012 and officially released their joint album, Gespaltene Persönlichkeit, on 21 September 2012 in Germany. Following this release, Savas put out his fourth solo studio album, titled Märtyrer, on 14 November 2014.

In his personal life, Yurderi resides in Berlin with his wife, Maria Yurderi, and their child.