[Full breakdown below...] So, until now you might have realized from the comments that the text is basically a big list of German abbreviations and acronyms, mostly put in trios which fit into a group or have something in common. And of course with the letters spoken in German, the last parts in each line form a rhyming scheme. Here's a breakdown: ARD - Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Rundfunkanstalten Deutschlands [shortened, thanks @marsu37de] (lit. Association of the Broadcasting Stations of Germany - Germany's first tv channel) ZDF - Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (lit. Second German Television - the second channel to exist here) C&A (a Belgian clothing store chain widespread throughout Germany, named after the founding brothers Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer) BRD - Bundesrepublik Deutschland (the abbreviation of Germany's official name) DDR - Deutsche Demokratische Republik (the German abbreviation of the GDR) USA (no need to explain that one) BSE (no need to explain) HIV (no need to explain) DRK - Deutsches Rotes Kreuz (lit. German Red Cross) GbR - Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts (Company of civil law, a company form below an Ltd., not to sure on British company forms) GmbH - Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (Company with limited liability, basically the German equivalent of an Ltd.) ..these are followed by "ihr könnt mich ma", a phrase which would usually be followed by the German equivalent of "kiss my a**" but can stand alone for the same meaning. THX (no need to explain) VHS (no need to explain) FSK - Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle [der Filmwirtschaft] (the Germany equivalent of the bbfc) RAF - Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Fraction, a German far-left terror group, active from the 70s to the 90s) LSD (no need to explain) FKK - Frei-Körper-Kultur (lit. free body culture, the "nudist" movement) DVU - Deutsche Volksunion (German People's Union, a former far-right extremist party) AKW - Atomkraftwerk (the German abbreviation of nuclear power plant) KKK (no need to explain) RHP - Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt (another former German hip hop group) usw. - und so weiter (German abbreviation of the phrase "and so on") lmaA - Leck mich am Arsch (lit. "lick my a**", so basically the equivalent of "kiss [...]") PLZ - Postleitzahl (the German abbreviation of postcode, direct equivalent to ZIP) UPS (the parcel service, no need to explain) DPD (you might know this one, another German parcel service, owned by DHL afaik) BMX (the bike/sport, no need to explain) BPM (beats per minute, no need to explain) XTC (you get it...) EMI (the label) CBS (the network) BMG (the label, most likely) ADAC - Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (General German Car Club, an organization offering various services like roadside assistance, etc., materials and insurances) DLRG - Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft (German Life Saving Association, basically the German lifeguards) ...followed by "oh jemine", lit. an expression like "oh boy" EKZ - Einkaufszentrum (German abbreviation for a shopping center/mall) RTL - Radio Télévision Luxembourg (one of the first private TV channels in Germany, now an entire group) DFB - Deutscher Fußballbund (German Football Federation, obvious what that is...) ABS (no need to explain) TÜV - Technischer Überwachungsverein (Association for Technical Inspection, THE insitutation for checking mechanical and electrical devices to be safe for public use, most of all our cars which we need to get checked by the TÜV once every two years) BMW (no need to explain, but funny that the guy in the picture is wearing the Mercedes star on a chain XD) Km/h - Kilometer pro Stunde (Kilometers per hour, a physical unit of speed... you knew that one, right?) ICE - Inter City Express (the German high speed trains) Eschede (a German city and site of a catastrophic speed train derailing) PVC (no need to explain) FCKW - Fluorchlorkohlenwasserstoffe (the German abbreviation of CFC or HCFC) ...followed by "is nich okeh", lit. "is not okay". --------------------------and that was only the first part----------------------------- HNO - Hals-, Nasen-, Ohrenarzt (lit. throat, nose & ear doctor, so an ENT) EKG - Elektrokardiogramm (pretty much the same word in English) AOK - Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse (one of the biggest, public health insurances in Germany) LBS - Landesbausparkasse (a German building society, a sub-divison of one of the bigger banks of Germany, the "Sparkasse") WKD - Wirtschaftskontrolldienst [Thanks @ErklaerMirDieWelt] (lit. economic control service, a former branch of the Baden-Württemberg police, the band's home state) IHK - Industrie- und Handelskammer (lit. Chamber of Commerce and Industry, involved in many things regarding businesses and employment in the branches of the economy) UKW - Ultrakurzwelle (Very High Frequency, i.e. it's the German abbreviation of VHF frequency bandwidth) NDW - Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave, a rock genre, Nena's "99 Luftballons" (99 red balloons) might ring a bell?) Hubert Kah (a German artist of the aforementioned genre) BTM - Betäubungsmittel (lit. narcotics, usually in the sense of illegal drugs (or illegal use of legal drugs)) BKA - Bundeskriminalamt (the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany) ...followed by laughter "haha ha ha" LTU (most likely the former German Airline by the same name which was an acronym of the full name "Luft-Transport-Unternehmen") TNT (no need to explain) IRA (ask your Irish neighbors) n-tv (a German news channel) THW - Technisches Hilfswerk (lit. Agency for Technical Relief, the German civil protection organization with technical focus, so not in the medical (red cross) or criminal (police) way, but helping those institutions as well as the fire brigade, for example in cases of natural disasters) DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agentur (lit. German Press Agency, a journalistic service providing materials (images, texts) to be used by the press) H&M - Hennes & Mauritz (a Swedish clothing store chain named after its founders, also very wide-spread in Germany) BSB - Backstreet Boys [Thanks @ErklaerMirDieWelt for confirming] FDH - Friss die Hälfte (a very crude form of diet, promoting to "eat only half of everything") S.O.S. (no need to explain) 110 (the German 999) ...followed by the sound of a police siren in German pronunciation "tatü tata". SED - Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (lit. Socialist Unity Party of German, the ONE party of the GDR) FDJ - Freie Deutsche Jugend (lit. Free German Youth, the youth movement of the GDR) KaDeWe - Kaufhaus des Westens (lit. Department Store of the West, a big, nowadays upper-class, department store in West Berlin, founded 117 years ago and at the time of divided Germany a monument of Western capitalism "right around the corner" of communist East Germany) FAZ - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (lit. Frankfurt General Newspaper, a well-established newspaper from Germany's financial central) BWL - Betriebswirtschaftslehre (lit. business studies, nothing more to say...) FDP - Freie Demokratische Partei (lit. Free Democratic Party, Germany's VERY "economy-friendly" liberals) EDV - Elektronische Datenverarbeitung (lit. the German abbreviation for electronic data processing/EDP) IBM (the tech company) WWW (World Wide Web, duh.) HSV - Hamburger Sport-Verein (lit. Hamburg Sports Club, well-known for their football team) VfB - Verein für Bewegungsspiele (lit. Club for Movement Games, an abbreviation used by many sports clubs though in this context, most likely the VfB Stuttgart is meant) ...followed by the common fan chant "olé olé". ABC, DAF, OMD might all three refer to bands, ABC and OMD being British and DAF the "Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft" (German-American-Friendship), a German electro punk band TM3 (a former German tv channel, the name probably coming from its owner/found, the Tele München Gruppe (Tele Munich Group)) A&O [Thanks @ErklaerMirDieWelt] (a former retail chain cooperation of 20 food wholesellers, nowadays running under the name "markant") AEG - Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (lit. General Electricity Company, a former German manufacturer of electrical appliances of all kinds) TUI - Touristik Union International (you probably know this travel company) UVA (no need to explain) UVB (yes, ultraviolet radioation) THC (again with the drugs...) OCB - Odet-Cascadec-Bolloré (a brand of cigarette rolling papers, quite well-known in Germany) The entire lines says "THC in OCB is was ich dreh'", lit. "THC in OCB papers is what I'm rollin'" Please honor my 1,5h of work, putting this together... 😭
Very nicely done, just a little correction: ARD means "Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland", or short "Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Rundfunkanstalten Deutschlands" - Association of the Broadcasting Corporations of Germany
Ich bin erschüttert, beeindruckt, fassungslos, finde es großartig, habe dazu gelernt, Du bist ja "der Knaller" danke für 's zusammentragen und "übersetzen" aller verwendeten Abkürzungen, Waaaahnsinn. Alle diese Kürzel, kreieren für den Bruchteil einer Sekunde, ein Bild, eine Szene und so baut sich eine Geschichte in einem selbst. Die Idee dieses Liedes ist genial und die Ausführung ist es auch, außerdem ist das eine Merk-Leistung ohne gleichen. 💋💋💋
Other commentors mentioned that it's all German abbreviations. The genius thing is that every line tells a little story. EKZ, RTL and DFB is mall, reality TV and football, so with just three words they paint a picture of low income youth. KMH, ICE and Eschede is speed, a train and the location of a train crash. HNO, EKG, AOK is doctor, examination and health insurance. You get the idea.
