Protest songs

The video “Stop Obama” , in the filming of which students of Russian universities took part, had just forced to talk about the conformism of “Putin's Generation”. But their faces are serious, and the bodies are tense-these people seem to be conducting some kind of struggle that is indistinguishable for the radars of commentators. The problem is that commentators think in the categories of late Soviet counter -culture conceived from two warring systems; Western music, cinema, lifestyle and political structure were contrasted by the Soviet, were unavailable, acted as a welcome alternative and a symbol of liberation.

Today, things are different.

At all times, new generations are attacking what seems to them to be a source of power: hippies - an American system, a generation of janitors and watchmen - Soviet, advanced synephils - a Cannes film festival, school bully - directors, etc. The goal of any attack on the mainstream is the desire to affirm himself, the need to affect the eyes of the elder.

The mainstream for a modern young man, be it at least a Russian, even African, is an American popular culture, and Barack Obama, the first one hundred percent pop refraction in the presidential chair, is a live symbol of this mainstream, and the main fig in his pocket, and who else? And then, for jokes about Obama, incriminating tariffs at the housing and communal services, there is already a very serious appeal to him of the St. Petersburg Disabled Dolshchikov ; The painful interest of the domestic audience in coks and pogroms in Ferguson is the same nature.

The goal of any attack on the mainstream is the need to affect the eyes of the elder.

Young people who fall on the floor of the gym in the video “Stop Obama” live simultaneously in Russian cities and in the space of Americanized global culture.

In relation to the movie, Oleg Aronon described this situation as follows: “Today, the cinema has only one name - Hollywood.” In the first thirty leaders of the domestic rental last year - twenty -eight Hollywood films; The first number in the ranking, the Fryingle militant, only in the cinemas watched 6.25 million people following the Avengers - 6.2 million. Their main domestic competitor for a year is the next series of the cartoon about three heroes (4.2 million spectators), the repetition of the Disney two -dimensional canon, only on local folklore material.

Hollywood is deeper and stronger than isotopes of changeable television propaganda. The heroes of American militants are also represented by the infamous wrestlers for the “Russian world” - Givi and Motorola. They sit under bullets at the Donetsk airport, fight with the Atlantists and dream of Bayopic with Denzel Washington! (And is it why the Russia Today channel from the promotional resource of the Russian Federation turned into a rostrum for Western dissidents, that his leader imagined herself a heroine of corporate Hollywood thrillers?)

My girlfriend’s daughter has a girl in the class, whose parents are panicky afraid of America’s attack, despise liberals as agents of the State Department-and for ten years have unsuccessfully submit an application for a green card. There is neither hypocrisy nor schizophrenia; If it fell into the empire, you can resent its politics and hate Caesar. But why live in a deaf province, if you can move closer to the center? The same logic, it seems, are also guided by the children of propagandists like the son of Aram Gabrelyanov, a well-known popularizer of comic culture now living in New York. The reproaches in social networks are in vain - Ashot just returned by Were He Belongs .

Those who cannot leave can be repaired in social networks anti -American slogans, but continue to admire the films of Tarantino and in the amount of six million people are to the cinema to look at the new adventures of Captain America. If you listen to their roar, you can notice that the cognitive dissonance, as in the cargo cult, is eliminated using the mechanism by a simple transcoding phenomenon, since this transcoding is necessary for consciousness. Quentin Tarantino (or Steve Jobs), as it were, is excluded from among the hated Pindos, is transferred to the category of “their own” and is freed from the innate stigma.

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This type of non-conformism manifests itself in the midst of a domestic hip-hop-after all, all the world rappers descended from American, and the forced cult of masculinity makes them especially sensitive to the discourse of power.

Incorrect dark colors and visual porridge of graphic symbols are non-conformism, uniting in one impulse of gangst-rapeers and designers from the DPR.

A year ago, on the instructions of the Magazine "Poster", I spent a couple of days in the company of the founders of the AMG label: Zimbabvian King and Kenyz Beni met while studying in Volgograd and became famous in certain circles by the hit Like Vladimir Putin . Their other track, Khabarovsk, Arkhangelsk, sings the cities from Russian bills of different denominations and is a free quote from the speech of the Minister of Economic Development of Ulyukaev: “The dollar goes up, I still spend the ruble. The dollar goes down, still spending a ruble. ” In addition to Putin, King speaks with great respect for the long -term ruler of Zimbabwe Robert Mugaba, in which the national currency fell on the bottom of the bottom unattainable for the Russian currency.

Guys read rap like American blacks, dress like American blacks, but at the same time praise Putin and Mugaba - why? The answer is simple: they consider themselves to be American blacks, only terribly oppositional and might and main confronts the system - all the more so that they have in the mainstream (like Margarita Simonyan) there is simply no technical opportunity.

On the eve of our meeting at the AMG concert, a spectator was seen with the flag of New Russia, who looked great against the background of Gothic tattoos and group logos with a Masonic pyramid in the center. And if the transparent hipste-minimalism is the 12th century mainstream, imposed by the conditional Steve Jobs, then incompatible dark colors and visual porridge of graphic symbols are non-conformism, uniting in one aesthetic impulse of provincial gangsters and designers from the DNR.

The regional committee of Timati is in Hollywood, his teacher is Obama, and Putin, Mugaba and Kadyrov are cool guys from the senior grade, who bolder more than others show the teacher “Fak”.

In a single plane with Beni and King, there is a rapper Timati, whose famous hit about the White Tsar Putin is nothing more than the free remake of the African -Russian “Go Hard” . In the summer of 2014, he admired this track in an interview with Lifenews , standing by the window with a view of Los Angeles. In the same place, at the Hollywood hills, last winter Timati waved the Russian flag and supposedly even was arrested for it.

