Cancellation of rap concerts: now Eldzhey is in Yakutia

"Characteristic words of obscene language", "songs of antisocial content"

Rapper Eldzhey's concert was cancelled in Yakutsk. He and the organizers of the performance were threatened with violence

Eldzhey was scheduled to perform on November 28 as part of his Notorious tour (Episode 2). The organizers decided to cancel the performance after numerous threats and calls to ban the concert appeared on social media. As Eldzhey's representatives reported on Instagram, the most aggressive statements against the artist were published in the closed group sakha_ajmaq , but after the announcement of the cancellation, the posts with threats were deleted from the account.

"The artist himself received death threats. The person who is engaged in creativity and is the most listened to performer in Russia was called to be beaten and killed in Yakutsk. We could go all the way and hold the concert. But we are worried about the provocations, the uncontrolled crowd and the threats of attack during and after the concert. We are canceling the concert, let this be a lesson for the city," the organizers wrote . They also promised to refund everyone who bought tickets.

The concert was supposed to take place at the largest venue in Yakutsk, the Triumph sports training center. By the time it was cancelled, more than 1,500 tickets had been sold.

It's not just about threats on social media. Yakut officials have spoken out against Eldzhey's visit

As the director of the Triumph center Pavel Pinigin stated on the air of the YakutskTV channel, he was against the concert and the day before he asked the organizers to cancel the performance due to numerous complaints. He said that he met with the Minister of Sports of Yakutia, Innokenty Grigoryev, who insisted on the cancellation.

On November 27, a message appeared on the website of the Yakutia Ministry of Sports that the concert would not take place, in which, in particular, it was said that Eldzhey is known for performing songs of "antisocial content, characterized by obscene words." It also reported: "For Eldzhey's arrival in Yakutsk, the public and the population of Yakutia began to blame the republic's sports leaders for providing a venue for the pop artist's performance. In this situation, Deputy Minister of Sports Semyon Cherdonov held a meeting with the public, in which he announced the cancellation of this concert" ( spelling and punctuation preserved - Meduza's note ).

Even earlier, the Yakutsk administration's education department sent out recommendations to local schools not to allow students to attend the concert, since "the performer's repertoire may cause children, in particular, to want to use drugs, tobacco, alcohol, and take part in gambling."

This is not the first time Eljay's performance has been disrupted. The rapper's representatives are talking about organized harassment; concerts of other musicians are being cancelled across the country

As the rapper's manager Nikolai Fomin told Meduza, the problems began with the publication on November 20 of a fictitious letter from a woman whose daughter allegedly listened to Eldzhey, which is why she began using drugs and died of an overdose. The letter was widely distributed on social networks, but it soon became clear that its author was writer Alexander Bessonov. At the end of his post, there is a disclaimer that "this is a fictitious story, with the hope of self-censorship by creators." Nevertheless, the text has been repeatedly cited as a real story.

“It’s a strange story, like a custom-made scam,” Nikolai Fomin told Meduza. “We already had a problematic concert in St. Petersburg [on November 23], fortunately the organizers, the A2 club, have good experience, they had a lawyer, he called the right people, the National Guard and the FSB arrived and simply did not let representatives of various organizations who were trying to cause trouble into the club. We had an age restriction of 16+ there, people were posted who checked documents so that [visitors] would be allowed in by age, and if they were younger, they would only let in with their parents.” According to the artist’s representative, the organizers set an age restriction of 18+ for the concert in Yakutsk and subsequent performances on the tour.

In the last 24 hours alone, several concerts have been cancelled in Russia. In Perm, two venues have refused to host a concert by the group IC3PEAK, which had previously been prevented from performing in Nizhny Novgorod and Voronezh. In Vologda, concerts by rapper Husky and the group Friendzone have been cancelled .

Andrey Borzenko