Rapping Up the World : Rhymin’ Provides a New Voice for Russian Youth

These Russians wear hip American baseball caps on their heads, not frumpy fur hats. The guiding force in their lives is no longer Marxism--it’s MTV. And they favor the frenetic beat of rap music over the delicate strains of Tchaikovsky.

This is the hip-hop generation, Russian-style.

In much the same way as it captured the voice of a generation of young Americans, rap music has caught on among trendy Russians. Although the number of fans may be relatively small when compared to lovers of pop or rock, they are die-hard.

Since rap music came to Russia in 1990--when Western-style radio stations and music television came to the then-Soviet Union--dozens of rap acts have appeared around the nation. Rap is a natural in Russia, the homeland of such great poets as Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov, where society values expression through verse.

“Rap music means something,” college student and rap lover Anatoly Makarov said as he swayed to the beat of a rapper performing in a Moscow nightclub. “It’s the only kind of music that talks about the problems we’re having here: the crime, the government, the economy. The last thing I want to hear is some Russian pop star crooning about love.”

While pop music singers warble about dating and the weather, some Russian rappers are launching a new effort to address Russia’s social problems head-on.

“Hip-hop is a movement for all young people,” Vladislav Valov, lead singer of the rap group Bad Balance, explained. “We can give each other ideas to help deal with society’s wrongs.”

Valov, 23, is one of the founders of an organization called Hip-Hop Against Violence (in Russian: Heep-Hop Protiv Haciliya), which was founded in February by some of Russia’s top rappers as a way to politicize musicians, artist, dancers and their fans.

“We’ve had enough of this mayhem where we live. We’re ready to do something,” explained Peter Martiyanov, a 28-year-old businessman who is the enterprise’s president. “We decided to unite all people who like hip-hop, all people who are interested in this culture.” There are no accurate figures for the number of rap fans in Russia, nor on sales of rap albums.

Hip-Hop Against Violence has already begun a series of fund-raising concerts aimed at helping children in such war-torn areas as the former Yugoslavia and the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Tajikistan. The group also hopes to get in touch with other rappers in Europe and America, and to perform abroad.

The organizers want to pass on a message of nonviolence through their music. “Gangsta rap isn’t the kind of music that moves the hip-hop generation here,” said Valov, who uses the stage name Chill Will. “We want our music to propagate peace.”

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The group’s emphasis on fighting violence is warranted. Crime rates have exploded in post-communist Russia. More than 2 million Russians were victims of crime in 1993--more than twice as many as 1985, when Mikhail S. Gorbachev first came to power--according to the Russian Interior Ministry. Organized crime is also on the rise, with more than 5,700 criminal gangs operating in 1993.

Russia’s youth is in crisis because the country’s economic decline has given young people little reason to work honestly, according to Valov. By joining forces with one of Russia’s organized crime groups or by engaging in illegal business, a young person can earn in one day as much as a Russian doctor or lawyer earns in a month.

“Now, there’s so much violence here,” said Valov, dressed in an oversized Mexican vest with a bandanna tied around his head. “It’s not just economic crimes or violence against people--it’s violence against nature, against the soul.”

While the organizers of Hip-Hop Against Violence are optimistic about their center’s potential effect, Artemy Troitsky, a Moscow music critic, doubts that Russian musicians can reach out to youth the way their American counterparts can.

In Russia, “Young people don’t take rock stars to be their heroes anymore,” Troitsky said. “Bandits or businessmen, yes, but not people in the world of music.”

Many of the rap groups that have joined Hip-Hop Against Violence have begun to pen songs with nonviolent themes. Bad Balance has led the way with its hit “Children of Satan.” The song is read--rappers don’t sing, says Valov, they read--in Russian, though Bad Balance also raps in English:

I don’t like gangs,

Undignified sportsmen from violent gangs,

I hate all they’re doing,

Damn devils.

They’re children of Satan.

Just Da Enemy, a female trio that alternates verses in English, French and Russian, is taking on racism. On a cassette produced by Hip-Hop Against Violence, their song “Color of Skin” explains:

No matter what color of skin do you have,

Expression of soul that makes sense.

Money makes the world go around.

Racism gathers fools around.

Not all the groups that have joined the center have incorporated the anti-violence message into their music. The group Bust A.S., which raps in English, sounds like gangsta rap in their song “Bucka Jackal”:

I would kill myself if I were a cop!

(Expletive), this ain’t no comedy.

Every time I see a cop, I spit automatically.

They’re always checking in on us cause we’re hanging out late.

Russian rap has often had violent or overtly sexual themes. The group Malchishnik scored a big hit with its 1992 rap “Sex Without a Pause,” even though it was banned on both television and radio because of its explicitness. The group’s song “Mike Tyson Is Innocent” was criticized for encouraging violence against women.

Malchishnik has not joined Hip-Hop Against Violence.

Valov says that he has been heavily influenced by U.S. rap acts such as Public Enemy, a group that uses its music to address social ills.

The influence of American rap can be seen in other ways as well. Consider the Russian group KTL-DLL’s song “It Will Be Easier for You When I Leave,” in which the rapper considers killing himself over an unrequited love. As if to avoid an American-style lawsuit, an announcer intones at the end, “This song isn’t to encourage suicide, but to show another side of life.”