Clueso, named after Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther, started making music in 1995. In 1998 he got to know his future manager Andreas Welskop and gave up his hairdressing apprenticeship. His first vinyl Clüsolo was released on BMG Ufa the same year. In 1999 he moved to the 10vor10-Studios in Köln with Welskop. A year later he signed a label contract at Four Music and released Text und Ton in 2001. Around that time he performed with Curfew at the MTV HipHop Open in Stuttgart and at Beats for Life in Köln.