During a meeting with several cultural advisers in St. Petersburg on Saturday (December 15), Russian president Vladimir Putin reportedly set his sights on rap music and criticized its perceived “drug propaganda.” According to the Associated Press, Putin wants to control — not ban — rap music in Russia.
“If it is impossible to stop, then we must lead it and direct it,” he said. “Rap is based on three pillars: sex, drugs and protest.” He added that he believes drugs are “a path to the degradation of the nation.”
Putin’s comments follow Russia’s growing censorship on contemporary music. Late last month, Russian rapper Husky was arrested after he held an impromptu show on the roof of a car. His concert in Krasnodar had been shut down on the evening of November 21 after local prosecutors told the promotors his show had elements of “extremism.”
Before the 25-year-old artist was taken away by police, he shouted, “I will sing my music, the most honest music!”
Putin has condemned other forms of controversial art in the past. In 2012, Russian feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot staged what was deemed a “sacrilegious” performance inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Consequently, two members of were arrested on charges of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and sentenced to two years in prison, sparking outrage across the pond.
As reported by Reuters, when asked about the arrests, Putin replied, “We have red lines beyond which starts the destruction of the moral foundations of our society. If people cross this line they should be made responsible in line with the law.”
Putin’s attitude toward rap appears to echo his feelings about the incident.
He’s 100% right. If Trump is in cohorts with this guy, that might not be a bad thing… less Migos more Rakim. 69 pedkeshi in a Gulag.
No. That’s not how it works you idiot.
It doesn’t work like that, he meant all rappers.
Sorry, but he said the element of DRuGs. He actually didn’t say all rappers. He said control, not ban. Jackass.
It’s important to remember that the Russia government wants to be the only “source” of information.
Yeah. Thank god the western media is always so unbiased. Especially when it comes to the middle-east.
Where’s the lie?
Does this mean Lil Xan won’t be touring Russia?
he really incites the protest. fight the power!
It’s a slippery slope though. One of the ‘three pillars’ he mentioned is protest. That means there is a possibility for many MCs to be highlighted who we all know should not be. It’s not too dissimilar to Spotify’s shortlived ‘hateful conduct’ policy, in that it was a power that was always going to be abused at some point.
Is Putin starting a hip hop beef with Jay Z & The Brooklyn Nets ?
fuck this bloody dictator!
He likes the murdering part tho
The revolution will not be televised
Honestly he’s right.. Rap music is the problem with black ppl..
You’re the problem with people. If everyone who thought like you killed themselves tonight the rest of us could make some real progress.
We are gonna build brand new blaytiful gulags for wack and mumble rappers
Doesn’t he the murder journalist, opposition party members and jail protesters cause he dictates? Aren’t his people starving and can’t have an opinion that goes against him? Who is allowing the flow of drugs around the world? Didn’t a Russian agent get caught pushing sex for info in the U.S.? White people are funny.
Your English is funny, bitch. You should just write your comments in Uga Buga or whatever secret code you speak so you can realize how irrelevant you are. White people? Are you serious? The car, plane, internet, airplane, smartphone, satellite. What did non white people invent again? Oh yeah, genocide, savagery? Please eat one thousand dicks. Go to some bagpipe or conga website. This is HIP-HOP. An American art form.
White People are obsessed with rap music lmao. No culture having people. Yall abandoned country and rock to be full time wiggers Lol
Yeah, Classical music, theater, opera, art, fashion, wine, whisky, cognac, culinary arts, sculpture, museums, democracy, modern medicine, literature. No Culture whatsoever. One day the most creative creature to inhabit earth will reach the pinnacle of “percacet, molly percacet, represent, gotta represent”, or rhyming “Wiscaaansin” with “Mansion”. Hahahaha. I’m sure Kodak Black will have a greater influence on history moving forward than Shakespeare, Plato, Musk, Gates or Davinci. Are you commenting here from a prison cell? How ignorant are you?
You realize that all those things were taken from African culture, right?
You do realize that all those things come from African culture, right?
Classical music (France Germany, Africa’s didn’t have the instruments), the internet (US, no tech in Africa), modern medicine (antibiotics, america, World War One), Art (French and italian Artists have the most amount of priceless pieces), culinary arts (any type of cooking with sauces, marinades are from Europe or China), democracy (Greece, before Christ), literature maybe, since Egypt is Africa, and you might get away with considering drawings of snakes and eagles on walls, literature, although… When speaking on literature most, civilized humans speak of Dante, Milton, Chaucer, the Greek Tragedies. You’re still ignorant as fuck. None of that came from Africa, moron. Please don’t type. Get an online GED or something. Grown men with college degrees that speak 3+ languages and have travelled to all these spots (including Africa) are on the keys..
