"These handcuffs to us are like scrapers"

Few famous musicians decide to express their opinion about what is happening in Russia openly - the majority prefers to keep it with them. However, irritation and discontent cannot be hidden, and they are increasingly breaking through in songs that could sound on protest promotions. Below are 18 recent examples from different genres, from rap to an electropol. For freedom and civil society, against state arbitrariness and police violence.

Listen to the playlist "New Protest Songs" on Yandex.Musiki or YouTube

1. "Cockroaches!"

"... and nothing but the truth"

The entire first part of the anniversary album “15 (... and nothing but the truth)” of the punk group, which celebrates the 30th anniversary this year, can be called a protest-even an indictment, aimed at the authorities and passive generation of 40-year-olds . Despite his solid age, "cockroaches!" We plunged into a street protest with the fervor of the young: before the action on February 2, the leader of the group Dmitry Spirin recorded a video message in support of Alexei Navalny. On the streets of Moscow "Tarakans!" Then we went out with their fans and shot a documentary video for the title song of the album. “We decided to take it off just like that, because we discovered how much the plot of the song composed long before that, thoroughly coincides with the events in the life of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny and all other Russian political prisoners that we would like to support this song” - this is how the group commented on the appearance of the clip, which will definitely not show on Russian television.

Quote: “Let me be weak, let me be scared, / and chain dogs are torn from the leash, / And my life is not worth a penny, / but I'm not a slave, and I don’t care, / What kind of punishment do you choose. / I will be free, even depriving freedom. ”

2. Pussy Riot

"Enrages"

This video clip of the state-owned electric package project, in which Nadezhda Tolokonnikov soloes, was released on February 1, 2021 -immediately after the arrest of Alexei Navalny-and is dedicated to the opposition and all political prisoners. It also ends with documentary chronicle - the arrest of a group that shot a clip and a collective portrait in the interiors of the St. Petersburg police department. “We demand that you immediately free Alexei Navalny, Masha Alekhin from Pussy Riot and all political prisoners, convincingly ask the security forces to take the side of the protesters, and Putin’s team will immediately leave the Kremlin,” Tolokonnikova wrote on her facebook, publishing a link to the clip. They didn’t listen, but the clip is currently more than 440 thousand views.

Quote: “Rat hissed in the subway:“ Heretic ”. / In the Department of Internal Affairs, I was driven into my passport: “heretic”. / On my unshaven face - “heretic”. / I love a beautiful knife that does not leave evidence. / Electricity on the nerves, today I do not believe you. / Ay, with a baton to me on the ribs, I sing blood today. ”

3. Antokha MC

"Russia"

Antokha MC - the lyrical hero of Anton Kuznetsov - was not seen in bitter thoughts about the fate of Russia until January of this year. On the contrary, his original songs were beamed with cheerfulness and optimism, and their author found beauty in the most incredible phenomena of everyday life. Apparently, he accumulated with him. On January 23, Anton Kuznetsov was detained in Moscow during the rally in support of Navalny. The musician had a drum with him - according to him, he walked along the underground crossing on Tverskaya Street to play music. The Kuntsevsky District Court fined the artist for 10 thousand rubles for participating in the action.

Quote: “I am born in the country of Russia, / impoverished in the whole world. / The poor in every apartment, / After all, they completely forgot about us. ”

4. ATL

"Bracelets"

Sergei Krupov, who speaks under the ATL pseudonym, occupies a special place on the Russian rap scene. It is no accident that the nickname "Shaman" glued to him. Its most famous tracks are colorful hallucinations in which pagan and esoteric images-symbols are laid on an all-pervasive dance bit. If you listen to the albums more carefully, it becomes clear that ATL offers to escape from the oppressive Russian reality (“black snow”). On his last single, the “bracelets” rapper, born in Novocheboksarsk, was extremely concern, dispensing without myths and legends - this is an evil and sharpened social rap about what is happening here and now, under which you can nevertheless dance.

Quote: “Bracelets for bracelets, / bracelets for bracelets, / already on the wrists there are no places. / Pack in the groove, as if in briquettes. / Bracelets for bracelets, / Yes, bracelets for bracelets, / and you inherit them from the bati. / These handcuffs to us are like scrapers. "

5. "Casta"

"Come for a walk"

The most intelligible statement for peaceful protests and against the police violence made the classics of the Russian rap “caste” in the video for the song “Come out for a walk”. He appeared in November 2020 , he was perceived as a reaction to street protests in Belarus, but events in the winter and in the spring of 2021 showed that he, alas, will be topical and relevant for a long time. The Casta Participants did not leave the topic of civil rap lyrics on the last album of the “Osminog ink” (“Years of Railless”, “Private Sector”), and one of the founders of the Vladimir group appeared on several protests in support of Navalny.

