A strong question that remains in my research into Russian hip-hop's musical development is, despite the fact that American hip-hop was an integral part to the creation of the Russian hip-hop sound, how deep does that relationship go? Judging by the increased culture of collaboration between Western and Russian rappers, especially in the era which could be considered the New School" (early-mid 2010s onwards), I would say the relationship is far deeper than anyone realizes. Although Oxxxymiron is one of the premiere examples of the Western presence in Russian rap, other rappers have also bridged the geographical gap. In this blog post, I will look at one of those examples. Namely, Kizaru's 2020 album "Born to Trap", featuring three Western rappers (2 American and 1 Canadian), and delineate how their presence on the album is aesthetically reflected in the music, and my overall thoughts.
Kizaru's fifth studio album, "Born to Trap," features 18 tracks (long when speaking of modern standards but historically it is relatively short). Further, it was noted that within its first day of public release it had grossed well over 13.2 million streams, out charting Morgenshtern's third studio album "Legendary Dust" of 13 million streams. Globally, it had done well also, having reached the 8th spot on the "Global Albums Debut" chart through the Spotify streaming platform (1). According to Hip-hop.ru users, the album was met with different views. Some argued that the rap flow was all the same, while others indicated that the album was eclectic in its style. In a review from 2020 by Pavel Povidlov, he notes how Kizaru interpolated Old-School cassette sounds into a New-School aesthetic fabric, the first track (Intro) featuring the click of the cassette tape as it turns on, a meta-reference to the rapper's inspirations. However, he finishes the review by noting the album's American dependency as not inherently negative,
"Even taking into account the fact that the entire Russian musical mainstream repeats American musical moves, Kizaru's release sounds like a direct translation of the songs of A$AP Rocky and others like him...Remember the saying about "not Russian rap, but rap in Russian"? Here Born To Trap is its embodiment. And this is more a plus than a minus." [2]
With this in mind, let's now take a look at the three tracks and their respective rappers who are featured as partners on them. On the album, Kizaru features Tory Lanez (Canadian rapper and producer whose self-defined style of "Swavey" delineates his flexible aesthetic penchant), Smokepurpp (American rapper whose inspirations come from 2000s rock, rap, and alternative-trap streams), and Hoodrich Pablo Juan (American rapper signed with 1017 Records). How Kizaru not only found about these rappers but also managed to secure their participation in his album is not clear, although it should be noted that their participation is not indicated on the English Wikipedia accounts of the rappers, an interesting disparity. It would also be worth future study to see how their labels handled the collaboration, and the publicity of the collaboration within American and Canadian circles, if there was any at all.
1. Track No. 7) "Bad Blood" ft. Tory Lanez [Eb minor]
* Indication of beat-maker in the beginning but not by Kizaru [YG Woods] "sonic tagging"
* Tory uses an R'n'B-styled rap flow, much more lyrical and "speech-effusive" (Adams, 2009)
* Tory uses the N-word even though the audience is ostensibly primarily Russian
* Kizaru's rap flow is more archetypically 'rap' through its usage of "percussion-effusive" rap
* Instrumentally, there is a suave and fluid quality to the overall trap-styled texture
2. Track No. 12) "You and Me" ft. Smokepurpp [D minor]
* The same "sonic tagging" aesthetic is used in the beginning of the track
* The trap-texture is softer, more approachable, and less atmospherically dense
* Kizaru's part mixes the different "effusive" natures of rap flows, although retaining lyricism
* Smokepurpp's verse is vocoder-heavy and lyrical in nature, inarguably "speech-effusive"
* The musical structure of the track is incredibly cyclical, matching conventional rap forms
3. Track No. 15) "Honey's Kettle" ft. Hoodrich Pablo Juan [G minor]
* There is no "sonic tagging" used, instead Hoodrich begins the track with pre-verse intro
* The trap musical texture is far more energetic but a quintessential mysterium remains
* Hoodrich takes a far more prominent role on the track, although Kizaru's verse is far longer
* Kizaru's verse mixes lyricism and percussiveness, with many auxiliary embellishments
* The track can be identified as quintessentially 'Russian' by its prominence of melodicism
What can be concluded from this brief analysis of the tracks, their rap flows, instrumental life, and the presence of Western rappers on the tracks alongside Kizaru? Well, it can be said that their presence prompted the music to be relatively more melodic than Kizaru is known to be, although No. 15 can disprove this theory, as both Hoodrich and Kizaru's flows are percussive and rhythmic in nature. Further, the first two tracks features Kizaru as the more "rap" oriented figure, while the Western rappers play a supporting role via their quasi-sung roles but again No. 15 seems to be the outlier in this situation. Musically speaking, the three tracks are very much melody-dependent, prominently organized around a specific motif that is then used to generate the track's overall musical frame. And while this can be found in American rap I'm sure, it stands to note how important melodicism and evocative lyricism is to the historical aesthetics of "Russian" music, perhaps evidence of an exclusively "Russian" aesthetic habit in Russian hip-hop but more work is needed to be done to prove it.
In any case, analysis into the presence of Western rap in Russian hip-hop reveals many key factors in understanding how the Western and Russian rap worlds are not as far apart as it may seem. If accepted, my Doctoral work will focus on finding the "musically Russian" in Russian hip-hop to answer the question: "Just how musically Russian is Russian Hip-Hop?"
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