"Live, Kayfui - and that's it"

The song "Smoke" is prohibited in Russia. Its author refused an interview for more than a year - but now he told Yuri Dudu about his life and work

The song “Dummy” released in August 2023 began to gain popularity from the beginning of 2024. The track spread extremely quickly through Tiktok and Instagram, rose to the leading positions in the top charts of streaming, and by the current moment the clip for it scored more than 76 million views on YouTube.

The video was blocked on the territory of Russia on February 2, 2024: the Prosecutor General’s Office banned the video due to “drug propaganda” at the request of the Russian Veterans organization. However, the lock lasted only 10 days. At the end of the same year, an administrative case was opened against the contractor. The authors of the song are an unexpected duet from Kazakhstan: 62-year-old Itsyk Tsyper (real name-Igor Tsyba) and 30-year-old Bitmaker Damir Abaev (Amisko Beats). It is known about them very little: many tried to interview them, but they refused. However, journalist Yuri Dudu managed to meet them in Belgrade. New Europe retells the main thing from a two-hour interview.

Why did the "smoke" become popular?

The “haze” combines a thieves motive and simple electronic arrangement. The hero of the track spends a day in the company of friends, drinks beer, and also tells how “smoking, well, it seems not to manure”, and his friend “blew the steam locomotive”.

The song was encouraged in Tik-Tok and other social networks thanks to the gaming community playing Escape from Tarkov. Which Stremer noticed the first to be the first to say: according to one version that Medusa writes about, such was the author of the JointheSystemm channel, according to the Afishi - Stream228 streamer.

Many, perhaps, attracted not only text and melody, but also an unusual combination of genres: the tsyper style is often called “Haus-Shanson”. In an interview with Dudu, the co -author of the track Damir Abaev said that the track is like a mixture of chanson and modern dance music.

Co -author "Dyma" - who is it and what is known about him?

Igor Tsyba was born in the Kazakhstan city of Kostanay in 1962. His father is a honored coach of bullet shooting, his mother worked in trade. After studying at the construction technical school, where Igor entered after the eighth grade, he went to the army, served in the Tver region. Then he worked as a builder.

In an interview, the chicken recalls that due to the anti-alcohol campaign and cigarette deficiency in the 1980s, many “twisted” tobacco, including grown houses. The song "smoke" is often associated with marijuana, and the author replies: "Let them think as they want." He claims that he never used it, moreover, he has not been drinking for six months.

-Then the 90s begin. How did you meet them? - asked Dud.

“They themselves came, Yura, I have not met them,” answered the chicken.

For Igor, according to him, the 1990s flew out of their "everyday problems". He states that he helped a friend to do business ( which one does not specify, but recalls that the business was associated with “grain” or “flour.” - approx. Ed. ), And claims that he never had a crime. A chicken also says that he never sat in a pre -trial detention center or in prison: “I need it? I feel so good. "

- Where then [in the songs] a thieves mood? - asks Dud.

- Well, why immediately thieves? This is life, this is what is around us, ”Igor replies.

Igor says that he was married for 25 years, but later divorced. The musician’s ex -wife, he said, preserved good relations. “All life is a recognition of love to someone,” he said. The couple has an adult son - a doctor of sciences, notes the chicken.

How are songs such as “smoke” are born?

The chicken writes songs with the Kazakhstani bitmaker, 30-year-old Damir Abaev. According to Igor, music and words are created "in the basement." Abaev, in turn, admits that he learned to create music on YouTube videos: “He slowly studied every day. What is incomprehensible - according to the tutorial, everything is on YouTube. "

Damir earns by completing orders for commercial projects. Success in music, including work with Igor, allowed him to close the mortgage, the bitmaker claims.

- There is no thing in a world on which Igor cannot write a text, but can you write a bit? - asks Dud.

“That's right,” answers Abaev.

How does the co -author of “Dymka” live and why does he avoid publicity?

Now, according to Tsyba, it does not work anywhere. To the question of Dudia, where the musician in this case takes money for food, he replies: “Somehow [products in the refrigerator] appear. This is not a problem. Lord, what is there, this is not omara. Everything is very simple, cheap. I can eat for free. "

The chicken says that she maintains relations in correspondence with a woman living in one of the European countries, although he has not seen her personally for a long time. In addition, Igor supposedly has relatives in the USA, whom he visits.

Dud quoted Medusa, which wrote in the material about the success of the “haze”: “Before us is the song of a person who does nothing, and it suits him completely.” Igor confirmed that the wording is correct.

The popularity of the “haze” did not affect the life of a chicken in his hometown: “As they lived and lived. <...> It happens that people come up, even <...> and they say: here he falls asleep under the “smoke”. <...> Previously, there were lullabies, now “smoke”, ”says the musician.

To the question of Dudia, why the chicken avoided publicity for a long time, did not give an interview and refused joint projects with other artists, the musician replied that he did not need an extra “hype”: “I was not hiding anywhere. Why should I hide? I'm not wanted. What is the point? <...> I did not refuse - I just did not answer, and that’s it, ”he said to Dudya.

Despite popularity, the duet is extremely rare with concerts: according to the musicians, they are ready to go on tour in only two cases - if a person is addressed to whom “you can go and chat”, or when they invite them to an “interesting” place. Igor states that he and Damira received many proposals about tours, including the cities of Russia and Kazakhstan, but they say that they almost always refused: “We don’t need it, and that’s it.”

When talking about life goals, Tsyba says that he intends to create his own clothing brand. Igor draws sketches and admits that he would like to develop wardrobe items that would suit people of various complexions. According to the artist, his main task is not to make a profit, but to see that his things really wear.

- I do not spend my nerves on anything, Yura. Look: now something has happened, I have to get nervous because of this, in a week it will pass. I think: why am I nervous? <...> Live, Kayfui - and that’s it, ”the chicken summed up.