Two German students and a Dutch student at the University of Groningen seem to have a summer hit on their hands with their catchy rap, “Bonnetje Mee.”
Translation by Traci White
If you live long enough in the Netherlands, even if you don’t know any other Dutch words, there’s one phrase that you understand: “bonnetje mee?”
Sikkom points out that this sentence, which is an inquiry from cashiers to ask if a customer wants their receipt, is something of an inside joke among international students in particular. Those two simple but unavoidable words inspired Jakob Skilift, Al Fredo and B.O.R. (Blijkbaar Ook Rapper) to create a song about going shopping in Groningen.
The MCs managed to film inside the Albert Heijn in the Korenbeurs for about 10 seconds before being kicked out, and the majority of the music video takes place on the Vismarkt during the weekly farmer’s markets. The performers also shot some footage inside another local store and made it rain with their own collection of “bonnetjes”.
In an interview with Sikkom, Groningen-based rapper B.O.R. says that the track, which is in German and Dutch, presented a welcome challenge: Jakob Skilift (German) raps partially in Dutch, and B.O.R. (Dutch) raps in German.
UPDATE: 4:57 p.m., Friday, 6 July
Following several remarks by readers about the alleged use of a racial slur on the track, The Northern Times approached Jakob Skilift for comment. In a Facebook message, he responded, “Concerning the words of the track, we already noticed in some comments that there apparently has been a major misunderstanding. B.O.R., who is Dutch, wrote his lyrics in German and the word that B.O.R. is using is NOT the n-word, but a very common German slang term from Hamburg, namely “digga” (which also has its Berlin equivalent “dicker”), which can simply be translated as “dude”, “bro”, or something alike. We only noticed after publishing the song that it might be misunderstood by Dutch people not familiar with German slang terms! With regards to the n-word, I personally am wholly convinced that white people should refrain under any circumstances from using it and I think it is thus justified for white rappers to be criticized for actually using it. But we did not use it.”
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