And in the first part of the video, the text is shown with ambiguous images. For FKK (abbreviation for nudism culture) there are shorn sheep. For AKW (abbreviation for nuclear power plant) there is a mushroom in the picture.
What the heck… now I got it too… haha I never knew that they tell a story. Now I have to tell all my friends. When the song ist playing…. Whoop woop smart ass knowledge activated haha
my first thought ... Good Luck ;-) (about the lyrics) it's a song about German mostly well known akronyms, in my opinion the whole song ist just Fun and don't make really sense, it's more for the germans if they could mention every akronym ;-) but the beat is nice
This song is mostly hard to translate since it's built from and around common German abbreviations, most of which don't translate very well or at all. Most need some explaining for none natives.
For a non-native German speaker it is very confusing and incomprehensible. The text consists of the most well-known, most spoken or written abbreviations in the German language :-)
@@mariahaha7814 like the original author I'm also native German. Unfortunately, I *absolutely* disagree with your assessment! If you're a bit older and know the feeling at the end of the 90s, as Fanta 4 describes it (indirectly using abbreviations and short texts), you'll recognize it: It's about the huge upheavals and sometimes excessive demands or sensory overload of that time (which is (unfortunately) seen as "normal" today.) (triggered by the then *relatively* new internet and pushy marketing in the 2000s bubble!). It's the de-sense of neoliberal modernity that's being alluded to. To understand that today, you have to be able to think abstractly (and be willing to do so) and know the situation in Germany at that time and put it into context. (In the USA (and presumably the UK), for example, the type of economic liberalism that is being sung about has existed for much longer..) To call this "really shitty lyrics" suggests that you simply don't understand the meaning behind it.
The title "MfG" stands for "Mit freundlichen Grüßen", which means "Yours sincerely" in English. It's commonly used to close formal letters. The song is essentially a playful yet critical commentary on modern communication and how it’s often reduced to shorthand and abbreviations, losing depth in the process. The lyrics consist almost entirely of well-known abbreviations in German, pulled from all areas of life: politics, pop culture, organizations, and even slang. The band strings them together rhythmically to create a catchy and meaningful rap.
@@m.h.6470 Of course you have to write it out 'Mit freundlichen Grüßen' but then its almost as formal as it gets in Germany. But yes as an abbreviation it is not formal.
"Before we fall we'd rather fall" is poorly translated It's a wordplay in German, the original wording is: "Bevor wir fallen, fallen wir lieber auf" "Bevor wir fallen" is correctly translated to "Before we fall" "fallen wir lieber" auf means something like "we'd rather stand out" But since in the translation "stand out" and "fall" aren't similar like in the original "fallen" and "auffallen" the wordplay is sadly lost in translation. A better translation would be something like "Before we stand down, we'd rather stand out".
That's a good translation. And the line before that is "and we go out for a life of smoke and mirrors", although that doesn't preserve the double meaning "walk on it (the earth)"/"die" as well. Edit: Maybe "we kick it for a life full of smoke and mirrors" would work.
"Die Welt liegt uns zu Füßen, denn wir stehen drauf" ist also a pun with double meaning that is lost in translation, as it can literally mean "the world's at our feet because we stand on it" but , "wir stehen drauf" at the same time is also a slang term for "we're into it"
Hahaha thank you Dwayne. I just waited for the moment you realize that this song is not translatable for non German speakers because it contains just abbreviation of Companies, Parties and Phrases which just a German know. 😆 Had a good laugh. M.F.G. (Mit Freundlichen Grüßen)
Not just some are internstional or the german version of an ibternstional one so you could replace it or even leave it in But yes most are just difficult to translate without explanations to the side
This band is a german heritage. Possibely the most important band of Germany. They are around for 30 years now and have supported many german bands and artists.
There are plenty of german bands which are more famous than Die fantastischen Vier. Important band for german Hip Hop but by far not one of the most important bands in relation to the world like other german bands.
The whole song is about abbreviations that became more and more normal to use with internet age. Also the the title MFG (Mit freundlichen Grüßen) is obviously and abbreviation that you can put at the end of a message.
The series of pictures in the beginning are all ironical illustrations of the respective acronym. So, for a German it is quite funny to watch the video several times to get them all. E.g. the acronym LSD followed by FKK, they are illustrated by two pictures of sheep: LSD by a picture of sheep with tons of wool (so to speak the hippie sheep) and FKK which is the acronym of the nudist movement is illustrated by a picture of sheep after shearing.
It is very oldschool hip hop. One of the first mainstream band who brought beats and rhymes into the radios in Germany. Even my Mom had a cassette in her car back then. They had successfull careers for decades! I love that despite not knowing the lyrics you can still understand the oldschool vibe and values (this came out in the early 90ies). In my experience in the late 90ies and 2000 years that Philosophy of oldschool hip hop was preserved as a culture in Germany for a long time and shaped generations to come. Battling each other not with words but with creativity: graffiti, rap, dancing, djing, singing and beatboxing. At the same time, many great live musicians were amonst them like Jan Delay, Seeed and so many more. I'm very proud of these different german hip hop scenes in Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart und Heidelberg.
I came to Germany in 1998 and this song was in the charts. And I looked up the lyrics because I wanted to rap with my classmates at lunch or at the court and even after reading the lyrics I was "shiiit the fuck they talking" ???? Thanks for bringing back memories
If you believe it or not: I love this song so much...a song of my childhood...but this is my first time EVER seeing the whole music video. I only saw a few parts before. :D
Dwayne: " I will be reading the lyrics at the end so I understand what they are saying." Me: "Oh dear..." Like I said before: I don't know who is choosing these songs for you. Are you yourself choosing them or are you following some one`s/other recommendations? Because sometimes I think they are really poorly chosen for foreigners who don't understand German. This is a song with a lot of abbreviations of German words which are used very commonly. Fanta Vier are criticising the alienation of the human kind with the real meaning of them/the real world. The part where the English translation says "Before we fall, we'd rather fall" is complete nonsense. In German it's "Bevor wir fallen, fallen wir lieber auf" which literally is "before we fall we'd rather fall up" but in English it translates into "before we fall we'd rather stand out".
As a german i laughed my ass off when you came to the lyrics and asked "Was that in the song?" when you saw all the abbreviations because if you understand german that's like as obvious as it can be. Very funny situation. Maybe you need to
I really like your song reactions because it's clear that you love and understand music. It's always cool to see you discover new artists. I'm not a musical person and it's fun seeing what you notice and think when listening to a song.
First of all: I like your channel! Thanka for entertaining. "WKR, With kind regards. The world lies at our feet because we stand on it. We go all in for a life full of sound and fury. Before we fall, we'd rather stand out." The hookline is full of puns that work in German but cannot be translated into English. The rest of the text consists of abbreviations that were very common and well-known in Germany at the time but are likely unfamiliar in other countries.
Most of the lyrics consists of abreviations that every German knows. What it all means is free for interpretation I guess. Its poetry, so not to explain really. Yeah, the videos you have shown so far are mainly from the 80s and early 90s - the golden age of music videos, not only in Germany. The time of MTV and all, when a video tried to be a piece of art, not just showing a band playing on a stage. FANTA4 was basically THE first big Hip Hop band in Germany, and MfG one of their earliest big hits. I remember it being played in every radio station, in every pub and every party back in the days. A classic.
We could argue about "earliest big hits", because this was 1999. Founded in 1986 (and 1989), the first song I've heard from Fanta 4 was probably "Die da!?!" (1992), followed by next big hit "Sie ist weg" (1995), then "MfG" (1999) and "Troy" (2004) a lot later.
