At the end of that year, after an appearance on MTV, Fler narrowly escaped injury when three masked men attempted to stab him on his way out of the studio. His bodyguard fended them off, and they fled. Fler denounced the attack as "a cowardly action which had nothing to do with rap." The experience certainly didn't put him off the music business: a slew of albums, collaborations, mixtapes, and compilation appearances followed in the next five years, making him one of the most prolific artists in the German hip-hop scene, and one of the most popular, with each studio album more successful than the last. After appearing to flirt with nationalist ideology again on 2008's Fremd im Eigenen Land ("Strangers in Their Own Country"), he switched tack to a more personal tone on 2009's eponymous effort, reflecting on his early life and his time in a psychiatric unit. After that he switched labels from Aggro Berlin to Ersguterjunge for one album -- the punningly titled Flersguterjunge -- before starting his own label, Maskulin, in 2011. He released not one but two albums that year, Airmax Musik II and Im Bus Ganz Hinten ("Right at the Back of the Bus"), and swiftly followed up with his eighth album, Hinter Blauen Augen ("Behind Blue Eyes"), in 2012. Despite being criticized by some fans for sounding too American, it gave him his highest chart placement to date.
The next three years were busy ones on the recording front. He released no less than five albums, beginning with his ninth album, 2013's Blaues Blut ("Blue Blood"), again on his Maskulin label. A follow-up to his debut, Neue Deutsche Welle, Vol. 2, appeared one year later, and just missed the top of the charts. His number one breakthrough arrived in 2015, when Keiner Kommt Klar Mit Mir ("Nobody Comes Clear with Me") topped the charts in Germany (and also reached Top Ten in Austria and Switzerland). He released a Frank White album later that year, and watched as Weil die Straße Nicht Vergisst ("Because the Road Does Not Forget") hit number two. Vibe, released in 2016, not only topped the chart in Germany but also in Austria and Switzerland. ~ Evan C. Gutierrez, Rovi