Born in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, he first became known in the Hamburg music scene. In the early 1990s he started as a rapper and DJ for various hip-hop groups in Flensburg. In 1991, DJ Koze reached second place in the German DMC Championship (an offshoot of the Disco Mix Club). Two years later, he moved to Hamburg and founded together with Cosmic DJ, DJ Stachy and the “Schreckliche Sven” the hip hop formation Fischmob, which persisted for about five years. Read More...
In parallel, he also dealt with electronic music, increased his name recognition as a DJ and produced some remixes, sometimes under the pseudonym Adolf Noise. A collection of such remixes appeared in 2000 under the title Music Is Okay. With Max Goldt as spokesman he released 2001 as Adolf Noise the single “Deine Reime sind Schweinereime”, a satire on battle rap tracks in German hip hop.
As a DJ, he also performed at major raves such as Coachella, Tomorrowland, SonneMondSterne, Melt!, Time Warp, Mayday and Nature One. In reader surveys of the music magazines Spex, Intro and de: Bug he was repeatedly voted DJ of the Year.
On October 19, 2018, he was awarded the Prize for Pop Culture in the category “Favorite Producer” at the Tempodrom Berlin.
