Big interview with Noize MC. What are your expectations for the new album "King of the Hill"? The album has a key theme

Interviews with rappers

Noize MC: "Psychics still exist in our lives"

So, food for thought. Noise MC. He is Ivan Alekseev. He is the winner of the battle on hip-hop.ru and the person who recorded best album of the year according to the readers of the Afisha magazine. Just so you know, the readers of Afisha magazine are the kind of people who usually phallomorph to names you don't know well, like Babyshambles and Aki Kaurismaki. Not for laconic Noize MC. Quite an achievement too. Oh yes. He is also a rapper who buried the journalist Nikolai Fandeev. Writes collaborative tracks with "Cockroaches" and "Lyapis Trubetskoy", listening to respect from Maxim Leonidov and Alexei Kortnev. Yeah, and now, right now, the concentration of unfamiliar names per paragraph has reached a critical level a little less than completely. Ergo: not a person, but just some kind of holiday!!111

So the young rake thought when he crossed into your Rostov. I'm talking about myself, you have to think, not about Ivan. He, unlike me, was paid. If they paid me, I would also come up with normal questions, but I came up with what I came up with. Should we be sad? As it became clear very soon, I was the only one who came up with at least some questions from those *1teen people who fluoridated at Urbania for chocolates and press badges. I wouldn't have thought of them. This is us with eLect, at two o'clock in the morning on the central square of the city singing "There is no plan in the area for 3 weeks," the petty bourgeois, the cops and the never-sleeping cattle were shooing. And yes, it’s me, a television worker, that calls from colleagues in the shop are “From the window ...”. No, I definitely had something to ask this guy. Selected moments from our conversation, filled with sparkling humor and intelligence, I present to your close attention. My pleasure.

Well, my mission statement is divided into parts, chapters, which are the songs, so I can’t call any of them a global mission statement. These are just parts of the whole. Each listener is free to put them together.

Noize MC, by your own statement, you are an artist who is deeply purple in the genre. But what do you like more?

I like hip hop as an approach. This is music that was invented very cool and very timely. This is a current that truly remains touching only in its original incarnation. That is, when you have something to say and when you have a baggage of records on which you need to put your own recitative. And what kind of records you are going to put on - it's completely on the drum. I like hip-hop as a genre that initially did not have its own music, but synthesized various styles in order to create something of its own - unusual. Over time, rappers found themselves looped in the circle of sampled music, some standards and are afraid to go beyond. This is bad, in my opinion. Because hip hop is more than just musical genre is an approach to making music.

Open the veil of secrecy over the new album, what will it be like? Will you, when compiling the tracklist of the album, keep in mind that girls want sluggish things?

There will be delays, girls. Parenthetically: Noize MC usually doesn't answer questions about the new album at all, so three words in this light is a grandiose exclusive info.

- What question could you ask Noize MC yourself?

- Noize MC, how do you explain your stupid appearance at the concert? The girls didn't even recognize you at first.

When we performed at the Kuban festival a week ago, we met a dude named German there, who lived there in a tent with his party. And he said that he himself was from Rostov and would definitely meet us. And he didn’t lie, he met us, and brought us some wigs, crazy clothes, all sorts of interesting shit, and we decided to dress up in him and go on stage. So we have such an image sponsor today.

- Noize MC, comment on the story about Jagafest, which is popular in our Internet (You can read about this sensational story with the defiant anthem "Heroin Fest" from Noise, for example - approx. DEM84).

Many simply were not ready to accept the fact that a person can really say what he thinks, and there were many versions about some kind of viral advertising, initially paid moves. I'm in Once again made sure of the absolute rottenness of the Internet community, at least. Everyone is interested, first of all, in the question of whether I received the dough for my performance. Not received. And not only did I not fucking get it, but I also have to give my dough in addition to these fag * races. And therefore dont beliv the hype, on the one hand, do not believe the show-offs. On the other hand, believe in psychos - they still come across sometimes in life.

- Noize MC, remember your most unusual freestyle?

It seems to me that the organizer demanded that this mockery of the artist be stopped, I have already read about three hundred freestyles on the recorder, but there was not a single unusual one among them, which is why I am leaving now, and that’s it. And all the best to you, all the best to you, I'm leaving. No, my name is not Vova, my name is not Dima. Although these names are now popular. Today I pulled the guitar strings, today it was fun, today it was carbon monoxide, many people said buee, but he does everything mediocre, I saw these freaks, they showed me fakes, I explained to each of them what they are worth, motherfucker. Everything, the rhymes have become bad, so I'm leaving. After all, Noise MC is not only a name, Noise MC is not only music. Noise MC is a person. He sometimes needs to sleep instead of recording a track. He sometimes needs to sleep instead of giving interviews, that's it, goodbye, damn, fuck you.

