![]() | Parts of this article (those related to History) need to be updated.(June 2021) |
![]() | You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. (December 2023)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
Music of Russia | ||||||||
Genres | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Specific forms | ||||||||
| ||||||||
Media and performance | ||||||||
| ||||||||
Nationalistic and patriotic songs | ||||||||
| ||||||||
Regional music | ||||||||
| ||||||||
Russian hip hop refers to hip hop music recorded in Russia or in the Russian language in former Soviet states like Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. [1] [2] [3] Hits by Russian rappers are included in the soundtracks of some PC-games [4] and have formed part of several popular internet memes.
Many Russian rap artists have achieved commercial success, including Detsl, Bad Balance, Centr, Kasta, Oxxxymiron and Belarusian artist Seryoga.
Especially at the end of the 2010s and the beginning of the 2020s, rap has become a very political form of music in Russia. In this respect, rap could be compared to rock in the 1980s, which gave voice to young people critical of the Soviet system, expressed, for example, by Viktor Tsoi's Khochu peremen ("I want changes").
The increased politicization was most impressively demonstrated at the end of 2018, when a string of concerts were canceled. Among them was a performance by rapper Khaski (real name Dmitry Kuznetsov) in Krasnodar at the end of November. After the local prosecutor's office banned him from performing at Club Bounce on the grounds that the music contained extremist ideas, drug glorification and a call to suicide, the rapper stood on the roof of a car and began singing to his fans in the street until the police took him away for "hooliganism" (chuliganstvo) leading to him initially being sentenced to several days in prison. As a result, many famous rappers gave a solidarity concert for him in Moscow. [5]
Hip hop culture in Russia began during the mid-late 1970s from the growing influence of the Eurodisco movement in Soviet Russia. [6] However, breaking was one of the first elements of American hip hop culture to become popularized in the country, [7] along with skateboarding, DJing, and MCing shortly after. [8] The beginnings of Russian hip hop's musical form, rap, can be traced back the 1980s. Regarded as the first 'rap group in Russia, the group "Rush Hour" (Chas Pik) created one of the first attempts at rap in their 1984 album, "Rap." [9] The album contained a track called "Rap" which featured lyrics based on multiplication tables and letters and took its inspiration from the funk-based style of the popular track, Rapper's Delight by Sugarhill Gang, released five years earlier. [10] The 1980 Summer Olympics, held in Moscow, was one of the main catalysts for bringing hip hop culture to Soviet Russia, and by 1985 events like the 12th World Festival of Youth and Students and Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of Perestroika further brought Western culture into the country. [11]
Until the beginning of the 1990s, there were not many rap artists in Russia and the Soviet Union. [12]
The pioneers of Russian rap were Mister Maloy, Bad Balance, Malchishnik, Bogdan Titomir. Russian hip hop, just like Canadian hip hop, is inspired by Jamaican music, which hit an upswing during the fall of the Soviet Union. [13]
At the early and middle of '90s appears hip-hop scenes in Moscow (D.O.B Community, White Hot Ice) and Saint Petersburg (DA-108, Baltic Clan).
In late 90s, many new performers, such as Mikhey and Jumangee, STDK, and Detsl, had become popular. Many of them were former members of pre-existing bands. At the end of the '90s and beginning of the 2000s, Rostov-on-Don was considered the center of Russian hip hop subculture, and the most notable representative was Kasta.
In the early-2000s, the most popular performers were Kasta, Mnogotochie, Detsl, and Bad Balance.
In the mid-2000s, underground bands began to appear and became popular in Moscow (like Smoky Mo, Dymovaya Zavesa, 25/17, Krovostok, Money Makaz, Supreme Playaz, Underwhat, Ddrop, Kazhe Oboima). At the same time in Russia and Belarus, new R&B performers appeared (Maks Lorens, Bianca, Satsura, Band'Eros). Also this period was marked by the appearance of interesting musical projects such as jazz-rap band KREC, ragga-rap band DA BUDZ, glitch-hop project 2HCompany, comedy gangsta rap Krovostok.
In the late 2000s, the Russian rapper ST1M received scandalous popularity after production of his single "Я Рэп" (I'm Rap), featuring Seryoga, in which he was dissing nearly all of the most notable Russian rappers, similar to "How to Rob" by 50 Cent.
