Lange Frans & Baas B
Lange Frans & Baas B performing at Koninginnedag in Delft on 30 April 2007
Background information
Origin	Diemen, Netherlands
Genres	Nederhop
Years active	1997–2009 2019–present

Lange Frans & Baas B ("Tall Frans & Boss B") is a Dutch hip hop duo. Both Lange Frans ( alias of Frans Frederiks) and Baas B ( alias of Bart Zeilstra) grew up in Diemen, North Holland.

Musical career

1997-2003: Underground music

In 1997, after a freestyle session on a basketball court in Diemen-Zuid, the duo created hiphop collective D-Men ^[1] alongside Brutus, Frans' brother. The English pronunciation of "D-Men" is similar to the Dutch pronunciation of the name of their home town. As D-Men they released their first single in 1999, entitled "Zoveel Mensen" ("So Many People"), and they won a talent hunt that was organised by Stichting Grap ("Joke Foundation") in 2001. In 2003, D-Men was joined by the artists Brace, Yes-R & Soesi B, Negativ, C-Ronic and DJ MBA.^{[ citation needed]}

2004-2005: Rise to fame

Lange Frans & Baas B started to release singles as a duo in 2004.^{[ citation needed]} Their second single "Moppie" ("Babe") became a huge hit.^{[ citation needed]} Though they performed as a duo, the chorus of this song was sung by Brace.^{[ citation needed]} Their third single "Zinloos" ("Senseless"), a protest against so-called senseless violence (random street violence without a clear reason or sprung from minor incidents — a current hot topic in the Netherlands), became a number one hit in the Dutch charts at the end of the same year.^{[ citation needed]} On this track they were joined by singer Ninthe, who won TMF's 'Kweekvijver' later on.^{[ citation needed]} After the assassination of filmer and critic Theo van Gogh by Muslim fanatic Mohammed Bouyeri on November 2, 2004, a special version of "Zinloos" was recorded with adjusted lyrics.^{[ citation needed]} Parts of the lyrics were changed in order to address Theo van Gogh's assassination.^{[ citation needed]}

On 24 March 2006, Lange Frans hit a school student during a performance. Someone had thrown an ice cube at Lange Frans's head protesting some of the lyrics he had used on stage, whereupon Lange Frans jumped from the stage and hit a student. The victim turned out not to have thrown the ice cube. Due to this incident, Lange Frans was not allowed to perform at a Liberation Day music festival in Haarlem. ^[2]

2008: Attempted comeback

After the success disappeared in 2006, the duo stepped back from the limelight to work on new music. In 2008 they released a single Kamervragen and an album Verder. Both failed to achieve commercial success and were labeled as disappointing by music journalists.

The split-up

On 27 March 2009 Lange Frans & Baas B told on the radio program of Giel Beelen (on 3fm) that the duo would stop working as a duo. Their last performance would be on the Dutch version of X-factor. For this, they sang the song "Dit was het land van" (This was the country of).

Discography

Albums

• 2004: Supervisie
• 2005: Het land van
• 2008: Verder

Singles

• 2003: "Hete Kaas" (featuring Romy v.R.), #3 NL
• 2004: "Supervisie"
• 2004: "Moppie" (featuring Brace), #3 NL
• 2004: "Zinloos" (featuring Ninthe), #1 NL
• 2005: "Supervisie" (re-release), #35 NL
• 2005: " Het land van...", #1 NL
• 2005: "Mee naar Diemen-Zuid", #16 NL
• 2006: "Ik wacht al zo lang" (featuring Brutus and Tim Akkerman), #18 NL
• 2006: "Dit moet een zondag zijn"

See also

• D-Men
• Baas B
• Lange Frans

References