Moscow Death Brigade + other political/conscious hip-hop from Russia

About a week ago, I was asked to post some more tracks by Moscow Death Brigade. Well, it's certainly not the kind of music I usually post here, and I'm absolutely not sure if my readers wouldn't be turned off by hip-hop and rap, but I'll post it anyway. At least they have very good political message, and very heavy and aggressive sound.

Considering it wouldn't be easy for you to find any other political hip-hop acts from the former USSR (if you're interested in that kind of music), I decided to make a compilation of the best political rap stuff I've ever came across. It took a lot of time and efforts, but finally I made this sampler of 20 best socially conscious hip-hop projects from Russia (and some from Ukraine and Belarus):

• 2K
• (A)political Scum
• Blitzkrik
• Диета!
• Ебаланс / Ebalance
• entexnau
• Face Of Violence
• Красный Смех
• Культура Апокалипсиса / Apocalypse Culture
• La Vida Cuesta Libertades (ex-L.C.L.)
• L.C.L. (ft. Brule BLS, XJihadX, 2K)
• missis Garrison
• Мордой в пол!
• Московский Освободительный Оркестр (МАО) / Moscow Liberation Orchestra
• Moscow Death Brigade
• Nuclear Winter
• One Shoot
• Sheridan
• T.OST (feat. Slaughter 2017)
• x Jeffrey Goines x

DOWNLOAD

(upd.: unfortunately I've lost the track list for this compilation, so I couldn't reupload it even if I really wanted to. Sorry)


Almost all of this stuff can be found on gnwp.ru in the "hip-hop & rap" section. It sould be noted that these rappers are very different in terms of ideology: there are anarcho-communists (L.C.L.), traditional marxists (Ebalance) and even anarcho-primitivists (Apocalypse Culture) and self-proclaimed "satanic hip-hop" (Entexnau)... or satirical projects (missis Garrison), and just people without any particular ideology, but still holding progressive views towards society (MDB, 2K, NW). The sound is very different from track to track as well; there's a lot of Necro-inspired hardcore hip-hop (MDB, FoV) and rapcore (Blitzkrik), but also some less aggressive stuff, and even female-fronted trip-hop (Sheridan). Hope you'll enjoy at least some of these projects.

Hip-hop is actually very good as a political genre, since it's very popular now, very lyrics-oriented, and relatively easy to make. You don't need to form a full band of 4-5 members to become a rapper, and you can achieve a fairly good quality of production even if you make your recordings at home. Of course, there's a lot of really amateur and poorly produced stuff... but it's D.I.Y., you know; and it's only the beginning. Only a few years ago there wasn't any openly leftist hip-hop in Russia at all, except for Blitzkrik and xEdge Jihadx (and they both were not very good). So it's good to see more and more people listening to not some gangsta shit about lots of money, whores, drugs and big cars, but to really conscious/revolutionary hip-hop.
And here are some photos:

Moscow Death Brigade

missis Garrison

Dieta

Sheridan

This archive includes all the tracks by Moscow Death Brigade I could find. They don't release much stuff, because they prefer quality over quantity. I recommend to start listening this compilation precisely from their tracks - because they're the best. MDB are one of the few bands to speak openly about a lot of social problems, consumerism, police brutality, street violence and the rise of chauvinistic tendencies in the post-Soviet countries. In the late 20 years Russia became a not very nice place to live (to say the least), and they're not afraid to tell the truth about it in their lyrics, along with hope for a positive social change.

"Stay true for youself and your deed,
In the world full of chaos, go ahead bravely,
There's no option except to stand up 'til the end,
Moscow Death Brigade fuels the flame in hearts"

(from the track "'Till the End", sorry for such a rough translation)

And I also need to say that there's a specific problem in the ex-USSR, called "nazi rap". No, I'm not kidding. There really are people who are trying to make "rap only for whites" and simular shit, and unfortunately it's becoming more and more popular. First I thought it was just a joke, but now there are thousands of NS hip-hop fans... If it's a joke, then it's a very bad joke. At least anti-racist hip-hop is still prevalent here, and here's a video of a live performance of MDB on an anti-nazi rally in Moscow (one year ago):