Jetzt hört er ausgerechnet vor der Zeile _"THC in OCB is what I'm doing (yeah!)"_ mit dem Textlesen auf... 😭 Dabei hätte der "alte" _Boom Bap_ Hip-Hop-Freund gerade diese beiden Akronyme sicherlich ganz gut gekannt! 😅😏😮💨
that was a very famous and quite unique song, nobody ever did that much of wordplay around abbreviations, I feel - and so did everyone back then one of the best times for german hiphop (besides trashy gangster style) has to be the late 90ies and eraly odds, I think you should also check out Samy Deluxe, Absolute Beginner, Blumentopf, 5 Sterne Deluxe, ... "lyrical miracles" all aorund back then
there is a rumour that this song was created on the tourbus when the fantas and Linz Bockelberg threw well-known abbreviations at each other for fun. Abbreviations that everyone knew back then they then put these abbreviations into a song.
The song is full of abbreviations of things that were very relevant to its time and it is also full of allusions to things that happened during the time the song was popular in Germany. It is quite hard to understand for a person who did not live during that time in Germany and who has hardly no knowledge of the German culture, so this song is a bit of an inside job.
this song is from a longplayer from 1999. Yesterday I was at Fanta4´s second live concert of their Longplayer tour. It was amazing! Fanta4 is still in successful business after so much years. theit first chart success was 1992 with "die da" and they are still touring and making great music.
The Fantastischen Vier invented Rap in Germany and are one of the best bands in Germany. But for some lyrics you must be nativ-german-speaking to understand it correctly
Just after they had released their first album, two buddies and myself were walking through Frankfurt on a saturday morning on our way to an arcade when we passed behind the Virgin Records building. We walked passed a guy loading something into the trunk of a Mercedes, caught him out of the corner of the eye. We did a double take, and it happened to be SMUDO, one of the band members. He's the guy in the black shirt in the bus sequence with the Pom Poms. We had a little chat, they had just finished recording something, and were now heading back to their hometown Stuttgart. We shook hands and wished him a good trip. Didn't meet the other members, and didn't bother him for an autograph or anything. More than 30 years later, still the most famous person i ever met.
I like very much the part, where you talked about the "tribe" thingy of hip hop. I think this is one of the best parts, because it create a connection between people and interesting stories to tell. I like this connection very much.
"The world is at our feet" is a germany saying meaning "the world lays to our feet" like we are the greatest. everyone is celebrating us, everything is possible. They combined it cleverly with another one " because we are standing on it (the world / earth)" if you translate it directly but it actually means "we digg it" and at the same time it has a double meaning in the direct translation "we are standing in it" on the earth with our feet, grounded.
The abbreviations used here are organized in context groups and commented upon with short reactions. for example in the first block "KmH, ICE und Eschede" refers to the catastrophic crash of a fast (Km/H) I nter C ity E xpress (ICE) train and the city that this happened in was Eschede en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschede_train_disaster so these little abbrevations have context and the track is like a brainstorming and the things that come to your mind. If you dont know the abbrevations and don´t have the context of events or relations between them its very hard to make sense of it, but for a german it´s pretty easy... another simple example "HSV, VFB ole ole" in the second verse -> those are two famous german football clubs Hamburger Sport Verein and Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart, so chanting "ole ole" just reminds of the fan chants in the stadium :) hope that helps....
Best comment so far! This song is a masterpiece! I love it! Even for Germans, at first glance, it might sound like nonsense, very dadaistic. But most lines end with a funny point or a message. And the song as a whole is about of what our culture consists, just like it said in the sample in the beginning (drama of a culture). And in the chorus it says "we kick the bucket for a life full of noise and smoke" (wich means hollow words). Sometimes in Germany you say "names are mere noise and smoke". So, this might refer to all the abbreviations of all the companies with their acronyms, wanting to create a certain image. But it's exactly that, nothing more than an image. Anyway, writing this song must have been a lot of fun! But also, concerning what I know about this band, a bunch of perfectionists, a lot of work.
This song is a clever, satirical commentary on abbreviation culture in Germany, using an extensive list of acronyms to create a rhythmic wordplay that captures the bureaucratic and commercial nature of modern society. The title "MfG" itself is a common email and letter sign-off meaning "With Friendly Greetings." The song's core message is about living life to the fullest despite being overwhelmed by institutional and commercial abbreviations that dominate everyday life. The recurring chorus translates roughly to: "The world lies at our feet, because we're standing on it / We're going for a life full of sound and smoke / Before we fall, we'd rather fall on our own terms." The lyrics string together dozens of real German acronyms from various domains: - Media and TV channels (ARD, ZDF) - Commercial brands (C&A) - Political entities (BRD, DDR, USA) - Health and social organizations (DRK, HIV) - Business types (GbR, GmbH) - Transportation and logistics (UPS, DPD) - Music and entertainment (EMI, CBS) - Automotive (ADAC, BMW) - And many more... These acronyms create a rapid-fire, almost overwhelming effect that mimics the complexity of modern life. The song's tone is both critical and playful, suggesting that while these institutional abbreviations surround us, we can still maintain our individuality and zest for life.
Dwayne! They are legend! They had a brilliant idea for this song. They play with words on a high level. There concept / idea was to do a song just contains very common german short forms (mostly with three letters). Like NHS for National Health Service in the UK - BBC, KFC or UPS. YOU should have heard about some of these german words like BMW, USA, LDS (drug) or DFB (German Soccer Foundation - Deutscher Fußball Bund). The idea of song song is already explained in the prologue ("a drama of a culture"). Greetings from beautiful Hamburg Stefan
As most Germans here mentioned. It is a list of German abbreviations. Quite intelligent sequence and very, very hard to get as a person who does not speak German. Interesting German Hip Hop artist are: - Fettes Brot (tracks, i.e., "Jein", "An Tagen wie dieser") - Sido (tracks, i.e., "Mein Block", "Hey du", "Bilder im Kopf") - Marteria (tracks, i.e., "Lila Wolken", "Endboss") - Samy Deluxe (tracks, i.e., "Weck mich bitte auf", "Fantasie part 1") - Casper (tracks, i.e., "So perfekt", "Im Ascheregen") Thank you for the wonderful content!
Each bar is comprised of three abbreviations and strung together they always make sense. They are like mini stories in themselves. You may want to pull a sheet giving explanations to each of the shorts. Cheers
Oh, after watching this I'd so love a reaction to either "Fettes Brot" with "Schwule Mädchen" or "Bettina" or Die Ärzte with "Schrei nach Liebe", "Ein Song namens Schunder" or "Junge" (uncut hd) (also check out Sarah Connor with "Kommst du mit ihr" 🤪)
The part "before we fall we rather fall" is translated false. It's more like "Before we fall (down) we rather stand out" In German to fall down is (hin)fallen and to stand out is auf*fallen*
In the moment when you said, you`re looking at the lyrics after the video i laughed so hardly about you, because I already predicted your facial expression for that moment! Thank you for not disappointing me
Haha, good luck reading the translation! It's not just that it consists of abbreviations, even if you had every single one deciphered and translated the references and puns are impossible to understand without the background knowledge of era and location.
True there is a lot to unpack there. On line seems to be about a famous football game. One line about a train crash and probably so much more secret 1990s references.
@@derPetunientopf Ich glaube nicht dass "HSV, VfB" auf ein bestimmtes Spiel bezogen ist, Stuttgart ist klar, da kommen sie her und HSV wurde entweder nur zufällig gewählt oder die Band hat eine persönliche Verbundenheit mit Hamburg, vielleicht weil viele der damaligen Rap-Kollegen von dort sind?
The song and the video are from 1999. was filmed in Spain. The song mainly lists German and international abbreviations for names, sentences or other things,😁👍
I will try a translation of the chorus... M f G - mit freundlichen Grüßen) Atb - All the best to you, die Welt liegt uns zu Füßen, denn wir steh N drauf (the world is at our feet because we stand on it - but wir stehn drauf, also means: we love it, it is colloquial German) : Auf etwas stehen - to like something) wir gehen drauf (colloquial German: we die) für ein Leben voller Schall und Rauch (for a shallow life) bevor wir fallen, fallen wir lieber auf - before we get a break-down, we rather get it on. So, you see, the whole lyrics are also full of puns that only really work with a very profound knowledge of German...
The Song is from 1999. Hahaha love you Dwayne! Fanta 4! MfG! (MfG is or was used in Mails and Letters at the End. In the 90s till today. So you write back to a Company or it writes to you: Mit Freundlich Grüßen. MFG. At the End of the Mail or Letter. "Regards" in english. "With Friendly Greetings." MfG from Germany.
