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B2

Kontrollieren

Bonez MC & RAF Camora feat. Gzuz & Maxwell

Language
German
Released
2017
Genre
hip-hop
Level
B2
Difficulty score
993
Duration
3:21

How to study this song

Learning “Kontrollieren” means 89 entries at B2 — 44 German words, 7 adjectives and 38 verb forms, every one taken from what the song actually says. The glossary is the place to begin — Silvester, Tag and Team are the song’s keywords. This one leans on its verbs: 38 distinct forms against 7 adjectives, so conjugation is where the effort goes. At this level the words on their own are not the problem — it is the way they are put together that takes the work.

The words of this song, in several languages

Every word below is taken from this song and translated by us. Nothing here is the lyric itself — these are the individual words you need in order to follow it.

Vocabulary

DEENESITFRPTNL
SilvesterNew Year’s EveNocheviejaSan Silvestro, CapodannoSaint-Sylvestrepassagem de anooudejaarsavond
Tagdaydíagiornojourdiadag
Teamteam, crewequiposquadraéquipeequipateam
Platinplatinumplatinoplatino

What this song teaches you

Level · B2

Vocabulary words
44
Adjectives
7
Word combos
6
Expressions
14
Verb forms
38
Quiz questions
35

More German songs at this level

  • Inundauswendig — The Chainsmokers x makko (2026)B2-
  • Von hier an blind — Wir sind Helden (2005)B2-
  • Propaganda — Sido & Fler (2026)B2
  • Mo' Money mo' Haters — Summer Cem & Shirin David (2026)B2+

Background

About the song

«Kontrollieren» — "to control", and also "to check", as the police do at a roadside stop — is a German-language rap single released on 26 April 2017. It brings together the two men behind the album «Palmen aus Plastik», the Hamburg rapper Bonez MC and the Vienna-based RAF Camora, with two more members of Bonez MC’s Hamburg crew 187 Strassenbande, Gzuz and Maxwell. The beat, produced by Beataura and RAF Camora, leans on Afro-trap and dancehall rhythms rather than the dark boom-bap of classic German street rap. It was the first single from RAF Camora’s fifth solo album, «Anthrazit», which came out on 25 August 2017 on his own label, Indipendenza, and closes the standard edition as track seventeen.

The song arrived at the high point of a partnership. «Palmen aus Plastik», released in September 2016, had topped the album charts in Germany and Switzerland, reached number two in Austria and gone platinum in Germany, and the pair had won the 1 Live Krone for best hip-hop act that year. «Kontrollieren» is a victory lap after that success. The official video was filmed in Tokyo: the German music press described champagne, fast cars lined up in the city’s multi-storey car parks and the four rappers celebrating far from home.

The four voices come from two cities. Bonez MC, born John Lorenz Moser in Hamburg in 1985, founded 187 Strassenbande there in 2006. RAF Camora, born Raphael Ragucci in Vevey, Switzerland, in 1984, grew up in Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus in the west of Vienna and has run the label Indipendenza since 2013 — which is why the chorus pairs Hamburg with western Vienna. Gzuz, born Kristoffer Jonas Klauß in Hamburg in 1988, had reached number two in Germany with his solo album «Ebbe & Flut» in 2015. Maxwell, born Maxwell Kwabena Schaden in Hamburg in 1993, grew up in the district of Hohenfelde and first broke through with the joint album «Obststand» with his crew-mate LX. The crew’s name uses the number of a section of the Californian penal code that street slang adopted long ago.

The content is a boast in several chapters. The opening lines set the mood: tomorrow and yesterday do not matter, and if they feel like it, every day is New Year’s Eve. Everyone warns them not to get carried away; they do it anyway. The verses list the signs of success — a platinum team, cars driving in convoy, three people on one motorbike, champagne and whisky, pockets that will never be empty again. One verse compares then and now: they used to be turned away at the door and could not even afford a drink, and now clubs play their songs and they are on music television. The chorus answers everything with one verb: they are the ones in control, even when the police want to check them. The lyrics are explicit in places, with drug references, sexual lines, vulgar words and a threat of violence; the vulgar words are in the card too, because you will hear them.

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platine
platina
platina
Kontrollecontrol, checkcontrolcontrollocontrôlecontrolocontrole
Jungsguys, boyschicos, peñaragazzigarsrapazesjongens
Kolonneconvoy, line of vehiclescaravana, columnacolonna, corteoconvoicoluna, comboiocolonne, stoet

This card holds 37 more words. You meet them when you play the song.

