Russian hip hop is hip hop music

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 produced in Russia or in the Russian language in other countries, including former Soviet states

Republics of the Soviet Union

The Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically-based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union...

 as Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, Belarus

Belarus

Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

 and Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

.

General summary

The pioneers of Russian rap was a group called Malchishnik

Malchishnik

Malchishnik is a sex rap group from Russia who were the first Russian rap artists to gain mainstream popularity during earlier 1990s.-Formation:...

 (Мальчи́шник, Russian for "bachelor party

Bachelor party

A bachelor party , also known as a stag party, stag night or stag do , a bull's party , or a buck's party or buck's night , is a party held for a man shortly before he enters marriage, to celebrate his "last night of freedom" or merely to spend...

"), but the recognition of the rap genre came with the rise of Bad Balance

Bad Balance

Bad Balance is a Russian rap group considered to be one of the first rap acts in USSR. The group maintained a devoted underground following during the 1990s.-Formation:...

 and their album Naletchiki Bad B. released in 1994. Russian hip hop, just like Canadian hip hop

Canadian hip hop

The Canadian hip hop scene was first established in the 1980s. Through a variety of factors, it developed much more slowly than Canada's popular rock music scene, and apart from a short-lived burst of mainstream popularity from 1989 to 1991, it remained largely an underground phenomenon until the...

 is inspired by Rastafari music, which hit an up-swing during the fall of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

.

Only a few Russian rap artists have achieved commercial success: Detsl

Detsl

Kirill Aleksandrovich Tolmatskiy , mostly known under his stage name Detsl , is a Russian hip hop artist. He graduated in Switzerland and the British International School in Moscow....

, Bad Balance

Bad Balance

Bad Balance is a Russian rap group considered to be one of the first rap acts in USSR. The group maintained a devoted underground following during the 1990s.-Formation:...

, Kasta

Kasta

Kasta is Russian rap band from Rostov-on-Don. Group is led by MC and beatmaker Vlady. Other members include MC's Shim, Hamil and Zmey, as well as DJ Hobot. Although Kasta is notably influenced by New York rap tradition, especially Wu-Tang Clan, they have always written in Russian.- History :Vlady,...

, Belarusian artist Seryoga

Seryoga

Sergey Vasilyevich Parkhomenko is a popular Russian-Belarusian rapper and the owner of "KingRing" record label.-Career:Born in Gomel, Belarus, Seryoga grew up in a tough neighborhood. His music became a unique combination of Russian folk music with modern beats and original lyrics appealing to...

, who combined original rap with the native Russian satiric song genre chastushka

Chastushka

A Chastúshka is a traditional Russian or Ukrainian folk poem which makes use of a simple rhyming scheme to convey humorous or ironic content...

which some critics consider a new branch in the rap genre: rap-chastushka. Although some rap fans believe he does not belong to the Russian rap scene, the musician won the nomination for best Russian rap in 2005 on the MTV Russia Music Awards. Mainly Timati

Timati

Timur Ildarovich Yunusov , better known by his stage name Timati , is an Russian rapper and actor.-Early life:Timur Ildarovich Yunusov was born on August 15, 1983 in Moscow, Soviet Union to an ethnically mixed family of Tatar father Ildar Yunusov and Jewish mother Simona Yunusova , he also has a...

, who received great success in 2006 after releasing his first album Black Star

Black Star (Timati album)

Black Star is a 2006 hip hop album by a Russian rapper Timati.-Track listing:...

.

In 2007 CENTR became increasingly popular, partially due to aggressive promotion on the internet.

In 2008 on Russian musical channel Muz-TV

Muz-TV

Muz-TV is a Russian music TV channel, broadcasting since 1996. It is largely modelled after western MTV and predates launching of MTV Russia in 1998. Muz TV was founded by Sergey Lisovskiy...

 started a hip-hop show Battle for Respect, which led the winner Ant (Zasada Production) to become highly popular.

List of performers

• 25/17 
• Basta (Noggano) 
• CENTR 
• Detsl
  Detsl
  Kirill Aleksandrovich Tolmatskiy , mostly known under his stage name Detsl , is a Russian hip hop artist. He graduated in Switzerland and the British International School in Moscow....
  
  
• Dolphin 
• Guf 
• Karandash 
• Kasta
  Kasta
  Kasta is Russian rap band from Rostov-on-Don. Group is led by MC and beatmaker Vlady. Other members include MC's Shim, Hamil and Zmey, as well as DJ Hobot. Although Kasta is notably influenced by New York rap tradition, especially Wu-Tang Clan, they have always written in Russian.- History :Vlady,...
  
  
• Krec 
• Krovostok 
• Ligalize
• Mnogotochie 
• Noize MC 
• Rabi Lampi 
• Seryoga
  Seryoga
  Sergey Vasilyevich Parkhomenko is a popular Russian-Belarusian rapper and the owner of "KingRing" record label.-Career:Born in Gomel, Belarus, Seryoga grew up in a tough neighborhood. His music became a unique combination of Russian folk music with modern beats and original lyrics appealing to...
  
  
• Smoky Mo 
• AK-47
  AK-47
  The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
  
   
• Triagrutrika

Dino MC 47