In 2007 the group Centr became increasingly popular, partially due to aggressive promotion on the internet, and in 2008 they won an award at the MTV Russia Music Awards. The members of the group were Aleksey Dolmatov, aka Guf, David Nuriev, aka Ptaha ("ptaha" means "a little bird" in Russian) and Vadim Motylyov, aka Slim. Their two albums, «Качели» (Kacheli/Swing) and «Эфир в норме» (Efir v norme /Ether's Fine) became one of the most popular Russian hip hop albums). In 2008 it won MTV Russia Music Award for Best Hip Hop Project. In 2010 the group disintegrated because of the controversies among its participants and the each of them continued the solo career or joined the other groups. In the 2016 the group reunited and recorded the new album, «Система» (Sistema / The System).
In 2008 Russian musical channel Muz-TV started a hip-hop show Battle for Respect, which led the winner Ant (Zasada Production) to become highly popular. In 2009, Putin spoke at the Battle for Respect competition and on the one hand praised hip-hop culture for the cultural exchange that it reflects. On the other hand, he spoke about drug abuse, which he claimed was linked partly to the scene. Putin warned against the abuse of addictive substances. However, he said that breakdancing was proof that hip-hop could promote a healthy lifestyle, because in his view such impressive and strenuous dances were simply impossible under the influence of drugs. [14]
In the late 2000s - early 2010s the new notable performers appeared on the Gazgolder Records label, owned by Basta (such as AK47,(gamora) Triagrutrica, Tati, Charusha, Slovetsky and Skriptonit, the DJ from Kazakhstan).
In a 2018 speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced rap music, saying that it would lead to the degradation of Russia and that it rested on the pillars of "sex, drugs and protest." [15] He asked the Council for Culture and Art in St Petersburg to bring rap culture to heel, saying "if it is impossible to stop it, it should be taken over and navigated in a particular way." [16] [5]
![]() | This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (December 2023) |
Philip Ewell: “Sing Vasya, Sing!”: Vasya Oblomov's Rap Trios as Political Satire in Putin's Russia, in: Music & Politics 7,2 (2013), pp. 1–20.
Philip Ewell: Russian Rap in the Era of Vladimir Putin. In: Milosz Miszczynski, Adriana Helbig (eds.), Hip Hop at Europe's Edge: Music, Agency, and Social Change. Indiana University Press 2017, pp. 45–62.
Anastasia Denisova / Aliaksandr Herasimenka: How Russian Rap on YouTube Advances Alternative Political Deliberation. Hegemony, Counter-Hegemony, and Emerging Resistant Publics, in: Social Media + Society 5,2 (2019), pp. 1–11.
Sergey Ivanov: Hip Hop in Russia. How the Cultural Form Emerged in Russia and Established a New Philosophy. In: Sina A. Nitzsche, Walter Grünzweig (eds.), Hip Hop in Europe: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows. Zürich: LIT 2013 (=Transnational and Transatlantic American Studies 13), pp. 87–102.
Ilya Kukulin: Playing the Revolt. The Cultural Valorization of Russian Rap and Covert Change in Russian Society of the 2010s, in: Russian Literature 118 (2020), pp. 79–105.
Yauheni Kryzhanouski: Managing Dissent in Post-Soviet Authoritarianism. New Censorship of Protest Music in Belarus and Russia, 2000–2018, in: Europe-Asia Studies 74,5 (2022), pp. 760–788.
Ilya Kukulin: The culture of ban. Pop culture, social media and securitization of youth politics in today's Russia, in: International Journal of Cultural Policy 27,2 (2021), pp. 177–190.
А.Ю. Завалишин, Н.Ю. Костюрина: Русская рэп-культура. Специфика научного анализа // Журнал интегративных исследований культуры, 2020, т. 2, No. 1, С. 60–68.
German hip hop refers to hip hop music produced in Germany. Elements of American hip hop culture, such as graffiti art and breakdancing, diffused into Western Europe in the early 1980s.
West Coast hip hop is a regional genre of hip hop music that encompasses any artists or music that originated in the West Coast of the United States. West Coast hip hop began to dominate from a radio play and sales standpoint during the early to-mid 1990s with the birth of G-funk and the emergence of record labels such as Suge Knight and Dr. Dre's Death Row Records, Ice Cube's Lench Mob Records, the continued success of Eazy-E's Ruthless Records, Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, and others.
