Sixtynine's In the White Ghetto (2003): From Cult to Fame to Dissolution

Russian Hip-Hop history is full of groups and names who sprung up, achieved popularity incredibly quickly, and yet died away almost as quickly once the aesthetic tides had turned in a different direction. Or because of the sheer difficulty of staying abreast with the times, returned to the underground from which many of them first began. A third direction exists, and that is to disperse, and while many groups don't and simply take hiatuses from public performance yet still release music (Project Konstanta a good example), the vast majority do. And to punctuate it further, Academic discussions on Russian Hip-Hop usually miss out on many seminal moments and albums, not because they are unimportant but because in the grand scheme their presence is but a blip on the greater continuum of Hip-Hop history. But it's vital that Scholars interested in Russian Hip-Hop peer into the untold stories, the narratives and events that set the stage for contemporary artists like Husky, Maywave$, Timati, Oxxxymiron, Pharaoh, Morgenshtern, and the popular names commonly cited in literature. In this blog post, I'll be talking about one of those names, specifically the funk-rock-rap fusion group Sixtynine (2002-2006), led by the ex-rocker Vis Vitalis and once though to be a star-in-the-making only to quickly faze out, this group helped define Russian Hip-Hop in its "second wave" (2000-2009) and bring their "red rap" to ever larger audiences.

History of Sixtynine Pt. 1

In the 2000s, Hip-Hop in Russia had become commercialized, no longer the underground phenomenon it once was during the first-half of the 90s, and certainly no longer "Russian" in any capacity, although one can argue if Russian Hip-Hop has ever been "Russian." Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, although by Perestroika more realistically, rock and its comrades had significantly depreciated in societal strength, as the youth had begun looking elsewhere for their counterculturalist hunger, having been inundated with Western culture as a result of the 1980s Olympics, and then again by the 12th Annual Festival of Youth and Students in 1985. As the relaxing of Soviet restrictions in the 1980s introduced a plurality of subcultural styles into the country like New-Wave, neo-romantics, rockabilly, hardcore, techno, rave, funk, skaters, and breakers, Hip-Hop culture would begin its cultural rise (Kompost).

However, for rock musician (then freelancer) Vis Vitaly the Russian Hippie movement was his cup-of-tea, one fold of the grosser late-Soviet "informal" Sistema culture (Feyh, 2012) and closely connected with rock culture. He began his musical career in the early 90s in the neo-Bard style, of which the scene proper had died out at least 10 years prior with the death of Vladimir Vysostky in 1980 although by the 90s it had begun resurfacing as a way to rediscover the Russian (late-Soviet) musical identity (Zabininfo.ru) Upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, after more than 30+ years of Western mimesis, Russian popular music was finally able to explode outwards, and coupled with the freedoms that the Western capitalist model brings and Yeltsin's vigorously anti-Soviet (anti-‘imperial legacy' past) leadership, Hip-Hop's growth in Russia during the "lost decade" (1990-early 2000s) seems only inevitable.

As many pointed out, it was during this period (much like during the Petrine era and likewise with Catherine the Great) that Russia was now faced with the choice of either go East or West with their ideological thinking. The question of "Was Russia European" seemed the most pressing question of the day, and in many ways it remains just as contentious of a question than ever. What's fascinating is that by the late 80s, it was very clear that Gorbachov had lost control of his Socialism-qua-Democracy model. But more importantly, "This widespread hatred of the communist regime was legally allowed to be expressed, which led to mass movements for the end of communism" (Cummings, 2012).

In effect, the rise of Russian Hip-Hop culture was only brought about because novel modes of opposition were allowed to be shown publically, thus galvanizing normally submissive (or overly rock-saturated) youth to take up this new form of sociocultural protest. Just as Cummings notes that "without glasnost there would have been no perestroika," so too without perestroika there would be no Russian Hip-Hop. Flash to the late 90s to early 2000s, the "second-wave" of Russian Hip-Hop, and by this time Western commercial culture has taken Russian culture by storm. Second-wave "golden youth" and their stifling sociocultural influence had hijacked Hip-Hop culture (Jin, 2014). And after 10+ years of intense R&D, along with the WWW's public release in 1993, and the quick creation of domestic infrastructure like websites and forums, TV channels and radio, music videos, publications, venues, events, and social gatherings, access to Hip-Hop materials had never been so easy.

