Genius English Translations
Beginner - Es war einmal... (English Translation)
[Verse 1: Jan Delay]
Yea, I say, the story begins with "Once Upon A Time..."
Little Jan, little Dennis and a basketball
14 years old and with only one pubic hair
But the biggest mouth in the whole city
The Edding in the bag and non-stop tagging
Yo! MTV Raps on VHS tapes
Germany was grey and the charts were shit
But N.W.A and P.E. were Gods
On a party we met Martin
He rapped Eazy-E and drank Campari
The chemistry was right, we founded a band
With a tape player, a piece of paper, a pen, and talent
Rough beats and texts with meanings
The flow was bad, but the shows were awesome
All that was remaining was a car and someone who can scratch
Then came DJ Mad, and everything was perfect

[Hook: Jan Delay]
You were witnesses how little
Wanna-be big guys
Embarked from the coast
In sneakers to the top
'Cause the foxes from the Elbe
Wanted to get out of the cold
Didn't have a goal, but drove away
With big beats, small studios
[Verse 2: Denyo]
Yea, exactly, "biggie", back then when no dick knew who we were
We took the chance, and the Schanze
The first demo tapes sounded like the first demo tapes
Eh, and the Flora Rote quarter, it burned
Hip Hop and "biggie", weren't trend words
They were foreign words, even amongst Spex readers
Back then Juice didn't exist yet
Just a few crews with fat samplers in the backpacks
And we went from rehearsal room to rehearsal room
No big studio, but still with a big dream
The grades got worse, the raps better
Really cool, really mom! I'm going to be a rapper!
And thus we drove a couple hours
Continued to jam, over Braunschweig to Munich
No pay to hit them over the head
Instead we sold maxis from the car trunk

[Hook: Jan Delay]
You were witnesses how little
Wanna-be big guys
Embarked from the coast
In sneakers to the top
'Cause the foxes from the Elbe
Wanted to get out of the cold
Didn't have a goal, but drove away
With big beats, small studios
[Verse 3: Jan Delay]
Yea, I say, we didn't have any plan about making vinyl records
The first LPs were in the mixed goods store
Dub, Crossover, P-Funk, Bossonova
Written, recorded, and mixed in a month
Too much racket, we wanted to hear again rap shit
Quickly back to three mics and 2 Technics
Since back then a lot was happening throughout the whole country
[The raps got better], and the beats got tighter
And we were in the middle with a deal with Universal
Only Martin left; it became too much for him
No school degree, we put all-in into rap
Made a fat soundtrack for our generation
And when it got released, man, what was going on
MTVIVA, radio, Bravo poster
We didn't want to be pop stars
So we went to The Dome without even being there

[Hook: Jan Delay]
You were witnesses how little
Wanna-be big guys
Embarked from the coast
In sneakers to the top
'Cause the foxes from the Elbe
Wanted to get out of the cold
Didn't have a goal, but drove away
With big beats, small studios
[Verse 4: Denyo]
It was like that back in the days
But everything has to come to an end
Where shall I start?
The hiphop fever suddenly felt sick
No, not Flash '99, this one's forever
But with a Golden Disk in a golden cage
'Cause fuck talent or style
Every image neurosis person got a deal
And on top of that, a star producer
Financed by Jamba subscribers
Ayy, yeah, the climate got colder
That's why Jan went to Jamaica on holidays
But after a few company establishments and a few bankruptcies later
Were we again back, focused like Doherty Peter
Yea, thanks to Just Blaze and the Neptunes
The phatest of all rap crews were back again
And with a reunited Hamburg-City-Blues-Brothers
We wrote Germany's number one!

[Hook: Jan Delay]
You were witnesses how little
Wanna-be big guys
Embarked from the coast
In sneakers to the top
'Cause the foxes from the Elbe
Wanted to get out of the cold
Didn't have a goal, but drove away
With big beats, small studios

[Outro]
25 years and that's quite a group anniversary!
In Hamburg, all the very best, goodbye!