This disc is just sooooo funky. Who'd have thought that Germany could give us such a great rap group? Excellent cuts and scratches like the good old days of rap. The only reason this disc gets 4 not 5 stars, is that I have no idea whether the lyrics are any good! Try it, you just might like it! (It's great if only to hear Darth Vader sampled in German!)
Die Fantastischen Vier are one of Germany's premier hip-hop acts. Over their career (more than a decade and still going strong), they've never failed to be inventive and push the boundaries of their medium and their language. "Jetzt Geht's Ab" is their debut release from 1991.
Listening to this release, it's possible to imagine that these four MCs (two of them full-time MCs, the other two primarily involved in the production side of things) were bound for greatness. What you can't see is exactly how great they would become on just their second album - the masterpiece of "Vier Gewinnt".
"Jetzt Geht's Ab" is a competent album, but only really an average performance at best. The performers clearly had talent even all the way back in '91 but they hadn't quite worked out how to use it. As a result, the album has flashes of brilliance but these aren't as frequent as they should be.
Ultimately, however, there is too much "stuff" on the album. Lyrically, tracks like "Jetzt Passt Auf" are quite strong - and this comes from a German-speaker - but so many tracks are just interludes and little experiments that they pull the rest of the album down with them.
Another interesting pair of tracks are "Zerkratzt" (scratched) and "Mikrofonprofessor" (microphone professor - Smudo's alter ego). The first of these tracks is an interlude which begins with a sample bearing an uncanny resemblance to Booker T and the MGs' "Green Onions" only played on synthesisers. The sound jumps in and out and eventually a voice is heard declaring "Ich will diese Schalplatte nicht kaufen, sie ist zerkratzt." The translation of this line is "I will not buy this record, it is scratched" and it is at this point that the listener realises that it's a sample of the German "Monty Python" - specifically the "Hungarian Phrasebook" sketch.
Overall, the only real reason to purchase this album is to see what Die Fantastischen Vier were like before they cracked the big time via their second album. Old school hip-hop fans might find it interesting in passing, but only very vaguely.