Ok so, all the literature you mention happens to be originally in English or easily read translated into English, which suggests you might be a little more ignorant than your lecturing rhetoric would have us believe.
Also, the internet as we know it was invented by a British dude.
Dante plaigiarized a lot of The Divine Comedy and compared to the likes or Rumi, Milton was a hack.
Strictly speaking, nobody invented antibiotics as we produce a lot of them naturally. However, in medicinal terms, the important early work happened in France, Britain and Germany, not America. A Moorish guy called al-Zahrawi was sort of the pioneer of surgery, though, and he was pretty African.
An African was also the Emperor of Rome at one time, but you probably didn’t learn that part.
Who’s ignorant now?
Speaking English… While saying they have no culture lol? Saying we abandoned OUR culture? What? That’s pretty ironic considering you do not even speak your native language lol.
Putin is actually right. Every rapper seems to rap about chains, bags, drugs, bitches, suicide door lambos and gang violence in the garb of “speaking the truth about hood”, but no one seems to suggest a solution.
Every rapper? Your limited knowledge of hip hop is breathtaking.
He obviously meant 99.9%. Idiot. He excluded the .01% that no one listens to. You got it, you’re no one. Hahaha
Yeah we’ll just cherry pick the one form of entertainment that has influence. Maybe some of you clowns should go live in Russia, based on these comments.
Russia wouldn’t allow it, buddy. They don’t like sJw hipster combucha breath soy beta Vick’s like yourself or the rest of the sissies. Only in ‘Mercia the weak talk strong.
That you, Vlady?
White People don’t season their food
Look at you. Being a good little dog and falling for the racial divide. You are exactly what they want bub! Good luck with all that hate
Agreed. They also don’t die 20 years earlier than other demographics due to high blood pressure, cholesterol, oh… and prison/gunfire. Jackass.
Just wait. White folk in the industrialized world are about to see life expectancy go back the other way cos they spend most of their day deciding whether to add cheese and bacon to each meal and sitting in front of a screen.
Who fook is that guy
hip hop glorifies all types of illegal activities
What he’s saying is true. Only a fool will deny rap destroying the youth through promoting ignorant living
The powers fund destructive hip-hop cause it keeps blacks ignorant, self destructive n killing one another. Selling poison to your community, yr doing the work of racists by yr own
That’s some real shit Holmes. Preach. That’s maybe the first time I’ve agreed with anyone on here. It also keeps whites cheering on these victims as they slide towards the cliffs edge.
Lol yeah, rap music is what’s to blame for black on black crime, drug dealers, and ingroance in general. Rigghhhht? Who can I blame for my shortcomings in life then?
Were your family abducted and brought to America as slaves? Because the whole “being property” versus “owning property” situation skewed wealth in America ever since. And poverty brings mental health issues, addiction, poor schools, substandard housing, increased propensity for violence.
And it’s funny that when reasons are given for one people’s struggles the first thing you want is to find an excuse for why you aren’t doing better, even with your headstart.
You know what we do in America? When we fear rap artists who could empower leaders to make real change or become leaders themselves, our Execs (or govt) pushes trap music and drug music to dumb down hiphop so revolutionaries never have the mainstream following again. Our rap icons are pilled-out rap artists now and there’s no one to champion the cause of the people. Why is it that druggie-trap artists are so popular now, and revolutionary hiphop or even REAL hiphop can’t get a record deal. Guess what, the hype is manufactured, the streams and views are manufactured, their star-power is manufactured, and we’re all being lead who to like and it never ends up to be the good guy. Always the trap star. America doesn’t champion true ARTISTS who make bodies of work like they’re masterpieces anymore. Think about that. We want our athletes to be top-notch of highest skill level, we want our food of the highest quality, our movies and actors to the highest of authenticity, but we accept and even champion rappers who completely lack all skill in music. It’s mind blowing. Trap suuuuuuucks
Yeah. Moron. Because “woke” artists like T.I. (Machine gun/silencers), Killer Mike (Black Mafia Gang, Atlanta), and Twaweeb Kwawee the rapist are being held back for being “revolutionaries.” Idiot. None of these morons address the 2 million in prison from forced plea deals and mandatory minimums. The reason? They can afford the lawyers that keep that shit at bay. Read up Ese. Stop with the SJW combucha rants. These idiots that you are praising are also part of the problem, not only the keychain troll puppets in mainstream rap.
