Fettes Brot

Fettes Brot is a German hip hop group founded in 1992. Fettes Brot is German for fat bread. "Fett" is a German slang term for "excellent" and brot is slang for "hash". The band took the name from a fan who called them "Fettes Brot" after an early gig, which was probably meant as a compliment, but the members considered it so bizarre that they took it as the name for their new group.

Fettes Brot's longevity has meant that it is sometimes referred to as "Hamburg's hip-hop-dinosaurs" by its members. When the group Poets of Peeze disbanded in 1992, its members Dokter Renz (Martin Vandreier né Schrader) and Tobi Tobsen together with König (king) Boris (Boris Lauterbach), Schiffmeister (Björn Warns) and Mighty founded the band Fettes Brot. The Schmidt brothers (Tobi & Mighty) left the newly founded band early on, to pursue other projects, so the band released their first album, the EP Mitschnacker on Yo Mama Records, as a trio. Prior to Mitschnacker the songs Schwarzbrot- Weißbrot (Blackbread - Whitebread) and Schule der Gewalt (School of Violence) appeared on the sampler, Endzeit 93, from the Independent record label Wilde Welt Records.

Commercial success first came with the single Nordisch by Nature ("Northern by Nature") and its album. The song begins with the sound of a foghorn and is sung with a strong Low German accent, which makes the song something of an anthem for persons from Northern Germany. The single remained in the German charts for a full month and the band was determined not to let this commercial success make them become something like a one hit wonder. The group demonstrated their technical maturity with their first LP Auf einem Auge blöd ("Stupid on one eye", a parody of the phrase Auf einem Auge blind meaning "Blind in one eye"), which boasts versatile and humorous lyrics.

The narrated stories and interwoven lines of their rapping were received very well. A year later Fettes Brot released their second biggest commercial hit and quasi-anthem Jein (a portmanteau of Ja and Nein, meaning both "Yes" and "No"). The main line of the song's chorus asks the sticky question: „Soll ich's wirklich machen oder lass ich's lieber sein?“ ("Should I really do it or should I let it go? ") and established a strong fanbase in German speaking countries.

Further singles from the following album Außen Top Hits, innen Geschmack (a play on a popular commercial jingle for the aluminum foil Toppits: "Außen Toppits - innen Geschmack" (Toppits on the outside - flavor within) where the like-sounding Album title means "Top hits on the outside - flavor within") were just as successful. The rapper Dendemann (then a member of the Arme Ritter, meaning "Poor Knights" but also "French toast") had his first introduction to the mainstream in his collaboration track, Wildwechsel, also with Max Herre, Blumentopf, Spax (German) and Der Tobi & das Bo (German) which became representative of these artists. Fettes Brot were at this time very active in other areas, for instance, they created a unique radio transmission called Forellentee for Radio Fritz (German)