The song is a list of abbreviations. ARD and ZDF are the 2 public TV stations. C&A is a clothing store. BSE is mad cow disease, HIV is the same as in english, etc. They are usually connected, like THX being the audio-standard, VHS being video tapes and FSK being the rating agency that gives out age-recommendations for movies.
the Fantastischen Vier made a song for all German abbreviations, because there are a lot of abbreviations in German everywhere, in politics, on television and so on Fun Fact: The Fantastic Four actually take their name from the original Marvel superheroes, The Fantastic Four! That's why the band's very first logo is simply the logo from the comics
The song was so successful because of the lyrics. They are abbreviations for everything from everyday German life, e.g. also companies. I think it only makes sense for German-speaking people. Greeting from germany :)
The part of the lyrics you wondered if it's in the song or not, is really there. It's the first "vocal" after the acustical intro. When you browsed through you even hit a part of it without knowing you that you found the correct part.
The song consists almost exclusively of abbreviations. ARD, for example, is the abbreviation for “Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland” (Working Group of the Public Broadcasting Organizations of the Federal Republic of Germany), the first and largest German TV station. ADAC is an automobile association that helps you if your car breaks down and so on. MFG is the abbreviation for “Mit freundlichen Grüßen” (Sincerely yours). This is a popular way to end letters and emails in German. “Die Fantastischen Fier” were the first band to have great success in Germany with a hip hop song. The song is called “die da...”
The entire song is a series of abbreviations. Most likely hard to translate! e. g. MFG (mit freundlichen Grüssen) - ' best regards or sincerely yours' in English 😅
Imagine, that video came out in a time long before smartphones were out and socialmedia-stuff like today, but they are already using that sliding-style of pictures in the video and abbreviations like some people write in chats. ^^
Please react to an older song from the 90s from these granddads of HipHop, as you said 😉 Something like "Die da", “Millionen Legionen" or my favorite “Sie ist weg“. (The whole album "4:99" from 1999 is a masterpiece) Greetings from Berlin 😎
React to "Fettes Brot - Bettina" please. Another 90s/2000s german rap group you may enjoy if you liked Fanta4. The music video for Bettina is very weird and the lyrics probably don't make sense without context, but are fun anyway :)
Fanta 4 are the ones who made German Hip Hop popular... They have a lot of great songs and their live concerts are legendary and always a lot of fun! Of course this song is hard to understand for people who are not German. You should try out some more! MfG from a German one who will see them live (again) tomorrow, singing "Sie ist weg" with all the people there together🥰 It's part of every show.
Fun fact: even the rappers themselves had to use notes during concerts to think of all these "words". They all needed some time to learn the lyrics when they first performed this.
The epic part of this song is, that the lyrics make actually a lot (!) of sense as the word in the lines are all link together! I give an example: Sadly in 1998 the highspeed train "InterCityExpress" (know as "ICE") crashed near the village "Eschede" ... 101 people were killed, 105 injured! :( *rip In Germany - as you know - we use for speed "km/h" instead of "mph" ... now combine the lyrics in this song: "KMH, ICE & Eschede [=not OK]". Sure hard to follow and impossible to translate, but with mentioned in mind: You get the connection in the line: "EMI, CBS & BMG" ?? Long version would be: "EMI Records, CBS Records, Bertelsmann Music Group - ojemine" < all are record labels and the last word is "ojemine", meaning "oh dear". You need to check out a live performance of this "fathers of german rap music". These guys are around since the late 80s and still around and active. Maybe give "Ernten Was Wir Säen (Live Heimspiel 25. Juli 2009)" a view/listen ... great performance infront of 60,000 people!
Hi dwayne my name is Peer and first of all I want to give you a big compliment. I saw one of your videos for the first time today and I love your reactions to the German music videos. I feel every second the way you feel it and that gives me a lot of joy. You are a really nice guy. I am from Hamburg and have one or two suggestions from the German music scene for you and I am sure you will like them. It would be great to see your first reactions to them in one of your videos.. Samy Deluxe - weck mich auf / ferris mc - zur erinnerung / eko fresh feat. Samy Deluxe, Afrob & Onyx - slam wieder / Max Herre - Rap ist (extended) feat. MoTrip, Afrob, Samy YOU WILL LOVE THESE SONGS AND I HAVE MANY MORE FORE YOU. Greetings from Hamburg
Fanta4 (Fantastic Four) is an old school band. One of not the first Hip Hop Band in Germany. "Die da" (That one) is a famous 90s song but they have a lot of great songs
Fun fact: the intro sample is taken from a Light show that was performed at the pyramids of Giza, years ago. You can still find a video of it here on UA-cam 😀
When you said „I gonna read the lyrics at the end“ I was like „Oh well. I wonder how that works out“ 😂
ich auch!!! :D ["me too!!"]
Same 😂
All of us. Haha.
@@roadrunner1896 all of the German speaking people probably 😂
I actually laughed when he said that
[Full breakdown below...]
So, until now you might have realized from the comments that the text is basically a big list of German abbreviations and acronyms, mostly put in trios which fit into a group or have something in common. And of course with the letters spoken in German, the last parts in each line form a rhyming scheme. Here's a breakdown:
ARD - Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Rundfunkanstalten Deutschlands [shortened, thanks @marsu37de] (lit. Association of the Broadcasting Stations of Germany - Germany's first tv channel)
ZDF - Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (lit. Second German Television - the second channel to exist here)
C&A (a Belgian clothing store chain widespread throughout Germany, named after the founding brothers Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer)
BRD - Bundesrepublik Deutschland (the abbreviation of Germany's official name)
DDR - Deutsche Demokratische Republik (the German abbreviation of the GDR)
USA (no need to explain that one)
BSE (no need to explain)
HIV (no need to explain)
DRK - Deutsches Rotes Kreuz (lit. German Red Cross)
GbR - Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts (Company of civil law, a company form below an Ltd., not to sure on British company forms)
GmbH - Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (Company with limited liability, basically the German equivalent of an Ltd.)
..these are followed by "ihr könnt mich ma", a phrase which would usually be followed by the German equivalent of "kiss my a**" but can stand alone for the same meaning.
THX (no need to explain)
VHS (no need to explain)
FSK - Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle [der Filmwirtschaft] (the Germany equivalent of the bbfc)
RAF - Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Fraction, a German far-left terror group, active from the 70s to the 90s)
LSD (no need to explain)
FKK - Frei-Körper-Kultur (lit. free body culture, the "nudist" movement)
DVU - Deutsche Volksunion (German People's Union, a former far-right extremist party)
AKW - Atomkraftwerk (the German abbreviation of nuclear power plant)
KKK (no need to explain)
RHP - Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt (another former German hip hop group)
usw. - und so weiter (German abbreviation of the phrase "and so on")
lmaA - Leck mich am Arsch (lit. "lick my a**", so basically the equivalent of "kiss [...]")
PLZ - Postleitzahl (the German abbreviation of postcode, direct equivalent to ZIP)
UPS (the parcel service, no need to explain)
DPD (you might know this one, another German parcel service, owned by DHL afaik)
BMX (the bike/sport, no need to explain)
BPM (beats per minute, no need to explain)
XTC (you get it...)
EMI (the label)
CBS (the network)
BMG (the label, most likely)
ADAC - Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (General German Car Club, an organization offering various services like roadside assistance, etc., materials and insurances)
DLRG - Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft (German Life Saving Association, basically the German lifeguards)
...followed by "oh jemine", lit. an expression like "oh boy"
EKZ - Einkaufszentrum (German abbreviation for a shopping center/mall)
RTL - Radio Télévision Luxembourg (one of the first private TV channels in Germany, now an entire group)
DFB - Deutscher Fußballbund (German Football Federation, obvious what that is...)
ABS (no need to explain)
TÜV - Technischer Überwachungsverein (Association for Technical Inspection, THE insitutation for checking mechanical and electrical devices to be safe for public use, most of all our cars which we need to get checked by the TÜV once every two years)
BMW (no need to explain, but funny that the guy in the picture is wearing the Mercedes star on a chain XD)
Km/h - Kilometer pro Stunde (Kilometers per hour, a physical unit of speed... you knew that one, right?)
