Oak Grove: Stop Killing Dolphins (1992/4)

As many know, the 1990s in terms of Russian Hip-Hop history was incredibly busy, as it was the first wave of Russian Hip-Hop not only to exist domestically but internationally as well. The first ten years after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 radically transformed Russian culture forever, and much of the change can be linked to the rise of this American genre. In this post ( in connection with my dissertation) I am going to look at another transformative album from the first-half of the 1990s entitled "Stop Killing Dolphins" by the group Дубовый Гаайъ (Oaken Grove), a relatively short-lived but culturally impactful group that helped push the genre of Hip-Hop in Russia further with their influence of rock, as well as neither catering to the tastes of Hip-Hop fans nor Soviet rock fans. Thus, this album is considered by some like critic Ivan Beletsky as one of the main albums that defined the Russian Hip-Hop 90s!

Basic Information

"Stop Killing Dolphins", released in 1994 first on cassette and later in 1996 on CD, was the debut album of "Oaken Grove" who, by this point in their career having been founded in the late 1980s was undergoing radical change as many of the group's members were participating in other projects and creating their careers outside the group. In 1992 Dolphin (another prominent rapper of the 90s and 2000s) would join forces with Alien Pat. Holman and the 'Stop Killing Dolphins' project would begin. Rivaling the more jovial, bombastic, and excited style of Malshishnik (Bachelor Party, another popular group at the time), this album solidified the group as more introspective, dark, and somber (references to drugs and suicide) perhaps contributing to their quick decline in popularity and three-year break in 1994 to 1997.

Regardless, when the cassette was released on one side you had Oaken Grove while on the other you had Bachelor Party. Thus, in the fight for cultural domination one group obviously came out on top, although it must be argued that it wasn't the quality of the music nor the themes but instead the time the group existed. Look at 'New School' Hip-Hop and philosophical doom-and-gloom is everywhere. Thus, this group was but another victim of epoch. In 1994 Oaken Grove would stop their group work together for three years, coming back together in 1997, although quickly disintegrating in the early 2000s due to death, while the main producer and string Holman would go onto join the rock group ОНИ.

Interesting Parts

The group's relationship with Bachelor Party is a fascinating one, and their presence in the development of the album is likewise interesting. In 1991, the group recorded three songs in the "Record" studio (Studio of popular music in Moscow, the first Soviet non-governmental label for music recording, publishing, and cultural activities). In 1992, Dolphin would go on-tour with Bachelor Party and after having raised some money and popularity (this is when he collaborated with Holman), he revived the group and would begin working on their debut album. After having created a few more tracks, they were brought to the Bachelor Party's producer Alexei Adamov, and he agreed to put some of the tracks on the back of a reissue of their debut album "Let's Talk about Sex" (1992). However, on the tracks "Sex Control" and "Pornography" the background vocalist for Oaken Grove Oleg Bashkatov participated, who semi-joined the group in the fall of 1992, delineating how interrelated these groups were.

In 1994, Dolphin (with the help of several others) recorded four more songs, and after meeting the sound engineer Viktor "Mutant" Shevtsov (this interview detailing his wide influence in Russian Hip-Hop of the 90s, 2000s, and early 2010s) the collective album with all eleven songs over the three years were compiled and released together. The alternative name for the album was "Suicidal Disco", although this was only used in a small amount of releases apparently, and was only distributed hand to hand style. In reviews following, they noted how the themes of the album were incredibly ominous, dealing mostly with drug use, suicide, and unrequited love, a direct antagonistic opposition to what other groups were doing at the time. However, one must keep in mind that such themes were part of the 'gangster-rap' movement of the American 90s, which means Russia was not yet ready for such themes perhaps, although in terms of the cinematic movement "chernukha" (or blackness), chronologically it fits perfectly!

Symbolism of the Name

Although nothing is available to describe why the album was called this, I think it is because of the shocking nature of the act being described perhaps. The intelligence and good-natured temperament of the dolphin and the gruesome act of murder perhaps is what is being alluded to here, although it could very well also be alluding to Dolphin himself (not sure what that signifies just yet), or something else entirely. Perhaps the fact that the cover art is of a warped photo of a woman who is holding flowers, with the name of the track using the colors of the Russian flag is more politically motivated, certainly a possibility given the time it was released. If one is thinking symbolically, then the death of a dolphin signifies bad luck, and is a omen of bad fortune to come. Because the presence of dolphin signifies the need for more introspection, spiritual discovery, and self-rejuveneation, then to kill a dolphin is to negate the reality of one's condition, and neglect to deal with the difficulties of life.

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