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Artist
Jan Delay
12+ albums
germanfunkreggaeHip-Hophip hop
about
Jan Delay (born 20 February 1976 in Hamburg, Germany, as Jan Philipp Eißfeldt) is a German musician known for his work in hip-hop, reggae, soul, and funk, as well as occasional voice acting. He is a member of the group Beginner and also performs as a solo artist. Jan Delay is the son of artist and professor Dörte Eißfeldt and filmmaker and musician Theo Janßen. He grew up in the Hamburg-Eppendorf residential project on Haynstraße. From 1986 to 1995, he attended Helene-Lange-Gymnasium in Hamburg, where he completed his Abitur and met his future bandmates from Beginner. He also played basketball at BC Johanneum with Stefan Fabinger, the cousin of rapper Torch and later manager of Absolute Beginner. His early musical influences included Prince, the Blues Brothers, Nina Hagen, Spliff, Madonna, Rio Reiser, and Udo Lindenberg. He was also influenced by Public Enemy’s album "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" and recognized that rap and hip-hop could work with German lyrics through the music of Advanced Chemistry from Heidelberg. As a member of Beginner, formerly Absolute Beginner, he is often credited as Eizi Eiz or Eißfeldt, while he uses the pseudonym Jan Delay for his solo work, particularly in reggae and funk. Together with Tropf, he forms the duo La Boom. The name Jan Delay references the rapper Young Deenay and the delay effect commonly used in reggae and dancehall music. He has also used the pseudonym Boba Ffett on underground releases, inspired by the Star War
