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
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:
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"