Russian rap refers to hip hop music with lyrics in Russian. The genre existed in Russia at least since the 1990s, but only became mainstream in late 2010s.
The pioneers of Russian rap was a group called Malchishnik (Мальчи́шник, Russian for "bachelor party"), but the recognition of the rap genre came with the rise of Bad Balance and their album Naletchiki Bad B. released in 1994. Russian hip hop, just like Canadian hip hop is inspired by Rastafari music, which hit an up-swing during the fall of the Soviet Union.
Only a few Russian rap artists have achieved commercial success: Detsl, Bad Balance, Kasta, Belarusian artist Seryoga, who combined original rap with the native Russian satiric song genre chastushka which some critics consider a new branch in the rap genre: rap-chastushka. Although some rap fans[citation needed] believe he does not belong to the Russian rap scene, the musician won the nomination for best Russian rap in 2005 on the MTV Russia Music Awards. Mainly Timati, who received great success in 2006 after releasing his first album Black Star.
In 2007 CENTR became increasingly popular, partially due to aggressive promotion on the internet.
In 2008 on Russian musical channel Muz-TV started a hip-hop show Battle for Respect, which led the winner Ant (Zasada Production) to become highly popular.
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