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Absolute Beginner - Hammerhart

Music Video | 1999
ArtistAbsolute Beginner
SongHammerhart
AlbumBambule
DirectorSvenja Rossa
MusicEißfeldt
GenreRap and Hip Hop
IntroNo
OutroNo
Companies involved in ProductionElectric Sun (Light and Film Services)
Full StoryThe band is shown in ever changing surroundings but during every cut, the band does not change their posture or picture location. It seems as if the backgrounds are filled in as a kind of special effect although they are real.
LyricsEißfeldt
Lyricsdenyo
NotesInteresting is Aleksandra Bechtel's cameo appearence as the girl who is holding the JVC ghettoblaster. The VJ of germany's VIVA-Television is wearing ordinary clothes and sunglasses as camouflage.
Set LocationHelgoländer Allee, Hamburg, Germany
Teneriffa, Spain
Sound MixStereo
TalentGirl with ghettoblaster - Aleksandra Bechtel
Technical Specificationscolour - format unknown

Wiki

Synopsis

The Beginner crew perform "Hammerhart" in a deliberately disorienting series of location changes. Jan Delay, Denyo, and DJ Mad repeatedly appear in matching poses while the scenery shifts between Tenerife's beaches, snowy mountains, and stark industrial surroundings. The rigidly repeated positioning contrasts with the changing backgrounds, giving the clip a playful, technically driven visual concept. Occasional appearances in urban and workmanlike settings reinforce the track's hard-edged energy while keeping the focus on the group's performance.

Factoids & Trivia

  • The video was filmed on Tenerife, chosen because the island offered both snow-covered mountains and sunny beaches within the same production.
  • The central visual idea was to place the performers in the same positions at different locations, creating abrupt, almost surreal transitions between contrasting landscapes.
  • In a 2015 interview, Denyo described the clip as a creative high point for DJ Mad, who was particularly interested in the technical side of making music videos at the time.
  • The production reportedly benefited from the unusually large video budgets available during the commercial rise of German hip-hop in the late 1990s. Denyo recalled that budgets for videos connected with "Bambule" could reach 120,000 Deutsche Mark.
  • "Hammerhart" was released as a single from "Bambule" in 1999. It reached No. 38 on the German singles chart and remained there for seven weeks.
  • The track's dense internal rhymes and tightly controlled flow have since made it a frequently discussed example in academic writing about German hip-hop technique.
  • The clip was part of the group's rise into regular rotation on MTV Germany, Viva, and Viva II.
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