In 2000, the young and beginner rapper Detsl [real name being Kirill Aleksandrovich Tolmatsky] released his debut album entitled Кто? Ты, a 12-track album made with a legendary creative team and featuring numerous well-known artists, the only 16 year-old rap protégé becoming an instant success among both fans and critics. With a huge oeuvre of musical samples used in just 12 tracks, from American mainstream artists and groups like LL Cool Jay, Run-D.M.C., and Stevie Wonder, to underground figures like Pudgee Tha Phat Bastard and intellectual rapper Pharoahe Monch, with reference to the late-Soviet/Russian music culture like pop singer Valery Leontiev and VIA-band Dobri Molotsi [Good Fellows], the album was a game-changer in Russian Hip-Hop's second-wave [meaning 2000-2009].
Being the son of legendary breakdancer-turned-DJ-turned-producer Alexander Tolmatsy, close-friend of Bad Balance colleague Vlad Valov, Kirill had an easier time than most getting into the rap industry [fun fact: Kirill's son Mercury Antony John is pursuing rap as well]. The recording of the album took place in a year's time and was premiered on May 1st of 2000 on the MTV Russia channel on the show "VIP Caprice," the channel falling of the air in 2013 and being quickly replaced with a paid variation soon after. Prior to the track's release, a historical and culturally notable event occurred involving the young rapper and political misgivings. On March 18th of 2000, Detsl participated in the year's first rap-battle "Бит-битва", the second "official" battle in Russian rap history notwithstanding festivals held from 1990 forward. This had marked Russia's first "mainstream" rap-battle due to its press coverage by MTV Russia, although many are keen on forgetting their participation in the event. The event had been mired in latent political motivations due to the concert's Woodstockian vibe to the songs, many of which were directed towards anti-aggression, anti-war, and anti-corruption, of which Detsl's grunge-styled rap song "Hope for Tomorrow" was among. Linked here is the actual performance of this very song that day, the original video being archived onto YouTube thankfully by the channel "Back to da old TV." There was talk that the concert had been secretly organized by Center-Left political candidate at the time Grigory Yavlinsky, although this was never confirmed. Planned or not, he lost the race.
Nevertheless, once the album had been released it gained massive amounts of attention due to its originality for Russian Hip-Hop at the time. At the time, there was contention around the young artist, as the Hip-Hop underground wasn't too keen on the new aesthetic being introduced by Detsl, as told by him in a 2015 interview with The-Flow. However, the more party-based and juvenile energy had helped grow Russian Hip-Hop in the blooming age of Russia's submission into Western-styled corporatization. As a result of the album, Detsl scored his first, along with Russia's first, corporate sponsorship of a major brand [Pepsi] with a rapper. Additionally, up until that point the disseminative infrastructure for Hip-Hop included radio stations and journals, along with a select amount of television channels supporting the rising trend of music-video culture. However, in response to technological innovations, Hip-Hop.ru was created in 2000 [the digitized version of Hip-Hop Info], and a more direct flow of Western consumer culture into Russia without the added step of secrecy.
After the cultural emergence of the album, as written byRap.ru in 2020, many of the artists that came to prominence in the 2000s onwards were directly inspired by this album's total repackaging of what Russian Hip-Hop could look and sound like. A notable example is Timati who, on track four and eleven, partnered with the young rapper and shortly after began his own Hip-Hop career, eclipsing both Detsl and many of the 2000s rappers in the process due to his more pop and party-rap aesthetic affiliations (among other things).
I have linked the 2000 live performance of "Кто Ты" below! Notice how he uses English in it!
Comments