Beginner

Formed during the early 1990s in Hamburg, the German rap collective Beginner originally operated under the name Absolute Beginner as a quartet featuring MCs Jan Eißfeldt (also known as Jan Delay), Denyo, and Mardin alongside producer DJ Mad. After experimenting with bilingual rhymes in both German and English, the group soon committed exclusively to German and issued its debut single, the politically charged “K.E.I.N.E.,” in 1993, the same year the EP Gotting appeared. Their 1996 album Flashnizm attracted major-label interest, yet Mardin departed prior to the 1998 Universal release Bambule.

Thereafter the remaining members increasingly pursued solo and side endeavors—Eißfeldt, for instance, through his Eimsbush label and various personas such as Jan Delay and Eißfeldt 65—while reconvening in 2002 to record the third album, Blast Action Heroes, issued in 2003 under the name Beginner. That project achieved major commercial success, reaching the top chart position and remaining on the rankings for numerous weeks. Solo activity persisted, with three subsequent Jan Delay albums also attaining the summit, until speculation about a new Beginner record emerged in the 2010s. The long-awaited return, Advanced Chemistry, finally surfaced in August 2016 and topped the charts in both Germany and Austria.