Popular Slavic Hip-Hop

Inspired in part by the European reggae and Eurovision threads i thought it might be interesting to see some of Central and Eastern Europe's most popular rappers in action. Even if you don't like the music (which, on the whole, is perfectly understandable) the interpretation of hip-hop culture is often pretty fascinating.

First up, Timati of Russia. He's the most financially successful rapper in the region so can attract an impressive roll-call of US talent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crk0TK-K_oU

Money In The Bank (ft Eve)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEAaU-oyf2E

I'm On You (ft Diddy Dirty Money)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umLCov9tj7g

Groove On (ft Snoop)

He's kind of like the rap equivalent of Japanese TV commercials Hollywood actors hope you'll never see.

Post your favourites.

Potap from Ukraine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7GPK3OZ8jo

Vnature (ft Nastya Kamenskih)

Interesting combination of hip-hop cliches (gold chains, buxom women lounging around in background, etc) and Ukrainian ones (priest robes, army uniforms, rubashki shirts). He can't really rap but the song's pretty catchy and Nastya's a star.

He appears again with the wonderful girl-group XS on Shtolnya:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2Vi91jy_70

Dress Code (Russia)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw3FY3twBV0

Persona VIP

"I am a VIP/ I have a Jeep / Overtake, cut, all the signals - beep-beep”. Not sure if this techno-pop-rap hybrid is parodying or embracing the cliches about obnoxious wealthy Russian kids but the way the girls attack the verses is great.

Mirami ft VovaZIL'vova (Ukraine)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq10IRIZeUI

Sexualna

Hugely popular at the moment - showing the influence of David Guetta gets everywhere.

"not sure if this russian thing is parodying or embracing the cliches about russia" is pretty universal

do u have any connection w/ the fsu, sv?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnFCAB_WqrM

the other day i decided to search for polski grime

xp, no family connection but i dated a Russian girl for a couple of years and still visit the region a lot. I've tried to keep up with what's going, musically, for about ten years.

I seem to remember Lodz is meant to have a pretty strong hip-hop / grime scene. There's a Polish rap magazine that has a free covermount CD every month - most of it's pretty rough but there's occasionally something good on there.

O.S.T.R's fairly popular:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJt3DFHnlW4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdCLmub_Cc8&feature=related

Polski horrorcore.

I was a big fan of Edo Maajka for a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyU0HRvLSXM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh2FRFhS7QY&feature=related

Timati appears to have lucked into a European crossover hit with the remix of Welcome To San Tropez having been picked up by Kontor. Horrible rapping but the chorus from Kalenna Harper (Diddy Dirty Money) has been lodged in my head all day.