So why still Noize MC? What does this mean?

MC is the standard abbreviation for "master of ceremony". Something like an entertainer in its modern sense, but in hip-hop culture they began to call a person who raps like that.

Are you a rapper, then?

It's hard to figure out what I really am. The rap community often doesn't take me for one. We have a full rock line-up in the band, we use very different genres. As for the pseudonym, it was invented ten years ago, when I was fifteen. Now I would choose something in Cyrillic, at least. At least, I would feel like an idiot less often, explaining how the group is called after all, not to mention how it is spelled.

Well, at the age of fifteen, if your name is Ivan Alekseev, you could still compose something else. They say that a common name and surname can cause all sorts of feats - creative and not so. It seems like a person who received such a low-key nomination, then has to prove all his life that he is something special.

Never complexed about his name. Yes, and I have very few acquaintances Ivanov. The name is now rather rare.

And Morrison said that "the songs have to be a little silly." I guess that means that poetry, and rap in particular, doesn't have to be abstruse in order to be understood by many people. But stupid, meaningless, too, should not be.

Tell us about your creative biography.

At the age of ten he began to study music - in music school by class classical guitar. "Move an octopus," as our drummer says.

Is it when fingers run along the strings? Great expression.

While studying at a music school, he participated in many competitions and festivals. Then he started his own group. We were interested in everything: both grunge and alternative metal of the late 90s. But if we talk about the presentation of the word, about the text component, then hip-hop has always been closer. We live in information society with a huge speed of circulation of information, and hip-hop is most suitable for creativity in such a situation.

You grew up in Belgorod. According to rumors, there is a very specific political situation.

Oh yeah! The administration does what it wants. Recently, they tried to ban rock concerts altogether as spiritually corrupting the youth. There is a curfew for teenagers. Penalties for using a mat. Orthodoxy burns there too. Soon it will burn in the literal sense of the word: the administration and the church are intertwined. For example, a few years ago it was decided to return pre-revolutionary names to all streets. Can you imagine what was going on in the passport offices when the whole city went to change Lenin avenues for Holy Trinity avenues in documents? I'm afraid to think how much money was cut there.

Well I do not know. In Belgorod they didn't put me in jail for ten days. Bye.

And why did you say nasty things to the Volgograd servants of the law?

There was a tense situation from the beginning. There is a sign: if there are too many cops at the concert, it means that the organizers failed to agree with the administration and there will be trouble. We have such a song - "Grandmas in a hat." During her performance according to the script free musicians descend into the hall and from the front rows collect money in a baseball cap, while from the back rows coins are thrown onto the stage. Once I was lit up in the eye with money until I bled. I mean, I always knew it was a dangerous song, but I didn't know how. And the police, interrupting the song, ordered to "stop begging." This infuriated me, and I dedicated the following song to these policemen - "Smoke Bamboo", calling them "animals with red cockades." Immediately after the concert, they told me that the police were very offended and that they invited me to go talk to some of their chiefs. I politely refused, then I was detained and sent to a cell. I stayed there until the trial. The heat is above forty, there is no ventilation and air conditioning, iron bunk beds, eight people in a small room. During the day there was no light, and at night they were transferred to the same cell, where the light, on the contrary, was not turned off at all. And my wife was in the hospital. A few days before that, our son Vasya was born, I was present at the birth. We agreed with her that I would go to Volgograd for one day. They didn't even let me call her! In general, two days later they took me to court, where a local lawyer was already waiting, who immediately began by saying that, they say, would I like to apologize to the cops through the media. I replied, “I don’t want to do that.” Nevertheless, at the trial, he said that I was ready to apologize. And then I said nothing - I decided that now was not the place to find out all this with him. I was sure that they would now issue a fine and release me. But then I was informed that there was a personal petition from the head of the local police department, Sitsky, that I be sentenced to the maximum arrest under this article - 15 days. Judge Shipovskaya left to confer with herself, returned, and - oops! - ten days. Later, however, the conditions were better in the receiver. Bunk beds instead of bunks, the window even opened. It was still very hot though.

Were you taken to sweep the streets?

We were going. I immediately said that I did not refuse work. But when there were reports in the newspapers about my arrest, everyone was very nervous there, they were very frightened of the press. They were not ready to take me to work in front of correspondents, so I sat with refuseniks, among whom were my fans. Then we performed prison rap together with eggplants on racks. Classic, in general.