Music of Russia denotes music produced from Russia and/or by Russians. Russia is a large and culturally diverse country, with many ethnic groups, each with their own locally developed music. Russian music also includes significant contributions from ethnic minorities, who populated the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and modern-day Russia. Russian music went through a long history, beginning with ritual folk songs and the sacred music of the Russian Orthodox Church. The 19th century saw the rise of highly acclaimed Russian classical music, and in the 20th century major contributions by various composers such as Igor Stravinsky as well as Soviet composers, while the modern styles of Russian popular music developed, including Russian rock, Russian hip hop and Russian pop.
Korean hip-hop, also known as K-hip-hop or K-rap, is a subgenre of the South Korean popular music.
Hip hop music arrived in Cuba via radio and TV broadcasts from Miami. During the 1980s hip hop culture in Cuba was mainly centered on breakdancing. But by the 1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the onset of the Special Period, young raperos, exposed to foreign tourists whose wealth highlighted their struggle, turned to rapping to affirm their cubanidad and advocate for further revolutionary reforms.
Hip hop or hip-hop is a culture and art movement that was created by African Americans pioneered from Black American street culture, also known as hip hop African American culture, that had been around for years prior to its more mainstream discovery while later reaching other groups such as Latino Americans and Caribbean Americans, starting in the Bronx, New York City. Hip Hop is one of cultural movements that has been shaped and dominated by African American males though female hip hop artists have contributed to the art form and culture as well. Hip hop culture is characterized by the key elements of rapping, DJing and turntablism, and breakdancing. Other elements include historical knowledge of the movement, graffiti, beatboxing, street entrepreneurship, hip hop language, and hip hop fashion.
Kirill Aleksandrovich Tolmatsky, better known by his stage names Detsl and Le Truk, was a Russian hip hop artist.
Meykhana is a distinctive Azerbaijani literary and folk rap tradition, consisting of an unaccompanied song performed by one or more people improvising on a particular subject. Meykhana is distinct from spoken word poetry in that it is performed in time to a beat.
Russian pop music is Russian language pop music produced either in Russia, CIS countries, Baltic states and other foreign countries in which the songs are in which the songs are primarily performed in Russian language, languages of the countries of the CIS, and in the other languages of the world. This is the successor to popular "variety" Soviet music with its pop idols such as Alla Pugacheva or Valery Leontiev.
European hip hop is hip hop music created by European musicians. Hip hop is a Great style of music developed by African American and Caribbean communities in the United States during the mid-1970s, and became a large part of modern pop culture during the 1980s. Due to this success, it has gained worldwide popularity, especially in Europe where many diverse and unique styles of hip hop have been created. This diversity is especially apparent in the forms of hip hop music and culture emanating from settler communities from Europe's former colonies and peripheries.
Timur Ildarovich Yunusov, better known by his stage name Timati, is a Russian rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur.
Macedonian hip hop covers the Macedonian hip hop culture and the Macedonian language hip hop music primarily created in Macedonia, but also in the Macedonian diaspora.
Alexey Vladimirovich Pavlov, best known under his stage name MD&C Pavlov, is a Russian hip hop performer and one of the first MC's in the Soviet Union. He is cited as being "the godfather of Russian funk" and one of the pioneers of Russian rap.
Ivan Aleksandrovich Alekseyev, known professionally as Noize MC, is a Russian rapper, singer, and actor.
Centr is a Russian hip hop group formed in Moscow, Russia. Originally composed of Guf, Princip aka Prince, Slim aka Slimus, Ptaha aka Zanuda. In 2008 the group was the winner of the MTV Russia Music Award for Best Hip Hop Project. The group Centr is the founder of the «ЦАО Records» label.
ST1M is a Russian rapper from Tolyatti, Russia. He was the winner of the Hip-hop.ru Awards 2013 in nominations: "Best music video", "Performer of the year", "Opening of the year".
Blatnaya pesnya or blatnyak is a genre of Russian song characterized by depictions of criminal subculture and the urban underworld which are often romanticized and have criminally-perverted humor in nature.
Miron Yanovich Fyodorov, known by the stage name Oxxxymiron, is a Russian hip-hop artist and former CEO of the Booking Machine booking agency, as well as a co-founder and former member of the record label Vagabund. He is one of the most influential and prominent hip-hop performers in Russia, and his albums The Wandering Jew and Gorgorod, are considered by the community as the most important releases of Russian rap.
Philip Adrian Ewell is an American professor of music theory at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center. He specializes in Russian and twentieth century music, as well as rap and hip hop.
Hookah rap, or hookah pop , is a genre of Russian rap or Russian pop which originated in Russia during the mid 2010s and popularized across the post-Soviet countries in the late 2010s.