ICE - Inter City Express (the German high speed trains)
Eschede (a German city and site of a catastrophic speed train derailing)
PVC (no need to explain)
FCKW - Fluorchlorkohlenwasserstoffe (the German abbreviation of CFC or HCFC)
...followed by "is nich okeh", lit. "is not okay".
--------------------------and that was only the first part-----------------------------
HNO - Hals-, Nasen-, Ohrenarzt (lit. throat, nose & ear doctor, so an ENT)
EKG - Elektrokardiogramm (pretty much the same word in English)
AOK - Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse (one of the biggest, public health insurances in Germany)
LBS - Landesbausparkasse (a German building society, a sub-divison of one of the bigger banks of Germany, the "Sparkasse")
WKD - Wirtschaftskontrolldienst [Thanks @ErklaerMirDieWelt] (lit. economic control service, a former branch of the Baden-Württemberg police, the band's home state)
IHK - Industrie- und Handelskammer (lit. Chamber of Commerce and Industry, involved in many things regarding businesses and employment in the branches of the economy)
UKW - Ultrakurzwelle (Very High Frequency, i.e. it's the German abbreviation of VHF frequency bandwidth)
NDW - Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave, a rock genre, Nena's "99 Luftballons" (99 red balloons) might ring a bell?)
Hubert Kah (a German artist of the aforementioned genre)
BTM - Betäubungsmittel (lit. narcotics, usually in the sense of illegal drugs (or illegal use of legal drugs))
BKA - Bundeskriminalamt (the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany)
...followed by laughter "haha ha ha"
LTU (most likely the former German Airline by the same name which was an acronym of the full name "Luft-Transport-Unternehmen")
TNT (no need to explain)
IRA (ask your Irish neighbors)
n-tv (a German news channel)
THW - Technisches Hilfswerk (lit. Agency for Technical Relief, the German civil protection organization with technical focus, so not in the medical (red cross) or criminal (police) way, but helping those institutions as well as the fire brigade, for example in cases of natural disasters)
DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agentur (lit. German Press Agency, a journalistic service providing materials (images, texts) to be used by the press)
H&M - Hennes & Mauritz (a Swedish clothing store chain named after its founders, also very wide-spread in Germany)
BSB - Backstreet Boys [Thanks @ErklaerMirDieWelt for confirming]
FDH - Friss die Hälfte (a very crude form of diet, promoting to "eat only half of everything")
S.O.S. (no need to explain)
110 (the German 999)
...followed by the sound of a police siren in German pronunciation "tatü tata".
SED - Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (lit. Socialist Unity Party of German, the ONE party of the GDR)
FDJ - Freie Deutsche Jugend (lit. Free German Youth, the youth movement of the GDR)
KaDeWe - Kaufhaus des Westens (lit. Department Store of the West, a big, nowadays upper-class, department store in West Berlin, founded 117 years ago and at the time of divided Germany a monument of Western capitalism "right around the corner" of communist East Germany)
FAZ - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (lit. Frankfurt General Newspaper, a well-established newspaper from Germany's financial central)
BWL - Betriebswirtschaftslehre (lit. business studies, nothing more to say...)
FDP - Freie Demokratische Partei (lit. Free Democratic Party, Germany's VERY "economy-friendly" liberals)
EDV - Elektronische Datenverarbeitung (lit. the German abbreviation for electronic data processing/EDP)
IBM (the tech company)
WWW (World Wide Web, duh.)
HSV - Hamburger Sport-Verein (lit. Hamburg Sports Club, well-known for their football team)
VfB - Verein für Bewegungsspiele (lit. Club for Movement Games, an abbreviation used by many sports clubs though in this context, most likely the VfB Stuttgart is meant)
...followed by the common fan chant "olé olé".
ABC, DAF, OMD might all three refer to bands, ABC and OMD being British and DAF the "Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft" (German-American-Friendship), a German electro punk band
TM3 (a former German tv channel, the name probably coming from its owner/found, the Tele München Gruppe (Tele Munich Group))
A&O [Thanks @ErklaerMirDieWelt] (a former retail chain cooperation of 20 food wholesellers, nowadays running under the name "markant")
AEG - Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (lit. General Electricity Company, a former German manufacturer of electrical appliances of all kinds)
TUI - Touristik Union International (you probably know this travel company)
UVA (no need to explain)
UVB (yes, ultraviolet radioation)
THC (again with the drugs...)
OCB - Odet-Cascadec-Bolloré (a brand of cigarette rolling papers, quite well-known in Germany)
The entire lines says "THC in OCB is was ich dreh'", lit. "THC in OCB papers is what I'm rollin'"
Please honor my 1,5h of work, putting this together... 😭
This needs to be pinned on top. Great work!
Wow, you really did that? I am impressed! Danke, dass Du den Text für "others than German native speakers" verständlich gemacht hast!
Ich wollte dasselbe tun. Danke für die 1,5 Std meiner Lebenszeit ^^
Very nicely done, just a little correction:
ARD means "Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland", or short "Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Rundfunkanstalten Deutschlands" - Association of the Broadcasting Corporations of Germany
Ich bin erschüttert, beeindruckt, fassungslos, finde es großartig, habe dazu gelernt, Du bist ja "der Knaller" danke für 's zusammentragen und "übersetzen" aller verwendeten Abkürzungen, Waaaahnsinn.
Alle diese Kürzel, kreieren für den Bruchteil einer Sekunde, ein Bild, eine Szene und so baut sich eine Geschichte in einem selbst. Die Idee dieses Liedes ist genial und die Ausführung ist es auch, außerdem ist das eine Merk-Leistung ohne gleichen. 💋💋💋
Other commentors mentioned that it's all German abbreviations. The genius thing is that every line tells a little story. EKZ, RTL and DFB is mall, reality TV and football, so with just three words they paint a picture of low income youth. KMH, ICE and Eschede is speed, a train and the location of a train crash. HNO, EKG, AOK is doctor, examination and health insurance. You get the idea.
^This
this is a very good explanation of what it is all about!
So well explained, i couldn't have said it better😂
And in the first part of the video, the text is shown with ambiguous images. For FKK (abbreviation for nudism culture) there are shorn sheep. For AKW (abbreviation for nuclear power plant) there is a mushroom in the picture.
What the heck… now I got it too… haha I never knew that they tell a story. Now I have to tell all my friends. When the song ist playing…. Whoop woop smart ass knowledge activated haha
Dwayne: "Don't worry! I will be reading the lyrics and I will understand the lyrics!"
Me: " Mhhm... 🤔 we'll see ..." 🤣🤣😜
Me: Yeah..., good luck with that! Haha!
my first thought ... Good Luck ;-) (about the lyrics) it's a song about German mostly well known akronyms, in my opinion the whole song ist just Fun and don't make really sense, it's more for the germans if they could mention every akronym ;-) but the beat is nice
This song is mostly hard to translate since it's built from and around common German abbreviations, most of which don't translate very well or at all. Most need some explaining for none natives.
Your face when u see the lyrics 😂
I ve waited for that face ^^
I thought he might not get that those are abbreviations. So i was really looking forward to his confusion when checking the lyrics.
I think this Lyriks you only will understand as a German 😂
gobsmacked and flabbergasted ... or the other way around
Stay until the end when i Check the lyrics.
Fore shure aaaand good luck😂😂😂😂
For a non-native German speaker it is very confusing and incomprehensible. The text consists of the most well-known, most spoken or written abbreviations in the German language :-)
exactly...
Don’t worry .. these are really shitty lyrics . I am a native . And hiphop lover but this ….
@@mariahaha7814 if with "shitty lyrics" you mean, one of the most creative songs in (german) hip hop history, then yes, this is THE shit
@@mariahaha7814 like the original author I'm also native German.
Unfortunately, I *absolutely* disagree with your assessment!
If you're a bit older and know the feeling at the end of the 90s, as Fanta 4 describes it (indirectly using abbreviations and short texts), you'll recognize it:
It's about the huge upheavals and sometimes excessive demands or sensory overload of that time (which is (unfortunately) seen as "normal" today.) (triggered by the then *relatively* new internet and pushy marketing in the 2000s bubble!).
It's the de-sense of neoliberal modernity that's being alluded to.
To understand that today, you have to be able to think abstractly (and be willing to do so) and know the situation in Germany at that time and put it into context. (In the USA (and presumably the UK), for example, the type of economic liberalism that is being sung about has existed for much longer..)
