Hamburg Hasn’t Forgotten How to Do This

Growing up with German hip-hop in the 90s, there were maybe five records that mattered and Bambule was one of them. Die Beginner—Eizi Eiz, Denyo, DJ Mad, then still performing as Absolute Beginner—had that rare combination of technical precision and genuine weirdness that most German rap groups couldn’t pull off without sounding like they were badly translating American source material. Their music felt like it came from somewhere specific: Hamburg, weird, funny, sharp.

Which is why the news, delivered in a short announcement in late 2013, landed like it should—cautious but real. All three are buried in solo work. Eizi Eiz, better known by his solo name Jan Delay, has been a one-man industry for years. Denyo has been doing his thing. But the word is out: there’s a new Beginner album coming, described in their own terms as the alles zerfickende Beginner-Platte—roughly, the everything-fucking Beginner record—and that phrase alone is worth holding onto through the wait.

These kinds of reunion announcements almost always disappoint. You spend years building expectations and then get an album that sounds like it was recorded between other obligations, in the gaps between real life. I’m willing to risk it. Some groups you just give the benefit of the doubt, and Beginner earned theirs a long time ago.