Swaggering across a smoke-filled Red Square, Timati raps the line, “My best friend is President Putin.” In 2015, to commemorate the president’s 63rd birthday, he and rapper Sasha Chest released a special music video. He is also one of the president’s biggest fans. Timati, the stage name of Timur Yunusov, is perhaps the biggest star of mainstream Russian rap. Rap has occasionally returned that praise. In 2009, Russian President Vladimir Putin, then prime minister, appeared on the rap television show “Battle for Respect” to praise the music, which he termed an “art form.” He hailed rap for its “social content” and for “speaking about the problems of youth.” It has even received official recognition. If rap was once the cutting edge of Russian music, today it is an undeniable part of the mainstream. Grew wildly popular, was “a big step forwardįor the culture of sexual revolution,” Troitsky The three performers-Delfin, Mutabor, andĭen-graphically describe having sex with a Troitsky, who chaired the jury of the first With the police,” says music critic Artemy It openly sang about sex, drugs, and conflict Subjects that were considered taboo under Soon, the genre was blaringįrom radios and MCs were appearing on television.Įarly rap was hardly political. Performers Lika Star and Delfin, began to Interspersed with retro-tinged rock songs.īy the start of the 1990s, groups like Badīalance and Malchishnik, as well as individual
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Standards, “Rap” is an oddity-a weird mixture Critics oftenĭate its emergence to the release of “ Rap,” aġ984 album by the group Chas Pik.
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Rap arrived in Soviet Russia nearly ten yearsĪfter it appeared in America. But last year he decided that rap was a better medium to express his thoughts on Russian politics and society. Ponomaryov is no stranger to the music business, after ten years performing alternative rock. But his story reflects both the growing popularity of Russian rap, and its power to address the realities of everyday life. “I’m a national traitor/I’m the fifth column/My Russia’s far from yours/You jail people, start wars/But we have soldiers too/A huge army to our rescue,” Joker James- Ponomaryov’s stage name- roars in “ No Fun.”Īs an artist popular mostly among Moscow’s liberal youth, Ponomaryov avoids the cliches associated with Russian rap’s mainstream - fast cars, beautiful women, and blingy lifestyles. It’s a far cry from the aggressive image portrayed in his music. Dressed in a red plaid, buttondown shirt and khaki pants, he speaks softly, grinning awkwardly from time to time.
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Alexei Ponomaryov doesn’t look like a rapper.