YOUTH OF TODAY.

Four men, one machine, and a language no one spoke before them. De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig turned Dutch hip-hop into a universe where nonsense takes on meaning and a joke suddenly becomes moving. Explore further at SJELF: Manon on vinyl · Parels Voor De Zwijnen on vinyl · electro. Keep listening on LP with Moderne Manieren.

Would you like to listen to this music on vinyl too? Check out De Machine by DE JEUGD VAN TEGENWOORDIG on vinyl at SJELF. On the artist page of DE JEUGD VAN TEGENWOORDIG, you will find their records and other ways to continue listening.

A HIT THAT DIDN'T EXIST ACCORDING TO THE RULES.

In 2005, "Watskeburt?!" appeared as if someone had accidentally opened the door to the future during a house party. Bas Bron’s beat sounded angular, electronic, and irresistible all at once. Vjèze Fur and Faberyayo threw words at each other that seemed half street slang, half inside joke, and half pure sound. Even the title wasn't correct Dutch, but within a few weeks, the entire Netherlands knew exactly what it meant. The song reached number one and suddenly turned a loose studio project into a group with a name, an audience, and a grammar of its own.

FOUR CHARACTERS, NO LEADER.

De Jeugd works because no one does the same thing. Bas Bron builds productions that can scrape, shine, or burst at the seams. Faberyayo lets sentences elegantly revolve around themselves. Vjèze Fur can turn an everyday word into a character with one strange inflection. Willie Wartaal brings momentum, directness, and a sense for the line that can immediately stir up a crowd. It isn't a classic rap formation built around one frontman. It is a collision of four worlds that give each other enough space to remain strange.

LANGUAGE AS AN INSTRUMENT.

Many artists use words to explain a story. De Jeugd uses words as rhythm, color, and material too. Syllables are stretched, proverbs are rebuilt, and English, Amsterdam, and self-invented finds are mixed together without warning. As a result, you might find a song funny at first and only much later notice how precisely it is put together. Their best lines are not just quotable; they change the way listeners speak themselves. That is perhaps their greatest influence: not copying a sound, but giving permission to use language more loosely.

FROM PEARLS TO THE MACHINE.

The 2005 debut *Parels Voor De Zwijnen* proved that "Watskeburt?!" was no fluke. The record is raw, boisterous, and full of ideas that sometimes arrive faster than they can be neatly worked out. Three years later, *De Machine* sounds more purposeful. The beats are heavier, the characters sharper, and the group understands better how a chorus and a club crowd can find each other. Yet the messiness never disappears entirely. It is that slight risk—the feeling that a track could go off the rails at any moment—that remains an essential part of their appeal.

STARDUST AND ANOTHER SIDE.

On *De Lachende Derde*, they included "Sterrenstof," a song that links the playful language of De Jeugd to genuine melancholy. It is big enough for a festival field, yet intimate enough to feel like a memory. That was when it became clear that the group could do more than provoke or make people laugh. Behind the masks and nicknames lay a remarkable sense of longing, aging, and the discomfort of people who prefer to defend themselves with humor. That emotional duality would appear more and more on later records.

ALWAYS A STEP TO THE SIDE.

*Ja, Natúúrlijk!*, *Manon*, *Luek*, and *Anders (Different)* reveal a band that refuses to repeat one successful formula. Sometimes melody and pop are at the forefront, sometimes a strange beat or a long observation. In 2018, they even released two different studio albums. Where many groups guard their own style like a museum piece after a big hit, De Jeugd treats that style like a workshop. Everything can be dismantled as long as the four voices still recognize each other.

TWENTY YEARS WITHOUT BECOMING NORMAL.

The irony of their name grew with every passing year. The men who were once presented as "the youth of today" slowly became a staple of Dutch pop music. They celebrated their thousandth performance in 2019 in a sold-out Olympic Stadium. In 2025, an Edison Lifetime Achievement Award followed. Such milestones suit an institution, but the group continues to sound as if "institutionalization" is exactly the kind of word they would immediately search for an absurd rhyme for.

MODERNE MANIEREN.

On 2023's *Moderne Manieren*, you don't hear a nostalgic reconstruction of 2005. The production is spacious, the voices are older, and the humor knows that time has become a subject in itself. Yet the core remains intact: curiosity over correctness. The group can look back without standing still. Perhaps that is why their older records continue to work so well on vinyl. You don't just hear the well-known singles, but also the details, side paths, and small language experiments that easily disappear on a fleeting playlist.

WHY IT STICKS.

De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig didn't make Dutch hip-hop bigger by conforming. They made the space bigger by taking themselves seriously enough not to have to sound serious. Their work proves that humor is not the opposite of craftsmanship and that playfulness can be a form of precision. Behind every loose remark is timing; behind every apparent chaos is a producer who knows exactly when the bottom is supposed to drop out.

They didn't create new street slang to sound modern. They created a world in which their own language was the only logical one.

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Photo: Luukopia / Wikimedia Commons (public domain).