To call this "really shitty lyrics" suggests that you simply don't understand the meaning behind it.
@@to.l.2469 wo Du recht hast!
The title "MfG" stands for "Mit freundlichen Grüßen", which means "Yours sincerely" in English. It's commonly used to close formal letters. The song is essentially a playful yet critical commentary on modern communication and how it’s often reduced to shorthand and abbreviations, losing depth in the process.
The lyrics consist almost entirely of well-known abbreviations in German, pulled from all areas of life: politics, pop culture, organizations, and even slang. The band strings them together rhythmically to create a catchy and meaningful rap.
MfG should never be used on formal letters - way to informal. It is more an abbreviation used for aquaintences or collegues/co-workers.
@@m.h.6470maybe in the 80's. nowadays you can use this nearly everywhere
@@m.h.6470 Of course you have to write it out 'Mit freundlichen Grüßen' but then its almost as formal as it gets in Germany. But yes as an abbreviation it is not formal.
It's literally the formal informal version. 😅
I prompted ChatGPT to write a comment explaing the song and got exactly the same result. 😂
"Before we fall we'd rather fall" is poorly translated
It's a wordplay in German, the original wording is:
"Bevor wir fallen, fallen wir lieber auf"
"Bevor wir fallen" is correctly translated to "Before we fall"
"fallen wir lieber" auf means something like "we'd rather stand out"
But since in the translation "stand out" and "fall" aren't similar like in the original "fallen" and "auffallen" the wordplay is sadly lost in translation.
A better translation would be something like "Before we stand down, we'd rather stand out".
super zusammengefasst! Viele oldschool hip hop lover hier. I like!
The legends of German hip-hop!
lol
The "before we fall ..." part is a pun. You could translate it as "Before we stand down we rather stand out."
I was wondering, how one could translate that sentence while keeping the play on words. This is perfect!
@@einwildesrehchen3862 Good job indeed!
That's a good translation. And the line before that is "and we go out for a life of smoke and mirrors", although that doesn't preserve the double meaning "walk on it (the earth)"/"die" as well.
Edit: Maybe "we kick it for a life full of smoke and mirrors" would work.
"Die Welt liegt uns zu Füßen, denn wir stehen drauf" ist also a pun with double meaning that is lost in translation, as it can literally mean "the world's at our feet because we stand on it" but , "wir stehen drauf" at the same time is also a slang term for "we're into it"
Hahaha thank you Dwayne. I just waited for the moment you realize that this song is not translatable for non German speakers because it contains just abbreviation of Companies, Parties and Phrases which just a German know. 😆 Had a good laugh. M.F.G. (Mit Freundlichen Grüßen)
Not just some are internstional or the german version of an ibternstional one so you could replace it or even leave it in
But yes most are just difficult to translate without explanations to the side
Yes, I always think of this song when someone asks about German Music because it is the most German a Song could be.
You should react ti "Die da" by the Fantastischen 4. It was their first hit in the early 1990s.
This one has translatable lyrics, I promise you!
Yes,Kult
Also "Buenos Dias, Messias".
Fits right in with this one.
This band is a german heritage. Possibely the most important band of Germany. They are around for 30 years now and have supported many german bands and artists.
most important band? get real, there are quite a few more influencial bands that have been around much longer
There are plenty of german bands which are more famous than Die fantastischen Vier. Important band for german Hip Hop but by far not one of the most important bands in relation to the world like other german bands.
Scorpions, Helloween, and Rammstein have left the chat
The whole song is about abbreviations that became more and more normal to use with internet age. Also the the title MFG (Mit freundlichen Grüßen) is obviously and abbreviation that you can put at the end of a message.
the song is from a time before most of Germany had entered the internet age.
But we were writing SMS and had to save letters 😂
The series of pictures in the beginning are all ironical illustrations of the respective acronym. So, for a German it is quite funny to watch the video several times to get them all.
E.g. the acronym LSD followed by FKK, they are illustrated by two pictures of sheep: LSD by a picture of sheep with tons of wool (so to speak the hippie sheep) and FKK which is the acronym of the nudist movement is illustrated by a picture of sheep after shearing.
It is very oldschool hip hop. One of the first mainstream band who brought beats and rhymes into the radios in Germany. Even my Mom had a cassette in her car back then. They had successfull careers for decades! I love that despite not knowing the lyrics you can still understand the oldschool vibe and values (this came out in the early 90ies). In my experience in the late 90ies and 2000 years that Philosophy of oldschool hip hop was preserved as a culture in Germany for a long time and shaped generations to come. Battling each other not with words but with creativity: graffiti, rap, dancing, djing, singing and beatboxing. At the same time, many great live musicians were amonst them like Jan Delay, Seeed and so many more. I'm very proud of these different german hip hop scenes in Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart und Heidelberg.
I came to Germany in 1998 and this song was in the charts. And I looked up the lyrics because I wanted to rap with my classmates at lunch or at the court and even after reading the lyrics I was "shiiit the fuck they talking" ???? Thanks for bringing back memories
I feel like you should definitely check out "Junge" by "Die Ärzte". There, the lyrics are gold, too.
i love that the song doesn't rhyme and nobody notices
@@caligo7918 There is no rule that a song ever HAS to rhyme, same with poems.
It's very common, but it absolutely doesn't have to.
yes or even "Arschloch"
@@pixelschiebr ooooh yes, that too!
@@pixelschiebr there is no song of that name by Die Ärzte
They where the first ones who did a song with that much abreviations. Genius.
If you believe it or not: I love this song so much...a song of my childhood...but this is my first time EVER seeing the whole music video. I only saw a few parts before. :D
Same here. Just recognized I have never seen it before 😅
Thanks for the great video. What a great contribution to mutual cultural understanding your channel is.
Dwayne: " I will be reading the lyrics at the end so I understand what they are saying."
Me: "Oh dear..."
Like I said before: I don't know who is choosing these songs for you. Are you yourself choosing them or are you following some one`s/other recommendations? Because sometimes I think they are really poorly chosen for foreigners who don't understand German.
This is a song with a lot of abbreviations of German words which are used very commonly. Fanta Vier are criticising the alienation of the human kind with the real meaning of them/the real world.
The part where the English translation says "Before we fall, we'd rather fall" is complete nonsense. In German it's "Bevor wir fallen, fallen wir lieber auf" which literally is "before we fall we'd rather fall up" but in English it translates into "before we fall we'd rather stand out".
As a german i laughed my ass off when you came to the lyrics and asked "Was that in the song?" when you saw all the abbreviations because if you understand german that's like as obvious as it can be. Very funny situation.
Maybe you need to
I really like your song reactions because it's clear that you love and understand music. It's always cool to see you discover new artists. I'm not a musical person and it's fun seeing what you notice and think when listening to a song.
Love your reaction, please more from this band!
Brit gets bamboozled by German abbreviations.
First of all: I like your channel! Thanka for entertaining.
"WKR, With kind regards.
The world lies at our feet because we stand on it. We go all in for a life full of sound and fury. Before we fall, we'd rather stand out."
The hookline is full of puns that work in German but cannot be translated into English.
The rest of the text consists of abbreviations that were very common and well-known in Germany at the time but are likely unfamiliar in other countries.
Most of the lyrics consists of abreviations that every German knows. What it all means is free for interpretation I guess. Its poetry, so not to explain really.
Yeah, the videos you have shown so far are mainly from the 80s and early 90s - the golden age of music videos, not only in Germany. The time of MTV and all, when a video tried to be a piece of art, not just showing a band playing on a stage.
FANTA4 was basically THE first big Hip Hop band in Germany, and MfG one of their earliest big hits. I remember it being played in every radio station, in every pub and every party back in the days. A classic.
We could argue about "earliest big hits", because this was 1999.
Founded in 1986 (and 1989), the first song I've heard
from Fanta 4 was probably "Die da!?!" (1992),
followed by next big hit "Sie ist weg" (1995),
then "MfG" (1999) and "Troy" (2004) a lot later.
@@rainerzufall42 agreed, Die da was big back when I was in school!
Aaawww, they were so young!
