As we are all aware, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has shocked the world round.
Not only has Ukraine and Russia suffered immensely, but the picturesque idea of world peace and geopolitical confraternity has been all but crushed as NATO and certain choice countries prick and prod in somewhat good-meaning but still ill-formed manners. In the Russian Hip-Hop sphere, much has been thrown up into the air in the past five years, really ever since 2018 with (the self-labeled) Anti-Rap campaign, where bottom-up forces from the territories in western Russia began to strongly rebel against Hip-Hop artists, leading to the Duma's intervention which (to no one's surprise) solved quite literally nothing. Numerous rappers have come out with statements (see my last post for a combined article listing some) and several more have made their views known in the past couple of days (see the posts on @russkirapreview).
However, I find it interesting that the emigre musician Morgenshtern (Aliser Tagirovich Morgenshtern), who left the country back in January for Dubai due to the threat of imprisonment over the claim of illegal drug trafficking on the (now banned) app Instagram, has recently released a new song that depicts the braggadocious and uber-hedonist rapper in an extremely different light, one that has been brewing ever since his departure from Russia. With the title "12" referring to Alisher's younger brother's turning 12, the song paints an abysmal picture of a hyper-inflated Russia with an army that has been coerced into fighting a meaningless war and useless responses from onlookers.
In this post, I'll briefly talk about the track's musical life, the track's text, and the music-video associated with the track, as each have interesting features that present sociopolitical subject matter in a novel way. Via mainstream aesthetics, he directly challenges mainstream thinking, interrogating what so many have taken for granted by using the very 'thing' itself!
Musical Life
Firstly, the track is unlike anything that Alisher has released to date. Much more sedate and texturally simplified, the track's musical life primarily sits in the mid-range and bubbles up here and there by the usage of electronic and digital augmentations. The whole song uses a minor hue, specifically A minor. Why is that important? Because most rap songs utilize A minor when talking about introspective, somber, or dejected subject matter. Traditionally, the symbolism of A minor (at least according to the accounts of Helmholtz, Charpentier, and Schubart) denotes piousness and plaintiveness. Some of the best-known works in this key include Beethoven's "Für Elise" (Bagatelle in A minor), Chopin's Op. 19 (Bolero), Clara Schumann's Op. 7 (Piano Concerto), Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 3, and Gustav Mahler's "Tragische" Symphony No. 6. Thus, this track follows in a long succession of music that imbues the purpose of the music into the very construction of the music itself.
Further, in arguing for its "Russianness" a bit (although the fascinating part is that its Russianness is not really found in the musical rather than the general ethos and textual life more) the emphasis on the A minor (which is the mode of Aeolian, although the range is very small in the song) could indicate the Russian proclivity for modalism. A prime example of Aeolian mode in Russian music can be heard in the Antiphone of Grechaninov's Liturgy of St John Chrystostom (1898) Here, the A minor is starkly evident as a minor v/V before moving into the tonic key of G major. As you can see, although but one example, the very music key Alisher is using is 'Russian.'
Textual Life
Video Life
An incredible piece of musical-visual art from Morgenshtern, perhaps his best thus far.
Thank you for posting this. Fascinating video and read.