Adjectives

DEENESITFRPTNL
egalall the same, not importantigual, da igualindifferenteégalindiferenteom het even
besserbettermejormegliomieuxmelhorbeter

This card holds 5 more adjectives. You meet them when you play the song.

Verb forms

DEENESITFRPTNL
weißtyou knowsabessaitu saissabesweet je
istises, estáèesté, estáis
woll'nwantqueremosvogliamonous voulonsqueremoswillen
sagensaydicendiconodisentdizemzeggen
hebt abtakes offdespegadecolladécolledescolastijgt op
heben abwe take offdespegamosdecolliamonous décollonsdescolamoswe stijgen op

This card holds 32 more verb forms. You meet them when you play the song.

Beyond them, the card teaches a compact lesson in German verbs. First, THE PASSIVE WITH «WERDEN»: the chorus uses the same verb in the active voice, with the rappers doing the checking, and in the passive, with a city or an animal "being checked" — «wird» plus the past participle. Second, SEPARABLE AND INSEPARABLE PREFIXES: «abheben» (to take off, and figuratively to get big-headed) splits in a main clause and sends its prefix to the end, as do «auswählen», «aufmucken», «einschenken», «mitbringen» and «zugucken»; «überfliegen» (to fly over) never splits and builds its participle without ge-.

Third, SPOKEN GERMAN WRITTEN DOWN: infinitives and plural forms lose their -e (kontrollier’n, woll’n, fahr’n, zähl’n, spiel’n), «eine» shrinks to ’ne, «mal» to ma’, «unsere» to unsre, and the first-person -e disappears from several verbs. One line uses «weil» with the verb in second position, the way many Germans speak even though grammar books ask for the verb at the end. Fourth, THE SIMPLE PAST in its natural home: short flashbacks with «gestern» and «früher» built on «kamen» and «wollte». And finally a handful of everyday colloquialisms — Tanke for a petrol station, Mische for a mixed drink, «am Start sein» for being there and ready, «zu dritt» for three together.

Did you know?

The single appeared four months before its album. «Kontrollieren» came out on 26 April 2017, while «Anthrazit» followed on 25 August 2017 — and on the album the song is not an opener but the final track of the standard edition.

The chorus pairs two cities from two countries. Bonez MC, Gzuz and Maxwell are from Hamburg; RAF Camora grew up in Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus, a district in the west of Vienna. The Hamburg–Vienna axis was the geography of the whole «Palmen aus Plastik» era.

The title verb is a false friend worth knowing. German «kontrollieren» means "to control" but, even more often, "to check" or "to inspect": a ticket inspector, a border guard or a police officer "kontrolliert" you. The chorus plays with both meanings at once.

The music video was shot in Tokyo, far from both home cities. German hip-hop magazines compared its neon nightlife to a Hamburg St. Pauli street at four in the morning.

Gzuz’s stage name is, according to German Wikipedia, an acronym of a German phrase meaning roughly "uncensored ghetto stuff" — a fitting label for the rawest voice in the crew.

The phrase «am Start sein», used in the chorus, comes from sport — being at the starting line — but in colloquial German it simply means being present, ready and part of the action.

The line about «lilanes Cash» uses a colour word that standard German does not decline. «Lila» (purple) officially stays the same before every noun, but in speech people add endings anyway. Purple is the colour of the 500-euro note.

Charts & streaming

«Kontrollieren» was released on 26 April 2017 as the lead single of RAF Camora’s album «Anthrazit». It reached number eleven in the German singles chart, number thirty-two in Austria and number forty-six in Switzerland. German Wikipedia’s article on the album also lists a platinum award for the single in Germany.

The album did even better. «Anthrazit», released on 25 August 2017, went to number one in Germany and Austria and number five in Switzerland, spent sixty-five weeks in the German top 100 and was certified platinum in Germany. Its later singles included «Primo», which reached number six in Germany.

The context is one of the most successful partnerships in German-language rap. Bonez MC and RAF Camora’s «Palmen aus Plastik» (2016) topped the charts in Germany and Switzerland and went double platinum in Germany, and their follow-up single «Kokain» (2018) reached number one in both Germany and Austria. The 187 Strassenbande crew released «Sampler 4» the same year as this song, and it reached number one in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.