Quote: “We play with zero, do not put the cross on zero. / Do you want to give a podzhoptor - you are three years old. / They will cut, they will beat, be patient calmly. / Anyway, you will drive, leave the house. ”

6. Basta

"I see"

Basta does not make public statements on socio-political topics, but from his songs it becomes clear that one of the most popular artists of the country observes everything and notices everything. “I see” from the last album “Basta 40” - the continuation of “Sun is not visible” recorded 10 years ago. All the same gloomy diagnosis of the Russian hopelessness: lying, cynical power against the fear entangled with fear; The sun is still not visible.

Quote: “The false holy man broadcasts us about holiness from the amvon, / But his faith is not worth anything without an all -powerful riot police. / A stubborn voice from the screen broadcasts that everything is the norm and, they say, we / we need to tolerate a little more, and so from year to year. / The sun is also not visible in the God of the stored power. / The rusty ship goes to the bottom, and the sad end cannot be avoided by us. ”

7. Noize MC

"Everything is like people"

Noize MC does not remain an observer of what is happening in the country: it can be seen on promotions in support of Navalny and FBK and at the festival in support of the DOXA student publication. A quick, honest and accurate reaction to what is happening in society is what Ivan Alekseev was always strong: remember the stirred up Internet “Mercedes S 666” . The track “Everything is like people”, which entered the tribe of Yegor Letov, appeared back in 2019 and was conceived by the author as an anti-utopian about the near future of Russia, but it is more and more like the truth.

Quote: “She will buy a Lego / for her nephew at MEGA tomorrow for his birthday day. / In the set - auto -zak and three people: / two cops per one - all like people. / Everything is like people ... "

8. Anacondaz

"Let them die"

Anacondaz alt-REP-group from Astrakhan recorded in the genre of fantastic anti-utopia a whole mini-album “My Children will not miss”-the story of ardent young hearts living in protests against the system. She was explicitly inspired by the so-called rioters of shkolota in 2017 . With a spectacular guest verse about Leha-cosmonaut and the banality of evil in the call track “Let them die” a friend Anacondaz noize MC appears.

Quote: “ Please, Stand Up! / Common sense! / Please, Stand Up! / Freedom of speech! / Please, Stand Up! / Hands behind the head - and to the car carrier. "

9. Husky

"What I jerk off"

Husky is not the first time to make Vladimir Putin the hero of his track. For the first time, he fucked him with his birthday, when he was still known to anyone- in 2011 and eight years later- in 2019 , in the remake of the Seventh Seck , after he visited the enemies of the regime . On the last album of the Khoshnog rapper provocateur, Putin is named after the name-he appears in the most discussed track “What I Fingering on”, where in the plot he forces the sex hero’s sex-and all of Russia. Curious Devolution of Putin's status in Husky tracks: if in 2011 he is a bored king-father, then years later-criminal authority and rapist in the zone.

Quote: “On the lips, swearing swearing, / When I realized that a man entered me. / He felt like a heated jelly. / I turned to him: yes, this is Putin. "

10. "Keille"

"Come in, went out"

The fall in the rating that has occurred recently, and the sour image of the president is also fixed by the cult of RAP-TRIOS "Khothevka". “Everyone is worried when Putin glues, I am different,” says his hero, a noble “romantic and a bandosik”, who, penetrating penthouses and villas, like Robin Hood, robs “common funds on overexposure” and destroys their remnants with acid. “New Nobility,” they spoke of themselves. “New Russian Oncology” retorts the Khotlokostov.

Quote: “Everyone does not like Putin, and I also live with him. With him, money metastases spread in reality. ”

11. Dolphin

"Summer"

The dolphin refused to hang on his dilogy of the albums “442” and “land” “political” or “protest” labels. According to him, these are albums with elements of anti-utopia-song-reproduction to young people not to become a pawn in someone else's game and cannon fodder. However, against the backdrop of the news about sudden military maneuvers and the president’s boys, the powerful antisystem charge in the angry songs of the dolphin becomes undeniable with intercontinental missiles.