I hate people like you that blame popularity of trap music on the government pushing it on the public lmao.
Its not like listening to Tupac fixed the inner cities lol.
He wants to control self expression. Yeah, good luck jackass.
I wonder what Martin Luther King Jr. Would have thought of today’s rap music if he were alive lol. I think he would be a little bit dissapointed, going from funk, rock n roll, and blues, to joking about raping kids, selling drugs, and killing people (like biggie smalls). I like biggie and rap, but I wouldn’t doubt that the effect rap music has had on culture itself is overall bad.
You haven’t even established correlation, let alone causation. How do you know that the music didn’t become more violent as a reaction to society rather than the other way round?
And what about metal? As a genre it is far more violent than rap. Maybe we should ban guitars.
That’s hilarious! Metal more violent than rap? Hahahahhahaha
The biggest problem with hiphop is toxic masculinity, and racism. You have Eminem, who is the top selling hiphop artist, while black hiphop artists are starving in the streets, like Jayz. That’s racist America for you. I mean, Eminem has even more money than Soulja Boy. That’s racism. And toxic masculinity? Exaclty. Think about people like DMX, who was very strong, tough, threatening, and called females the B word.
Just joking everyone. Fuck the PC SJW movement.
You gotta be kidding me. I don’t see masculinity taking lives but I see heroin taking lives left and right. And that’s just one drug
Read my post, then comment. Don’t just read the first sentence or two. Makes you look stupid.
But all of us who did read the whole thing think you’re stupid.
Best stay under your bridge…
Putin is fascist
My man understands Black America better than black Americans or Obama. Hahaha. Hopefully he is in cahoots with Trump.
Go Pussy Riot
Someone please tell me why we as consumers like the highest quality of skill or authenticity in our athletes, movies, food, doctors, women, even our politicians, but most of y’all are ok with the wackest music genre ever created; trap music. You love it, you defend it, you think there is cultural impact/worth with that music. You are the problem in the industry and on the streets. Destroying your own culture.
I’m not the biggest trap fan, but I’ll rationalize it for you as soon as you justify all of the music you like to me.
Just sounds unreasonable when you put it like that, doesn’t it?
X, I listen and appreciate music that involves skill and has cultural worth. There’s the justification. I can appreciate all genres of music, but trap is repetitive, unoriginal, lacks creativity, has no substance, lacks authenticity, declines the culture, what else can I say. I’m dying to hear your rationization! Tell my why those watersprinkler hi hats are so amazing.
Putin speaking truth as always.
We all know hip and rap music took a turn for the worst in the 90s when gangster rap was put in front to the masses to raise jail sentences. I’m not sure we can censor rap music at this point but when if so the damage to the generation of now and years to come has been done.
The era of gangster rap came from the crack epidemic, though. You can’t divorce art from its societal context, and the same guys making that music had grown up in what amounted to warzones.
It’s actually harder to justify newer rap music, which is being consumed by ennui and where drug-taking is apparently celebrated.
I listened to all that 90s rap and never once thought I might want to smoke crack. But how many Travis Scott fans have never drank codeine syrup? How many Lil Xan fans never took prescription pills?
That’s true about the 90s coming from the crack era and not separating art from society. I think there is a thin line with art reflecting life because you and I both know that even though some of the 90s rappers grew up in tough environments alot of them just talked about it as a means to a end 2hich in turn glorified killing and drug usage. Todays music is suitable to impressionable teens so it only makes sense why most the rappers you see today promote the goofball shit because most kids are going to eat it up.
True, the 90s did come from the crack era. You’re absolutely right in you cant separate art from society but at the same time during the 90s alot of those dudes didnt grow up street goons so when they started glorifying killing and drug use they were the ones promoted the most. True, you may not of wanted to do crack but I’m sure you and someone you know wanted to tote guns because your favorite rapper talked about it. Todays youth is more impressionable than the yesteryears so todays rappers are most influential in the lifestyles they live, which is why you see more pill and lean epidemics than ever before.
“You know the whole repertoire, US to the USSR..”
Rap cannot destroy a nation but you & your buddy sure can?
Can’t even think of a Russian rapper
I agree with Putin, rap music lately is indeed only about drugs and sex. It had been ruined.