And what happened to this penitential song?

I was hinted all the time that my performance could well be reclassified as criminal article"public insult to a representative of the authorities in the performance" and we must apologize. But I wrote the text initially in the format of hard banter. They want to sleep. And I was surprised to learn that they took this sarcasm at face value.

The eyes are afraid, but the hands are doing. I just say what I think. And I am aware that everything can end very sadly. But this is not a reason to be silent.

Olga is the sister of my very good friend and colleague Nastya Alexandrina, the one who performs under the pseudonym Steisha, we had a joint video released a few months ago. From her I heard this creepy story. By the way, Lately a completely rotten version began to spread that I was “ordered” the song “Mercedes-666”. So, I declare that I wrote a song about an official crushing people myself, without any requests, payments and instructions, solely at the behest of my own soul.

Speaking of rotten versions. Another one has become quite popular: they say that all these arrests and troubles are such a competent PR move. I sat for ten days - and the whole country, and the whole world, speaks and writes about you.

Only emotionally unhealthy people can put forward such versions. That is, we sit with the producer and decide: we will insult the cops, they will put me in jail, we will make a fuss. Oh, and my wife is about to give birth! In cool, even more publicity! That is, I am such a demon of hell. The only real consequence of this “PR company” so far is the ban on my performance in Cheboksary. I was headlining there, but before the concert, the organizers warned that there would be no Noize MC.

That is, you just honestly accept the banner of the rebellious rockers of the 80s in order to stand on the barricades - with a microphone and a guitar.

If only with a guitar and a microphone, then ready. And so I think that riots, revolutions do not lead to anything good. We still need to look for a third way, in my opinion, and not just go to smash shop windows and overthrow governments.

Or maybe you will stop these nonsense and start singing like everyone else? About spring, about love, about Pepsi-Cola...

I sing about love. About Pepsi Cola? I already sang about the Jaguar once. The Pepsi-Cola company was the sponsor of the concert - we filled syringes with this drink on stage, and threw the empty ones into the crowd. Sarcasm was again not understood, and not only by the Jaguar, which is natural and expected. Difficulties began with the State Drug Control Service, which ended in a fine for drug propaganda.

And what would you ban singing from the stage, if you were the Minister of Culture? Or the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs? Are there any actions that should not be on stage? What would you blame an artist for? Or is complete freedom a priority?

Probably, there should be some restrictions, although I cannot really imagine these boundaries. Nazi slogans from the stage, let's say - it's completely uncool. Although, if I had to compose such a law, I would seriously think about it. For example, often hysterical people are ready to take at face value what was said with unconditional irony, for example. In general, I would think for a very long time.

They say that the Nashi movement wanted to cooperate with you, offered to perform at Seliger and write an anthem for them. Are these rumors?

No, they really offered me to write an anthem for them about two years ago. I wrote. Very good. For example, there were such words:

“Our movement is the best.

The coolest, the most honest!

Our movement will not be stifled!

This is wonderful! Thank you investors!

Politics is an extremely exciting activity:

We take a mountain of dough and diligently spend it

For paid rallies, fictitious parties.

Here it is, Russian democracy, her mother!”

For some reason they didn't take the anthem, I'm still waiting for the money. While sometimes you have to sing it yourself, at concerts.

Do you have fans? How's the rock and roll spirit? Still alive?

Alive, still alive! But when sodomy moods grow around, I, like an exemplary family man, hide in the dressing room and read mantras.

No, this is again a joke. Over the superstitions of artists who are always afraid of the word "last", and over how they constantly arrange "farewell tours". But in parallel, this is also a story written by our drummer Pasha Teterin. About how all mankind perished in nuclear war and only 25 musicians and one cop survived. And so the musicians decided to record the last album - either for this cop, or for something else - under the curtain of humanity. Publishing house "Amphora" has released a book with an enclosed disc. Buy, read.

Do you feel the change music world around you?

It has become extremely versatile. Previously, there were familiar sources of information, now so much is thrown at you that you are helplessly floundering. People are no longer ready to listen to the same band for 10 years, they constantly need something new. But those who have long become popular are no longer concerned - and they will not go anywhere, they are on a different train.

Have you changed any orientations in connection with this? Relatively speaking, six years ago it was necessary to write a three-minute song with a chorus for the radio, but now it is not necessary, because instead of radio, everyone has the Internet.

Landmarks are the same - as far as it resonates with my small circle. These are real people that I play a song to in the kitchen or put in a little column at the airport while we wait for a flight: “Look, dudes, what I did.”

