Hip-Hop.Ru and their Rap Battle(s)

Opening banner on Hip-Hop.ru's homepage

Introduction

An integral part of the contemporary Hip-Hop scene in Russia is the online forum and communication platform called Hip-Hop.ru, the place where many notable rappers like Husky and Oxxxymiron first got their start. Either through participating in rap battles through the platform, or directly engaging in dialogue within the many chat rooms on the site. Regardless, the site is practically unknown outside of Russia thanks primarily due to its focus on the Russian Hip-Hop community only. Some of the top open-forums are themes are hot news like "Zhirinovsky sued Morgenstern for using his voice in the intro to the song," "Why Morgenstern left Russia," and something quite interesting, "Creativity of unconventionally oriented gangsters." The site boasts a plethora of ways to get to know the Russian Hip-Hop fanbase and listeners of all kinds, along with musicians and creators, advice on how to improve, and information of every angle of the Hip-Hop scene in Russia. But what I want to focus on in this blog-post today is Hip-Hop.ru's rap-battle legacy, as they were one of the first sites dedicated to Hip-Hop news in the country, and one of the first organizations to sponsor and (or more correctly) popularize the rap battle in the early 00s.

Hip-Hop.Ru 2001-2005

In 2000, after the rap battle had become a cultural phenomenon back in 1994 through the festival unambiguously named "Rap Battle Festival," whose historical significance is likewise interesting, Hip-Hop.ru was officially launched. I have not yet been able to find information on its development, but I am sure there is some obscure Russian website out there with information, or perhaps a journal that houses information within its covers. Nevertheless, on December 5th of 2001 they hosted their first rap battle. Hosting 21 participants, it marked the beginning of a (still-ongoing) movement of rap battle culture, where similarly-interested rappers from anywhere in Russia stood that chance of being noticed and valued in their community.

Only a month and a half later and the second rap battle would commence, this time doubling participants and gaining public appeal as well. Just a year prior Detsl had partnered with Pepsi to create what was Russia's first rap-brand sponsorship campaign and rampant commercialization of the genre was taking place, along with the emergence of "political art" due to the immense incongruencies of the political regime. Thus to a rap-battle and then another was significant and culturally must have meant a great deal.

The third and fourth rap battles saw even more turn-out by fans and artists alike, the fourth having notable participants, although many of their names (as you can see) are now either forgotten or simply unrecorded. More research is needed to confirm this.

It was the installment of the fifth rap battle that the Hip-Hop.ru competition became a cultural staple within the context of the Russian Hip-Hop community. Not only had the attendance sky-rocketed from 70 to over 200 plus rappers, but the first dedicated site was created, as well as a mp3 that was available to buy of all the competition's music. It was held in September of 2004, the same month that infamous Beslan school attack

shooting took place in North Odessa. Again, such events are not separable from the difficulties surrounding them, and one can see how it was a slight reprieve in a way.

Hip-Hop.Ru 2006-2008

Having now solidified the competition's public appeal, cultural importance, and most importantly musician-directed value as a place to gain social prestige as an artist, the sixth rap battle became the number-one event for Russian Hip-Hop hopefuls in the country at the time. Media-coverage had increased to a manifold degree, and attendance was not only by those in the Hip-Hop community but by Russian fighters, celebrities, and interested youth from across the Russian oblasts. This particular battle was attended by popular conscious-rapper Noize MC's involvement, whose dramatic career helped to merge the Western Hip-Hop world with the Russian. The seventh battle boasted over 3,000 participants, denoting around a 1,230% increase in attendance since 2005. Noize MC had competed again, coming-in first overall and jumpstarting an already blooming career by that point. However, no other notable figures are seen during that time, although I'd like to do more research into them.

On December 25th 2008, the eight rap battle would be held. Climaxing at over 5,000 participants, this event proved to be another catapult for the competition and the platform together. What's interesting is that this rap battle seemed to be the instigating factor that brought rap to the forefront of public discussion in the later-half of the 2000s, combined with the rapidly improving digital infrastructure to support the creation of more techno-centered Hip-Hop communities. Also noticed by Scholars is the rise in political commentary as the political climate was increasingly degrading as the population were reeling from Putin's despotic ascension to power. Especially noted by Frolova (2015) is the rise of politically sardonicism or "stiob," a radical change in lyrical texture from the early 2000s when themes centered around self-prosperity and more typical subject matter of the "lyrical hero." No names stand out although the rapper RE-pac does, as he came in second, but would compete again the following year. He is known as the father of the Russian free-style rapping style.

Hip-Hop.Ru 2011

Having taken a three-year break from the annual competition pipe-line that had formed throughout the previous decade before, Hip-Hop.ru drastically changed their format for the ninth rap festival. The whole process had been developed, from the initial stages of entry, to the evaluatory team, to the prizes that were able to be won, all the way to the way the event was going to be covered in the press. It had all been, in a way, professionalized and no longer was a community-specific event, having burst its fetters in the late 2000s. Additionally, the competitions had been getting longer and longer, and this one was now a full 12-month process, involving nine rounds and a correlated spin-off music-video competition partner through A-One TV's "Urban Program." This specific competition is important, as it is where Husky got his official start in the Russian rap scene, competing in the qualifying round up until round three against Очередной MC from the "south" group with a punk-rock/synthstruction styled track epitomizing his ability to create multidimensional fabrics of jarring organization.

Battle Offshoots and Current Movements

Since 2011, it seems as if Hip-Hop.ru has gone into a different direction. Instead of the previous title "Official Rap Battle," since around somewhere around the beginning of the 2010s doing what they call "Independent Battles." Although I'm not really sure what's alluding to, as its distinction between the first would need a bit more research to accurately assess, it seems from its 16th-iteration that it is exactly the same type of format. Such repackaging has been going for a while since, conceivably, Putin returned to power in 2012, as this site has documented the first 14 iterations of Hip-Hop.ru's reinvented competition format. The "Independent Battle" seems to be in its 18th iteration, having its 17th version in 2019 and with the announcement of 18 coming in November of last year. The 18th battle will begin in February and as the forum post noted back in November, it was looking for judges and participants. Perhaps such a format is slowly losing its appeal, whose to say. However, some have speculated that the era of rap battles is slowly coming to a close, as the novelty is wearing off and the quality of such lyrical scrimmages is slowly but surely degrading.

They also have "Team Battles," although such a concept I am not sure how well it works. Their 9th Team Battle competition seems to currently be in its 1/4 finals, with its semi-finals not yet announced. Perhaps I'll keep my eye out and see what happens?

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"Редкое видео о Московском Хип-Хопе 1999-2001 г.г." (Source: YouTube From The Most)