There is no contradiction in Timati’s position: like many white rappers, at heart he considers himself black. His context is American rhythmic poetry and Marvel comics , his regional committee is in Hollywood, his teacher is Obama, and Putin, Mugaba and Kadyrov are cool guys from the senior grade, who show the fake to the teacher bolder.

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A.MG and Timati are a curiosity, a parody of hip-hop-industry. But as a living phenomenon of Americanized global culture today, rap is getting deeper and deeper into the territory of Russia, once totally infected with chasson. Its pulsation can and should be monitored not so much according to studio albums as on battles -for example, on the YouTube channels of the Word projects (rather aimed at finding young talents) and Versus (more stellar and spectacular).

The battles rap, familiar to some of the film “Eighth Mile” with Eminem in the title role, is a waterfall of mutual insults, which the participants, breaking into couples, pour each other and delighted spectators. In most cases, the relations between sparring partners are friendly-despite the defeated aggression and monstrous of the accusations, the real enmity is rare here (Dmitry Kiselev with his carnival-radioactive ash could definitely claim a place in the qualifying round).

Improvisions and blanks are used. The need to rhyme non -banally turns freestyle into a unique stream of the verbalized subconscious of a young inhabitant of an irregular country inhabited by chronic log centrics.

I would venture to assume that it is in the battles that the most important work is taking place to reform the Russian language - for example, the removal of Englishisms.

The first clash with the elements of the battles makes a stunning impression on an unprepared viewer: in them there is everything that in the tenth years was so lacking in Russian culture and society - freedom and drive. These videos have millions of views, and I risk assuming that it is here that the most important work is taking place on the reform of the Russian language - for example, intensive processing and swimming of Englishism. Among the sources of quotes in panchas are computer games, American series, Hollywood cinema, Vysotsky and Brodsky. It is customary to be well -read (the Krasnodar MC Hyde easily will be installed on his recitative legend about King Arthur, extracting a stone sword) and declare commitment to a high poetic word. The bad news for the carriers of prison ethics in ministerial offices: the mat today is molested and became part of the literary game - no longer in poetic salons, but on the street ( NB : the ban on the mat in Russian cinema even more distant from the audience). And although the Russian language until recently was considered not intended to describe sexual practices, in this direction the battles MC also made many curious discoveries.

There is no great sense in these texts, there are attempts to master the changing language; The leitmotif of most performances is a duel of sizes: “Your *** sock is my *** hetras.” But the assimilation of the imported format entails the assimilation of imported ethics: the ideology of Battla is the individualism of the Protestant, because, ultimately, the longer ***, the more personal responsibility. And, despite the ritual grimaces of masculinity, occasionally falling into the circle of women beat the guys on an equal footing, without discounts on the gender.

If freestyle is the verbalization of the subconscious, then in general, the participants of the battles make the impression of extremely healthy and cheerful people. Politics in their texts is almost completely absent (it was not possible to drag even a socially engaged Noise into it). Unambiguous evil is the mainstream in any form: you can’t sell it, you can’t go into the TV, write sounds for Russian blockbusters for money, and if you go to the battles, it’s better not to be a Muscovite, because no one loves Muscovites (and the Battles “Words” are held throughout the country, one of the fresh rollers is recorded in Birobidzhan).

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The most politicized of the top (more than two million views) can be called the duel of the graduate Oxford Oximiron (Miron Fedorov) and the patriotic rapper Duni (Alexander Parkhomenko), held in the spring of 2014.

Like one hundred and fifty years ago, in Russian, but with the help of the imported format, the Slavophiles lead their endless dispute with Westerners. However, today conventions are discarded, and now it is an undisguised competition for the most white ass. As in history, the Slavophile here looks in advance doomed: a couple of years will pass, and Oximiron will turn into a new Mandelstam , and Dunya will remain an eternal loser from the show "Let's get married."

Like one hundred and fifty years ago, in Russian, but with the help of the imported format, the Slavophiles lead their endless dispute with Westerners.

At the same time, Parkhomenko, who is building his consent at anti -Semitic attacks (the battles culture, in principle, marks political correctness precisely as part of the mainstream; here is the battles , in which the Russian in the image of the Caucasian mocks the Caucasian in the image of the Russian), cannot be called mediocre - he is talented and non -lup. But all the more tragic its doom in a duel with a multiple favorite of Versus , and all the more interesting to monitor the movement of thought that outstanding the full tomogram of the Americanized and forever wounded Homo post-soveticus .

Dunya quotes Mohammed Ali (“I flutter like a butterfly, I dislike like a bee”), calls to love the fatherland, tells about his intention to go to the monastery, compares himself with Yesenin, Sasha Baron Cohen and the defense of Sevastopol, and then uses the airtime to pass on Hello Crimea: “Welcome home, my native land!” The entire tragic pathos of a generalized “Slavic task”, forced to use an imported format for self -deporting, is embedded in these lines; From the other end of the scene, a winning reptiloid at Dunya is looking at Oximiron deprived of emotions.

* * *

This is good and bad news at the same time - depending on which empire you would like to live in. The young Russian lives on the outskirts of the global village and from the window of his panel house shows the “Fak” the only tower that he sees - and today this tower is on the other side of the ocean.

The Motorola militant dreams of playing a black Denzel Washington in the movie, Raper Dunya identifies himself with Mohammed Ali. In the two -polar world, “they hung blacks”, and we sympathized with this black. Today, America is most hated by those who unconsciously attribute themselves to the oppressed American minority. Here is a paradox of globalization: in order to fight with Putin, you need to feel your belonging to Russian civilization, and today she has nothing to offer, except for the act of her own bankruptcy. For the same one who has identified himself with Captain America since childhood, it is much more natural to fight Barack Obama - in all his legion guides.