- What are your expectations for the new album "King of the Hill"?

I think it's a very hit record. It is laconic, there is not a single song on it, which I doubt, it was made in a short time, on the road - it turns out that a midi keyboard can be put on a table in an airplane and compose something. Approximately half of the album is already performed live. This is a good test drive for the material to understand how to bring it to mind and subsequently fix it in the record. In general, I think that this is a very good and solid album.

- Which of your albums does it look like?

On the first two records, only brought to a more compact state. Here we have a lesser degree of kaleidoscope and vinaigrette. Although there is also a wide genre palette here, and an acoustic ballad can coexist with a drum and bass action movie.

When you started, rap listeners were excited about the fact that an artist appeared in the genre who destroys clichés and combines everything from grunge to electronica. And over the years, this combination itself has become a stamp.

Although I still try new paints, there is a set means of expression that have already become mine own style. Many artists perform the same song in different variations all their lives. I don't have one, I have seven. Which in itself is already good. But I always try to play the eighth.

The track "Petersburg Roofs" is included in the tracklist of "Tsar of the Hill"

- How did you sign up with Monetochka?

Contacted via VKontakte. I listened to her album, I liked it, we began to communicate. It turned out that this is an actual, modern, living person who has no border between himself and his stage image.

- It is surprising that other famous artists have not addressed her until now.

And they applied, I was just lucky more than others.

- Does the album have a key theme?

This album is about playing someone else's game by the rules that someone else came up with, you are participating in the wrong competition. About the value of creating your own own world. And that, let's say, everything external and superficial is very fleeting, so you need to turn your head around less and focus on your own and the present.

The vast majority of your listeners are unlikely to go to ultra-creative creative work. Will such a message affect them?

This is not the only message of the record. But if we talk about this line, that value judgments from the outside should still be filtered, then this is a message that in the world social networks concerns everyone.

- Is there any story about how you came to this?

My career is this story. For many years someone has been thinking and saying something about me. And if you pass all this through yourself, then you can go crazy. I don't do it anymore. I remember the notorious 2010 when everyone had an opinion about who I am, what I do and how good or bad it is. It was hard times I gave it too much importance. All this crazy hype eventually subsided, and the 2010 album remained - and, it seems, remained for a long time.

It must be nice to be the center of attention. And from this, for sure, some kind of super-sharp feeling arises. Despite all the negativity.

This feeling exists in pure form, without impurities. In the "Stadium" I go on stage, in front of which 5 thousand people have gathered. And I understand that I'm here for a reason and now something very cool is going to happen here. And when the 115th journalist from Volgogradskaya Pravda comes to you and asks why you wrote the song “Mercedes S666”, knowing the answers to all your questions in advance, such attention does not help you feel better.

"Make Some Noize" - the first single from "King of the Hill"

I understand, but it's hard to believe that there was absolutely nothing pleasant in this attention. Especially when it was not the 115th journalist from Volgogradskaya Pravda who came, but the intelligent Andrey Loshak.

There was a different feeling. Speaking specifically about the case of the Mercedes S666, there was a feeling that such actions could turn the tide of this sad story. Thought about it. Was it enjoyable? It was nice to realize that the power that I have is able to help people. And the endorphin from the fact that, how cool, they interview me - most of these interviews were attempts to get me to clean water. Maybe you remember how I went to Oleg Kashin for an interview?

- I must have forgotten about it.

I don't often think about it either. Just since we touched on all these events.

- He tried to press you?

Well, yes, and a few months later I did another interview, just as unpleasant. Without this, everything is much easier. The state of unbridled hype, when everyone around is bowing your name, maybe it brings pleasure to someone, maybe someone deliberately goes to this. I was always interested in writing songs, creating some kind of worlds. Look, there's a band Die Antwoord, I saw them - and I immediately have a feeling of the world they created. They are unique, they are cool, despite the fact that in general I don’t listen to such muzlo. But it really touches me. At the same time, I am not at all interested in poking around in some details, where, what and to whom they said.

Or the idol of my youth, Kurt Cobain. It is clear that there were drugs. And yet he blew his brains out, in my deep conviction, because he took what was said about him too seriously. I have read a lot of biographies and literature related to Nirvana. There was a time when he ran around the mansion from Courtney with a selection of magazines that had derogatory articles about him. She tried to throw them away, because he constantly reread them and experienced some kind of masochistic high. Although can it be called a buzz?

In 2010, just a lot of people had the feeling that words can influence something, that a song can change something. And in 2011, after Bolotnaya, the mood in society changed. In this sense, the story with your rather innocent phrases about Ukraine - “I was there, I didn’t see Bandera” - is indicative, which caused nothing but hatred here.

