In this recent article, Grishina studies the importance of Russian Hip-Hop from the sociological perspective, making the argument that Hip-Hop has become a "social phenomenon," and the "self-reflection of the [youth] generation." Being used as a channeler for held animosity and disillusionment towards older generations, governmental structures, and traditional societal orders, Hip-Hop is now the vehicle to which youth substantiate their existence and attempt to realize some type of future for themselves amidst the chaos and intense obscurity that is 21st century Russia.
Grishina makes the point that rap culture’s chief tenant is it’s ability to synthesize class distinctions, societal groups, and cultural/ethnic divisions, but with Russian Hip-Hop this is especially apparent. Artists routinely mix English and Russian in their lyrics, while the rap genre itself is not limited by geographical locations, Grishina pointing to the importance role the internet plays in facilitating the Hip-Hop boom. Echoing other Russian and Western Russian Hip-Hop Scholars, Grishina notes that it was in the late 90s to early 2000s when the genre and “cultural economy” of Russian Hip-Hop really started. As children of Soviet parents began refusing to capitulate and resign themselves to hard living and the quiet acceptances of sociopolitical injustice, they also began involving themselves in politics much more publically than ever before. Coupled with the growing popularity of the internet and the WWW, and what was a countercultural expression of self and a Russified Western artform quickly became an independently Russified cultural phenomenon. As Grishina puts it, Russian Hip-Hop during this time went from “Information interpretations of liberal (Western) media to direct information vocations.”
The bulk of her article focuses on various different semantic studies and scholarship on Russian rap from three angles, all in the pursuit of defending her sociological observation that Russian Hip-Hop is no longer just a genre, but an intrinsic way of life and a visceral declaration of youth’s oppositionist adamancy.
1. She references the trailblazing website Rap.ru, one of the first websites dedicated to Russian Hip-Hop culture in the early 2000s (founded in 2004), denoting that the adoption of digital practices helped to not only bring Hip-Hop to everyone across Russia’s 46 oblasts [regions], but encouraged youth to try their hand at music, thus blurring the lines between creator and consumer forever. Supporting her position that Russian rap was geographically unrestrained, in the 2019 edition of the online magazine, “Mood Magazine” (founded in 2006), the 20 rappers mentioned represented 18 different regions across Russia. This shows that rappers are no longer confined to more Western cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg, as was the case with late-Soviet rock culture. Instead, access to the mechanics of rap music creation are easily accessed, and distribution channels accessible for minimal cost.
2. Again, as is typical with many Russian Scholars who explore Hip-Hop, she mainly focused on the linguistic life of the genre instead of the musical, a most unfortunate hole in Academic work into this culture and one I attempt to fill. Nevertheless, it’s vital to reference her assessment that the lyrical life of Russian Hip is an “explosive mixture” of largely generalized [but not necessarily wrong] points of view, strong hostility towards societal injustices, irritation with Soviet generations, and cathartic naivety. Unmentioned by any other Scholar thus far in my research is the term “Maximalism,” referencing Russian Hip-Hop’s appropriation of sociopolitical and sociocultural feelings from nearly every angle, true to the nature of -ism’s anecdote “more is more.”
3. Perhaps one of the most popular iterations of the Hip-Hop genre in Russia is the rap battle, brought to prominence in 2016 when Oxxxymiron faced off against Slava KPSS in eloquent bullets of lyricism that inspired everyone from Philologists and Musicologists, to Psychologists, Linguists, and Journalists to analyze his performance on various levels. It was so important, in fact, that a Wiki page has been created dedicated to the internationally impact event. Grishina notes that the phenomenon of the rap battle is the “verbal battle of points of view,” and was one of the more powerful representations of Hip-Hop’s peak (2012-2018) in the country. This observation certainly seems accurate, given the tenuous crackdown on rap that occurred in the fall of 2018, and continued to August of 2019. She notes that these types of events are usually seen as childish, however hold substantial merit as they show a boiling over of impatience with commercialized representations of rap, choosing to bring the genre back to its improvisational roots.
Grishina goes onto remark that to understand Russian Hip-Hop, there is the necessity to analyze the syntax of the language, and what is being expressed by rappers. However, like I previously said, this is rather limiting, and by not analyzing the music much of the meaning is being overlooked. Rap, as a genre, is not just spoken word, and neither is it a solely musical genre. Instead, it’s the culmination of these artforms that give the genre its ambiguous nature, and to understand what the artist is trying to achieve and express, there in lies the imperative to study both in tandem. Regardless, she references two sources of information that are vital for the study of Russian Hip-Hop linguistic life, those being Yandex.Music’s 2018 analysis of Russian Hip-Hop artist’s semantic traits and relationships, as well as E.V. Shchennikova’s 2012 study of rap’s thematic proclivities, incredibly analogous to a 2014 study by the Scholar E.V. Frolova which has turned into one of the most preeminent pieces of scholarship on Russian Hip-Hop to date. The general understanding is that the focus on the “I” and the tough life of the lyric hero (a project of the rapper) help to galvanize listeners and merge the rapper with their audience into an intimate relationship, no matter where they reside.
Overall, this article is a phenomenal example of contemporary scholarship into the social role that Hip-Hop plays in contemporary, “Putinian Russia,” and how important it is that Scholars pay attention to how (post) post-Soviet youth have adopted this temeritous genre as their political voice. Rap serves as their calling-card, telling listeners and governmental officials that they exist and will no longer be quietly subordinate to the hegemonic order, that audiences far and wide are unified under the banner of this controversial artform in order to invoke real and long-lasting change. Grishina finishes the article by referencing a 2019 article by Dmitry Schevchenko which discusses what rap’s future will look like in Russia. Will it fall back into the underground as market capitalism continues to take its fill, or will it go down the rock channel, becoming more and more polemical until finally the government forces it hand upon it? Only time will tell, but one thing can be said definitely. Russian Hip-Hop may be a thorn in Putin’s side, but one topped with a rose!
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