Stieber Twins – Fenster Zum Hof

25 years since the release: still fresh & direction-pointing!!
Maximum Respect 2 Martin & Chris, yo!!!

One of the best German rap LPs ever!! Still amazes me after nearly 25 years and it does not sound old or corny (compare this to Bambule, and you get what I mean ;), like many other German rap stuff, which was popular or "classics" back in the mid, late 90s and early 2000. Super solid production and strong lyrics, eben "Gute Beats und gute Texte, es gibt nichts, was ich mehr schätze" :)

I can't stand the carelessly used and worn out terms "holy grail" and "underrated" anymore... Anyway, to me this has to be a keyalbum of german speaking Hip Hop records.

If you did not have the chance to experience the 90's, because of the grace of a late birth for example, I'll try to draw a brief and simplified picture of the Zeitgeist back then: One the one hand you had the pop rappers like Der Wolf, Schwester S., Bürger Lars Dietrich, Die Fantastischen Vier, ... bugging you by getting much airplay on the new music TV channel "Viva". Reim dich oder ich fress dich! On the other hand you had the serious, dogmatic underground Hip Hop artists preaching to respect the oldschool and the holy trinity as learned in the "Stylewars" bible back in '83. Don't dare to betray on vinyl or you would get excommunicated and go to Hip Hop hell immediately! Actually I had been a disciple of the latter ones. ;-)

The Stieber Twins have been Hip Hop addicts themselves representing the vivid oldschool community of the US occupied city Heidelberg. While Mar(tin) Stieber has programmed his dope NYC influenced, raw beats, Luxus Chris has been spitting his unique lyrics in an honest and authentic sounding dialect. Except for the hottest B-Boy mix ever called "Breakers revenge" on the "Alte Schule" compilation, the first time I heard them has to be the track "Allein Zu Zweit (Erfolglos Glücklich)" from the MZEE compilation "Die Klasse von '95". Expressions like "Griff ins Klo", a funny metaphore for "Scheisse" or "Ich piss durch euer Telefon, ob mit oder ohne Schnur!", everything provided in their above discribed style, immediately put me on the hook. Unfortunately I had to wait another year until late '96 when the latest MZEE catalog finally anounced a Stieber 2xLP promo a friend of mine has ordered immediately. I'm not sure if it has arrived in '96 already or in early '97 but of course we have played it on heavy rotation.

I'd like to recommended the following cuts:

- "Doppelt Nicht Stereo" a critic of greedy artist with the funny chorus cut "Du führst dich auf wie deine Kinder beim Schulsport!"

- "Tausend MC's" featuring Curse from Minden, Aphroe of the Ruhrpott AG, Fast Forward and Scope of STF and Tatwaffe of Die Firma. A year later these guys have released a 12" as "La Familia" featuring "Wall Street" and the DJ Premier inspired "Harte Zeiten" remix by Lord Scan, all being a reference to the then popular mob movies and dominating NY Thug Rap releases of Biggie, Jay-Z, Nas, Mobb Deep and others. If

- "Fünfzig-Fünfzig" with a cool vinyl only feature of Das Bo. (Remember: The CD has just expelled vinyl records from the record stores and a pre-serato-"save the vinyl"-community tried to keep the vinyl alive. Like Das Bo says "Ich bin ein Junkie, weil ich die Nadel brauch".

- "Einmal Macco, Zweimal Stieber" represents the Cora E. connection, a cute and talented female MC also signed to MZEE records back then which has appeared on the "Schlüsselkind" and the Keep (Sh)it Raw split 12"es before, the latter one featuring Taino Tactix a.k.a. Mr. Wiggles of the Rocksteady Crew.

- "PBB Get's Physical" a cool uptempo B-Boy mix I have already told you about in another contribution below

Minor complaints are 1. the short playtime and 2. it features some already known stuff like lines from the track "Hip Hop Und Rap", a b-side to the Klasse von '95 12", the original "Fenster Zum Hof" already known from the Taino Tactix 12" and some more.

My humble proposal for a 2CD reissue: Add the complete b-sides, compilation and feature tracks + the instrumentals, of course.

These "PBB Get's Physical" mix seems to feature the following tracks:
- Big Daddy Kane Ft. Biz Markie - Just Rhymin' With Biz
- Boogie Down Productions - Duck Down
- Big L - Devil's Son
- Uptown - Dope On Plastic
- Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - Bad To The Bone

A milestone in german rap history!
On their only album the legendary twin brothers from Heidelberg drop dope beats and clever battle lyrics with distinctive flow, voice and accent.Especially the title track has cult status in the german speaking indie-rap scene for it's critical lyrics about the effect of greed and consume culture on Hip-Hop.
The album is a bit short with 7 original tracks(with lyrics), a Remix, a breakdance song and some skits.
Lyricially it can be classified as a pure rap album as the lyrics are either about demonstrating skills or critisising whack mc's.