Jetzt hört er ausgerechnet vor der Zeile _"THC in OCB is what I'm doing (yeah!)"_ mit dem Textlesen auf... 😭
Dabei hätte der "alte" _Boom Bap_ Hip-Hop-Freund gerade diese beiden Akronyme sicherlich ganz gut gekannt!
😅😏😮💨
Hahaha 😂your face! It was a very big hit back in the days and many people can sing it along.
Except for the band itself. When playing it on concerts, they have to read the lyrics from paper. :)
That's probably what the song is about. About the drama in culture where everything is cut short.
You feel the vibe thats more important
For the understanding of the lyrics. it´s like Billy Joel`s "We didn´t start the fire".
Thank you so much for reacting to this song! 👍
that was a very famous and quite unique song, nobody ever did that much of wordplay around abbreviations, I feel - and so did everyone back then
one of the best times for german hiphop (besides trashy gangster style) has to be the late 90ies and eraly odds, I think
you should also check out Samy Deluxe, Absolute Beginner, Blumentopf, 5 Sterne Deluxe, ...
"lyrical miracles" all aorund back then
Each photo in the video is accompanied by an abbreviation or phrase describing the content in an hilarious way.
there is a rumour that this song was created on the tourbus when the fantas and Linz Bockelberg threw well-known abbreviations at each other for fun.
Abbreviations that everyone knew back then
they then put these abbreviations into a song.
The song is full of abbreviations of things that were very relevant to its time and it is also full of allusions to things that happened during the time the song was popular in Germany. It is quite hard to understand for a person who did not live during that time in Germany and who has hardly no knowledge of the German culture, so this song is a bit of an inside job.
this song is from a longplayer from 1999. Yesterday I was at Fanta4´s second live concert of their Longplayer tour. It was amazing! Fanta4 is still in successful business after so much years. theit first chart success was 1992 with "die da" and they are still touring and making great music.
It is nice to see that a German hip hop song can still be fun to listen to even after 25 years!
The Fantastischen Vier invented Rap in Germany and are one of the best bands in Germany. But for some lyrics you must be nativ-german-speaking to understand it correctly
Great fun to see your confusion by reading the lyrics 😂👍
😊With kind regards, from northern Hesse (near Kassel) Germany✌
I'm a German teacher and have used this song in lessons to discuss culture etc. The classes kove it!
Look at the Lyrics ... U Kiddin :D :D That´s it is. One of the most famous Rap Songs in Germany here. Most of Text r Shorts. ;) Love ur Reaction.
Just after they had released their first album, two buddies and myself were walking through Frankfurt on a saturday morning on our way to an arcade when we passed behind the Virgin Records building. We walked passed a guy loading something into the trunk of a Mercedes, caught him out of the corner of the eye. We did a double take, and it happened to be SMUDO, one of the band members. He's the guy in the black shirt in the bus sequence with the Pom Poms.
We had a little chat, they had just finished recording something, and were now heading back to their hometown Stuttgart. We shook hands and wished him a good trip. Didn't meet the other members, and didn't bother him for an autograph or anything. More than 30 years later, still the most famous person i ever met.
3:57 Famous last Words lol.
I´m, laughing with you here, not about you.
I´m looking forward to the End of the Video xD
"I'll be reading and understanding the lyrics"
Narrator: He would do only one of those two.
That song was on the first CD-record I owned. You know, back in the day when we bought music on these funny little discs.
I like very much the part, where you talked about the "tribe" thingy of hip hop. I think this is one of the best parts, because it create a connection between people and interesting stories to tell. I like this connection very much.
"The world is at our feet" is a germany saying meaning "the world lays to our feet" like we are the greatest. everyone is celebrating us, everything is possible. They combined it cleverly with another one " because we are standing on it (the world / earth)" if you translate it directly but it actually means "we digg it" and at the same time it has a double meaning in the direct translation "we are standing in it" on the earth with our feet, grounded.
The abbreviations used here are organized in context groups and commented upon with short reactions.
for example in the first block "KmH, ICE und Eschede" refers to the catastrophic crash of a fast (Km/H) I nter C ity E xpress (ICE) train and the city that this happened in was Eschede
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschede_train_disaster
so these little abbrevations have context and the track is like a brainstorming and the things that come to your mind.
If you dont know the abbrevations and don´t have the context of events or relations between them its very hard to make sense of it, but for a german it´s pretty easy...
another simple example
"HSV, VFB ole ole"
in the second verse -> those are two famous german football clubs
Hamburger Sport Verein and Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart, so chanting "ole ole" just reminds of the fan chants in the stadium :)
hope that helps....
Best comment so far! This song is a masterpiece! I love it!
Even for Germans, at first glance, it might sound like nonsense, very dadaistic. But most lines end with a funny point or a message. And the song as a whole is about of what our culture consists, just like it said in the sample in the beginning (drama of a culture).
And in the chorus it says "we kick the bucket for a life full of noise and smoke" (wich means hollow words). Sometimes in Germany you say "names are mere noise and smoke". So, this might refer to all the abbreviations of all the companies with their acronyms, wanting to create a certain image. But it's exactly that, nothing more than an image.
Anyway, writing this song must have been a lot of fun! But also, concerning what I know about this band, a bunch of perfectionists, a lot of work.
This song is a clever, satirical commentary on abbreviation culture in Germany, using an extensive list of acronyms to create a rhythmic wordplay that captures the bureaucratic and commercial nature of modern society. The title "MfG" itself is a common email and letter sign-off meaning "With Friendly Greetings."
The song's core message is about living life to the fullest despite being overwhelmed by institutional and commercial abbreviations that dominate everyday life. The recurring chorus translates roughly to: "The world lies at our feet, because we're standing on it / We're going for a life full of sound and smoke / Before we fall, we'd rather fall on our own terms."
The lyrics string together dozens of real German acronyms from various domains:
- Media and TV channels (ARD, ZDF)
- Commercial brands (C&A)
- Political entities (BRD, DDR, USA)
- Health and social organizations (DRK, HIV)
- Business types (GbR, GmbH)
- Transportation and logistics (UPS, DPD)
- Music and entertainment (EMI, CBS)
- Automotive (ADAC, BMW)
- And many more...
These acronyms create a rapid-fire, almost overwhelming effect that mimics the complexity of modern life. The song's tone is both critical and playful, suggesting that while these institutional abbreviations surround us, we can still maintain our individuality and zest for life.
Hi,at all,good work,well done,have nothing more to say.thx. greetings from Germany
Dwayne!
They are legend! They had a brilliant idea for this song. They play with words on a high level.
There concept / idea was to do a song just contains very common german short forms (mostly with three letters). Like NHS for National Health Service in the UK - BBC, KFC or UPS.
YOU should have heard about some of these german words like BMW, USA, LDS (drug) or DFB (German Soccer Foundation - Deutscher Fußball Bund).
The idea of song song is already explained in the prologue ("a drama of a culture").
Greetings from beautiful Hamburg
Stefan
As most Germans here mentioned. It is a list of German abbreviations. Quite intelligent sequence and very, very hard to get as a person who does not speak German.
Interesting German Hip Hop artist are:
- Fettes Brot (tracks, i.e., "Jein", "An Tagen wie dieser")
- Sido (tracks, i.e., "Mein Block", "Hey du", "Bilder im Kopf")
- Marteria (tracks, i.e., "Lila Wolken", "Endboss")
- Samy Deluxe (tracks, i.e., "Weck mich bitte auf", "Fantasie part 1")
- Casper (tracks, i.e., "So perfekt", "Im Ascheregen")
Thank you for the wonderful content!
Fettes Brot-Jein, is the best choice
Each bar is comprised of three abbreviations and strung together they always make sense. They are like mini stories in themselves.
You may want to pull a sheet giving explanations to each of the shorts.
Cheers
Oh, after watching this I'd so love a reaction to either
"Fettes Brot" with "Schwule Mädchen" or "Bettina"
or
Die Ärzte with "Schrei nach Liebe", "Ein Song namens Schunder" or "Junge" (uncut hd)
(also check out Sarah Connor with "Kommst du mit ihr" 🤪)
The part "before we fall we rather fall" is translated false.
It's more like "Before we fall (down) we rather stand out"
In German to fall down is (hin)fallen and to stand out is auf*fallen*
Haha, your German is getting better and better :)
OMG i love your face when you see the lyrics the first time 🤣
In the moment when you said, you`re looking at the lyrics after the video i laughed so hardly about you, because I already predicted your facial expression for that moment! Thank you for not disappointing me
Haha, good luck reading the translation!
