The Face of Russian Rap

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

This, perhaps, would've been an appropriate teaser for Wednesday's Lollards show (which is still in my "unplayed" playlist, but I'll get around to it soon). I am always interested how people relate to foreign language music. Here we have a case where a well-known idiom has been imported someplace that is completely foreign. Has it worked?

The Word on the Street, The Moscow Times, January 11, 2008

It's midnight in the mirrored changing room of a night club on Novy Arbat. A posse of dancers and backing singers waits patiently for Russia's best-known rapper, Timati, who is due to perform at a corporate Christmas party.

Boys in baggy pants and hoodies practice dance moves, while a girl pouts in front of the mirror in a tiny skirt and patent high heels. When a song by Snoop Dogg starts up in the distance, they all mouth the lyrics.

As Timati makes his entrance, wearing a headband, a black beanie and sunglasses, the mood changes. The group runs up to him, performing a handshake choreography of various clicks, angles and slaps until the rapper feels that he has greeted everyone adequately.

Talking about his career, Timati said his background gives him the edge over his rivals. "In Russia I am the only real hip-hop and R&B performer. I grew up in Los Angeles, I know the culture from inside out, I know the music inside out," he said.

Timati, whose real name is Timur Yunusov, may be the closest that Russia has to a rap star. He was born in Moscow to a wealthy, ethnically mixed family -- his father is a Muslim and his mother is Jewish. His privileged background enabled him to spend three years studying in Los Angeles.

He became famous after appearing on the television talent contest "Star Factory" in 2004, although he didn't win. He and three other contestants were taken on by influential producer Igor Krutoi who formed a group called Banda. In 2006, he released a solo album and played the role of a rapper in the hit comedy film "Heat."

Today his MySpace site lists friends including P. Diddy. It posts a video clip of a collaboration with Xzibit, the rapper host of MTV's "Pimp My Ride," alongside the required tough, tattooed and topless photos.

And Timati is certain that Russia loves hip-hop, "Just last week, 50 Cent was packed; Beyonce was sold out [in October]," he said. "When Shaggy came here five years ago the seats in the cinema were less than half full. Interest in this music is definitely increasing."

The 24-year-old singer grew up listening to music by U.S. hip-hop artists Naughty by Nature and rapper MC Hammer and wanted to rap for as long as he could remember. He concedes that he came back to Russia -- where he raps in Russian -- because the U.S. hip-hop scene was too difficult to break into.

"I wanted to perform, but the market was full," he said. "At the end of the day, I am Russian and it's better for me to be in my own country and develop the genre there."

Comments

[koganbot]

I like this, but a lot of my liking is due to the accompaniment, which I'd call bubbletechno and could just as easily be the backing to a Europop or Eurohouse song; it sounds less Eastern European than a lot of crunk does. (But then, I doubt that a Russian rapper is particularly concerned with trying to sound Eastern European.) Or, more accurately, it probably sounds like a lot of Eastern European pop, but it's not got the doleful or dark suspense-film chords that a lot of crunk has, chords that I associate with Central and Eastern European "classical" (i.e., romantic) music of the last century and a half.

The chords to this track sound very familiar, actually, but I don't know if I've heard them anywhere. Maybe they just sound like a lot of other things.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I've said on many threads here and there that I don't pay much attention to lyrics, unless they are especially funny, bonkers or interestingly assonant OR I love the melody of the song so much I want to sing along to it in a way that doesn't intrude on the actual lyrics (cf Call The Shots). I keep singing 'birds, flying saucers and the trees' to the beginning of the Ping Pong Song even though I'm fairly sure that's not what Enrique is singing.

HOWEVER when the music is heavily lyric based (the mushiest ballads, much of the twee folk-pop around now, and of course hip-hop) I still ignore the lyrics. So where non-melodic vocals are concerned there are a number of possible combinations where I might go 'SO awesome':

1) Great backing music/noises/bassline (ie awesome dance records with MCing over the top)
2) Reasonable backing, amusing lyrics (eg Eminem, NWA)
3) Reasonable backing, good use of distinctive-voice-as-an-instrument (eg Busta Rhymes)

Obviously foreign rap would have to fall under 1 or 3. I don't think the chap above really does it for me, though he could be saying something hilarious in Russian and I wouldn't know, which puts him at a disadvantage.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

from the pop world cup i have a LOT of iranian rap -- which i didn't deploy as tracks tended to the 6min mark i wz 1xbig pussy

(plus also -- equally pussy i spose -- a vague worry that everyone's favourite track wd turn out to be by tehran's answer to professor griff: i am up for exploring when and how strong music backs hateful opinions, and even undermines them, but i'd rather not be ambushed by the actual content of the opinions late in the exploration)

(note to self: learn farsi)

anyway yes: on sukrat or poptimists we should look more at this territory -- whose language-characters fits (or expands) rap's rhythm-texture best?

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

The song is called "In the Club" and it starts, "When we're in the club/ The chicks are dancing/ Let the city know who it's hanging with" etc. - very bog-standard self-referential rap boasting, it just happens to be from a half-Jewish, half-Muslim Russian guy who appears to be black, or at least is doing his best to act it. So you're not missing much, aside from the primitive pleasure of rhyming and various bits of "Renglish." As Frank points out, the backing track here is nothing special -- "tickable," I guess.