Quote: “And then everything will begin to share everything, / but not to share. / The abomination of the new ones will present the faces, / Other, waited for a long time, evil, / Torn into pieces that remain, / will make pity for the truth, / They will pour blood a lot, again, again. ”

12. IC3PEAK

"March"

In the fall of 2018, the IC3PEAK audiovisual duo, like Husky , faced the repressive machine of the Russian state: their concerts were torn off, the musicians even got to the police. This traumatic experience inspired the duet to create a “march” clip - a totalitarian horror, which clearly shows many bad signs of modern Russia: a rollback to the Soviet past, strengthening state control over a person, replacing patriotism with a militarization - and what this will inevitably lead to.

Quote: “The air around every year of stuffy. / I don't want to kill people. / Without an invitation, enter my house / new word and new law. ”

13. "Time Machine"

"Zone"

The inventor of the Rock-Akatchi genre Andrei Makarevich, on the recent album of the “Time Machine” “Machine” “In a meter”, compared a modern society with a prison of exemplary content, which brought a fair amount of bitterness to the bright in the mood of the mood. However, Andrei Vadimovich left hope for a good ending: according to the classics of Russian rock, freedom, like devastation, is in the head.

Quote: “They say that we are an exemplary zone. / The pasta is properly given in the catering unit, / OMON detachments are held by the entire perimeter, / the political officer proudly said. ”

14. "Spleen"

"Give Harry Potter if you suddenly see him"

Another master of aphoristic rock lyrics, Alexander Vasiliev, during the pandemic 2020, poured his bile about everything that was happening in the satirical pamphlet "Send Harry Potter if you suddenly see him." The song became popular by inspiring other rockers to the answers of Vasiliev, and the Spleen group- on the 16th (and the most spontaneous in discography) album "Vira and Mine".

Quote: "Yesterday there was a king, all the steep and proud, / and the boy said:" And the king is naked! " / The boy immediately broke his head from his feet / and sewed an article to him. ”

15. "Porn films"

"Uncle Volodya"

In the above song of Antochi, MC “Russia”, the hero listens “Porn films”-a punk group from Dubna, which returned to Russian rock politicization and directness of the statement. On the last album of the group “This will pass”, its leader Vladimir Kotlyarov once again without any offenses says that he thinks about the situation in his homeland: “With a bag of wet on his head, with electrometes on his hand, my Russia sits in prison ...” At the same time, “porn films” offer not only criticism of the current situation, but also to confront despair - it is not new: it is not new: Vera, Vera, Vera, Vera, Vera, Vera, Vera, Vera, Vera. Hope and love. And another laughter that will disperse fear.

Quote: "Uncle Volodya, spin us with nuts!"

16. Louna

"Silence of lambs"

On the recent album “The Beginning of the New Circle” (2020), Honored alt-Cro-band Louna , founded by singer Lusine Gevorkyan and bass player Vitaliy Demidenko, spoke about the songs of the songs “My Country” and “Silence of the Yagnis” in the country. “They reflect our disappointment, hopelessness and annoyance, that our society has become passive and amoebic,” explains Louna's texts Vitaly Demidenko.

Quote: “When the wolves walked at your dinner, you were silent! / When wolves followed your neighbor, you were silent! "

17. Stereopolina

"President"

Not only rappers and rockers, but also artists, from whom, it would seem, this should be least expected, with social criticism in songs. Stereopolina is the project of Karina Morgunova, inspired by the so-called red disco-Soviet electric foam of the late 80s and early 90s . I must say that then he reacted more acutely to the agenda in comparison with today's Russian pop music - remember, for example, the Golsot and Combination group. So stereopoline voices the ironic sketches of reality under the dance retrogate - quite in line with a forgotten tradition.

Quote: “And for already 20 years / from portraits, the president is watching. / I did not choose either you or me. / But how is it, but how so? "

18. "The largest simple number"

"Tired"

At first glance, this is a song about boredom and cooled feelings. What is political in it? However, it is worth paying attention to the date of the release of the song - it appeared on July 1, 2020, on the last day of the all -Russian vote on amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which “reset” the deadlines of the current president of Putin. So the appearance in the text of this song “King of the zeros” is not a random coincidence. In addition, pay attention to the piercing rat drawn on the cover of the single - does it not remind you of anyone?

Quote: “Tired, tired. You are tired of everything. Go away, please leave completely. ”