History of Sixtynine Pt. 2

The group was technically formed in 1999 after Vis Vitaly's breakup of the the rock-n-roll group 'Vis Vitaly.' This year is especially important for Russia Hip-Hop history because it marked the (almost) 10-year anniversary of its "birth." Further, several notable festivals were held that year, along with Russia's first mainstream rap battle "Beat Battle" (a highly controversial moment in Russian Hip-Hop due to fighting that broke out between youth cultures, an all-too common occurrence in this period). Other seminal moments were Putin's rise to Presidency in 2000 (his infamous New Years address following Yeltsin's resignation), the creation of the first Russian Hip-Hop journal and magazine in 97 and 98, along with the growth of the "Gop-Hop" style (Russian g-funk/gangster-rap fusion) and the slow migration towards "conscious rap" and the usage of sociopolitical discourses and themes into rap lyrics. (Frolova, 2015). Their first song ever (My Pain Is Stronger Than Me) incorporates the coolness of East-coast rap style with the West-coast g-funk synthesizers.

They would continue to experiment with their sound for the next three years, and in 2002 they would release their first self-produced EP "In the White Ghetto," whose text dealt with typical existentialist material like life's hardships, rising above obstacles, desire to succeed. As Vitaly notes, its popularity was almost instantaneous and helped the group get both televised notoriety, radio-play, and led Vitaly to signing his first record deal as a rap group with Gala Records, although later joining CD Land after contract disagreements. One reviewer named Тёмный noted that this album proved that, "Sixtynine is gradually entering the small cohort of those Russian rappers who can achieve fame" (2003). But more importantly, as a result of press coverage this album conveyed that Russian rap was not only a real but laudable music genre, worthy of public acknowledgment and viable as a long-term career path for those who do well. The name of the EP alludes to the common epithets regarding Moscow, as class-divides are starkly visible, and because of the capital's living costs and disparities in public assistance, crime and drug use is rampant. Thus, the "ghetto" of Moscow and its birth of Russian Hip-Hop is much akin to American Hip-Hop's birth.

The remaining three years of Sixtynine's existence could be described as the causal result of too much fame too quickly, as in 2003 alone they began releasing music videos, held their first tour (April 26th), gain increasingly prominent publicity, and begin hosting outdoor concerts which lend the group to be thought of as a rock-adjacent group. This latter tenant is fascinating, as Russian rock and rap share close similarities musically (rhythm,aesthetic, DIY ethos), textually (desire to emancipate oneself) and cultural-speaking (community-consciousness, McMichael, 2005), so much so that it's said that Soviet rock group Aquarium's founding member Oleg Sakmarov noted his approval of the group during a birthday concert for alternative-rock performer Nikolai Frantsevich Kuntsevich (Nika Rock-n-Rolla). In 2005, as Hip-Hop became more fully infused into digital culture, commercialist enterprising, and Russian culture had become generally political in one way or another, Solzhenitsyn's book "Russia in a Crash" reflecting on the 1990s the predominate feeling, the popularity of the group grew to international status. Listeners from around the globe tuned into radio and read articles about the group and their music. In 2003 to 2004, musicians, poets, writers, and critics all praised the group. The Russian version of the British magazine 'New Musical Express' (2001-2003) exclaiming that, "After this album, it's time to close the discussion about whether it is possible to write real rap in Russian. It can. Full stop. Sixtynine succeeded in what other Russian rap teams have long been striving for: to explain to a Russian person why rap is the future."

Unfortunately, the group would only last one more year as the group's decision to move in a political direction with their messaging was not in-line with what record label's had associated their name with. Keep in mind that in 2005 onwards, the social climate of Russia was incredibly tense, as Russia was still engaged in the Chechen War (until 2009) and the growing unhappiness around Putin's authoritarianism (leading to the Dissenter's March in 2006), while Russian Hip-Hop's "digital age" was now in full-force while the "mainstream vs. underground" disunity (not disconnected from the Slavophile vs. Westerner debate of the 19th century) had become a problem. Thus, after the release of their first official album "I Will Survive I Will Become Stronger," instead of following-through with more R'n'B-styled, gop-hop material with light-hearted and generic texts, their 2005 LP "Only for Men" (of which Vitalis released a revamped track and music-video in 2020), their choice to go down the "conscious" route, inevitably led them to be outcasted by labels, and in 2006 they would disband.

It's a funny thing the lifespan of Sixtynine, as Scholars now note that Russian Hip-Hop became uncompromisingly politicized in the late 2000s (Denisova et H., 2019, Frolova, 2015), and everyone from lesser-known individuals like Pencil, 25/17, Frontline, and Triadi to bigger names like Basta and Noggano were making political commentaries on the state of Russian geopolitical and domestic affairs. If only they would've waited till then, who knows.