It's not just that it consists of abbreviations, even if you had every single one deciphered and translated the references and puns are impossible to understand without the background knowledge of era and location.
True there is a lot to unpack there. On line seems to be about a famous football game. One line about a train crash and probably so much more secret 1990s references.
@@derPetunientopf
Ich glaube nicht dass "HSV, VfB" auf ein bestimmtes Spiel bezogen ist, Stuttgart ist klar, da kommen sie her und HSV wurde entweder nur zufällig gewählt oder die Band hat eine persönliche Verbundenheit mit Hamburg, vielleicht weil viele der damaligen Rap-Kollegen von dort sind?
@@DerEchteBold Okay das macht möglicherweise mehr Sinn.
You should bring a part 2, now you know the lyrics!
😂👍
Even as a German it’s hard to sing the song without doing mistakes ,but it is fun to try it again and again!
😂🤣
The song and the video are from 1999. was filmed in Spain. The song mainly lists German and international abbreviations for names, sentences or other things,😁👍
wkr - with kind regards! OMG - atm- lmao ... you name it.
I will try a translation of the chorus... M f G - mit freundlichen Grüßen) Atb - All the best to you, die Welt liegt uns zu Füßen, denn wir steh N drauf (the world is at our feet because we stand on it - but wir stehn drauf, also means: we love it, it is colloquial German) : Auf etwas stehen - to like something) wir gehen drauf (colloquial German: we die) für ein Leben voller Schall und Rauch (for a shallow life) bevor wir fallen, fallen wir lieber auf - before we get a break-down, we rather get it on. So, you see, the whole lyrics are also full of puns that only really work with a very profound knowledge of German...
The Song is from 1999. Hahaha love you Dwayne! Fanta 4! MfG! (MfG is or was used in Mails and Letters at the End. In the 90s till today. So you write back to a Company or it writes to you: Mit Freundlich Grüßen. MFG. At the End of the Mail or Letter. "Regards" in english. "With Friendly Greetings." MfG from Germany.
The song is a list of abbreviations. ARD and ZDF are the 2 public TV stations. C&A is a clothing store. BSE is mad cow disease, HIV is the same as in english, etc.
They are usually connected, like THX being the audio-standard, VHS being video tapes and FSK being the rating agency that gives out age-recommendations for movies.
You will love from Deichkind "Bon Voyage"! Please react to that song!
the Fantastischen Vier made a song for all German abbreviations, because there are a lot of abbreviations in German everywhere, in politics, on television and so on
Fun Fact: The Fantastic Four actually take their name from the original Marvel superheroes, The Fantastic Four!
That's why the band's very first logo is simply the logo from the comics
The song was so successful because of the lyrics. They are abbreviations for everything from everyday German life, e.g. also companies. I think it only makes sense for German-speaking people. Greeting from germany :)
its from '99... so from todays view its probably old-school, but it wasn't when it came out.
Hi, im a fan of your vids.
Thanks for it.
This Song is about german shortcuts for example thx thank you, or LOL etc.
Kind regards from germany.
Cool Dude! Greetzs from Germany ;)
"Befor we fall, we rather fall." the second fall is like Auf-fallen - to fall up, wich mean to stand out.
The part of the lyrics you wondered if it's in the song or not, is really there. It's the first "vocal" after the acustical intro. When you browsed through you even hit a part of it without knowing you that you found the correct part.
To this day I can’t imagine how they managed to memorize the lines to perform that song on stage :D
At first they didn´t, they had to use test sheets for the first performances in the 90s
The song consists almost exclusively of abbreviations. ARD, for example, is the abbreviation for “Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland” (Working Group of the Public Broadcasting Organizations of the Federal Republic of Germany), the first and largest German TV station. ADAC is an automobile association that helps you if your car breaks down and so on. MFG is the abbreviation for “Mit freundlichen Grüßen” (Sincerely yours). This is a popular way to end letters and emails in German. “Die Fantastischen Fier” were the first band to have great success in Germany with a hip hop song. The song is called “die da...”
The entire song is a series of abbreviations. Most likely hard to translate! e. g. MFG (mit freundlichen Grüssen) - ' best regards or sincerely yours' in English 😅
Imagine, that video came out in a time long before smartphones were out and socialmedia-stuff like today, but they are already using that sliding-style of pictures in the video and abbreviations like some people write in chats. ^^
if you liked this you will love 'Le Smou'
I love the song! ❤
Hey Dwayne….he is right. You will be surprised…one of the guys (Smudo) Shows his talent in rapping. And dont forget…it is Germany😇😁😉
Please react to an older song from the 90s from these granddads of HipHop, as you said 😉
Something like "Die da", “Millionen Legionen" or my favorite “Sie ist weg“.
(The whole album "4:99" from 1999 is a masterpiece)
Greetings from Berlin 😎
React to "Fettes Brot - Bettina" please. Another 90s/2000s german rap group you may enjoy if you liked Fanta4. The music video for Bettina is very weird and the lyrics probably don't make sense without context, but are fun anyway :)
Fanta 4 are the ones who made German Hip Hop popular... They have a lot of great songs and their live concerts are legendary and always a lot of fun!
Of course this song is hard to understand for people who are not German. You should try out some more!
MfG from a German one who will see them live (again) tomorrow, singing "Sie ist weg" with all the people there together🥰 It's part of every show.
1999 - already a quarter of a century!
All acronymes my g😉.
Plus a hook made on wordplay wednesday. Masterpiece 😎
You should respond to "Sie ist weg" by the Fantastic Four. Awesome song with equally awesome lyrics.
Fun fact: even the rappers themselves had to use notes during concerts to think of all these "words".
They all needed some time to learn the lyrics when they first performed this.
The epic part of this song is, that the lyrics make actually a lot (!) of sense as the word in the lines are all link together!
I give an example: Sadly in 1998 the highspeed train "InterCityExpress" (know as "ICE") crashed near the village "Eschede" ... 101 people were killed, 105 injured! :( *rip
In Germany - as you know - we use for speed "km/h" instead of "mph" ... now combine the lyrics in this song: "KMH, ICE & Eschede [=not OK]".
Sure hard to follow and impossible to translate, but with mentioned in mind: You get the connection in the line: "EMI, CBS & BMG" ??
Long version would be: "EMI Records, CBS Records, Bertelsmann Music Group - ojemine" < all are record labels and the last word is "ojemine", meaning "oh dear".
You need to check out a live performance of this "fathers of german rap music". These guys are around since the late 80s and still around and active. Maybe give "Ernten Was Wir Säen (Live Heimspiel 25. Juli 2009)" a view/listen ... great performance infront of 60,000 people!
Hi dwayne my name is Peer and first of all I want to give you a big compliment. I saw one of your videos for the first time today and I love your reactions to the German music videos. I feel every second the way you feel it and that gives me a lot of joy. You are a really nice guy. I am from Hamburg and have one or two suggestions from the German music scene for you and I am sure you will like them. It would be great to see your first reactions to them in one of your videos.. Samy Deluxe - weck mich auf / ferris mc - zur erinnerung / eko fresh feat. Samy Deluxe, Afrob & Onyx - slam wieder / Max Herre - Rap ist (extended) feat. MoTrip, Afrob, Samy YOU WILL LOVE THESE SONGS AND I HAVE MANY MORE FORE YOU. Greetings from Hamburg
Fanta4 (Fantastic Four) is an old school band. One of not the first Hip Hop Band in Germany. "Die da" (That one) is a famous 90s song but they have a lot of great songs
Oh die Fanta 4 ❤ Immer geliebt 🎉❤
Your face😂😂😂gold! Who recommended this to you? Shaking my head🙂↔️🙂↔️
Fun fact: the intro sample is taken from a Light show that was performed at the pyramids of Giza, years ago. You can still find a video of it here on UA-cam 😀
FYI the sample used in MFG by Fanta4 is from Public Enemy - Terminator X to the Edge of Panic
So cute ❤
Hello from austria
I wonder how you came to germanrap i know this song for years and still had problem to notice every abbrevation at the first time 😅
your reaction to the lyrics was wonderfull ^^ i would love seeing you react to Materias song Endboss.