That was very strong feeling and disappointment. I felt absolutely helpless trying to get through to people, but the fundamental possibility of dialogue was completely absent. Whatever you say, they don’t hear you, everything about you is clear in advance. That's why I freaked out at Kuban: go ahead… you still don't want to listen to anything (at the Kuban festival, Noize MC turned off the microphone when he started talking about Ukraine, in protest he left the stage and returned to it naked; subsequently, several dozens Russian concerts were canceled under various pretexts. - Note. ed.).

- Have you thought about leaving the country?

I perceive emigration only as the last way to avoid prison or physical violence. And I don't want to leave.

This year, Noize MC released such a video for the song about the rebellious Lenin "Lenin Has Risen" - this is part of the English-language album, which was actually planned for the end of 2016, but was shifted to "after" King of the Hill "

It is necessary to go to some more life-affirming topic. Let's remember another story from 2010, how you quarreled and reconciled with Sergei Shnurov.

We got along really well, yes. If we didn't fight, we wouldn't be friends.

- And you continue to keep in touch?

We communicate, yes. We meet periodically when I am in St. Petersburg, but Sergey has such a schedule that this happens infrequently.

- Can you remember the circumstances?

The song "Khimki Forest" was released, saying that all these songs on socio-political topics are not sincere. A separate line about the devilish "Mercedes" referred to the "Mercedes S666". I always had a good attitude towards Leningrad, that's why it hurt me so sharply. Well, I also composed such a parody song, taking as a basis not the most famous hit"Leningrad". And if you do not know the original, then such an answer could seem very dirty.

Many did not take it as a parody. Nevertheless, this was my answer for Sergey himself, and not for the screaming people around. Well, it didn’t get any continuation, he just kept silent, and then on his birthday in 2011, six months after this clip, he suddenly called me and began to sort things out. We talked rather ambiguously, and although we found some points of understanding, our conversation, I remember, ended with “Well, I don’t hear apologies” - “What are you, what ... apologies.” After that, we saw each other a few months later at the Stepnoy Volk award, where Vasya Oblomov introduced us. Sergey Vladimirovich was tipsy, so the conversation began with some kind of bull-calf, and ended with the fact that at 6 in the morning we were drinking on the Fontanka, near his house. The gathering was colorful - some people constantly approached, Shnurov took whiskey from the store with the words "Record on my account."

With the clip "Shave the Star", filmed in 2010 at a concert, Noize MC rather boldly entered into a confrontation with Sergei Shnurov, responding to his song "Khimki Forest"

At the Afisha Picnic-2015, you met Zemfira and tried to cooperate. I take it nothing happened?

It's not like nothing at all. We co-wrote several songs. In the form in which we wrote them, you can not hear them. She was responsible for musical part, and I am for the texts. The lyrics have not gone away, I just wrote different music for them, and they entered the album.

- Why is that?

Well, we did something, but we didn't finish it all the time. And at some point they stopped talking. Under certain circumstances. But it's an interesting experience anyway. I respect Zemfira, she composed a lot cool songs, she is an interesting melodist, a great composer, direct and sharp man. And among other things, also a cool beatmaker. Zemfira makes cool beats.

- You say "interesting experience". What, for example, can such an experience teach?

I was very inspired by this acquaintance, I composed several songs that I really like. Without this very acquaintance, these texts would not exist.

- Are you today to some extent interested in the world of Russian rap?

Russian rap is ok, I remember that earlier it was a genre in which it was very difficult to find something really catchy and not causing any questions. Now this is easier.

- Does this music often give you the feeling of "I'm too old for this shit"?

No, not too much. I have repeatedly said that I like Oksimiron's album - I expected it to be battle rap and humiliation of an imaginary rival, but what I heard pleasantly surprised me. The Scryptonite album is very original, and although its value system is not close to me, I admit that this is a landmark record for Russian rap. ATL is great, I like how his electronics work, and everyone praises his lives very much.

Some things, like the same cloud rap, I'm not interested in as music, but as social phenomenon like something new that we can learn about the world. Our bass player talks about this, that the new generation has realized that in the list of sex, drugs & rock-n-roll, rock-n-roll is an absolute superfluous thing. And went straight to the point, so to speak. Rather, they broadcast a certain lifestyle, where sexual objectification is maximum, where a woman is a whore, and already bored and not very interesting. Neither love nor longing nor pity.

- What happened to you at the Versus battle? You looked like you...

It's like something happened to me. My life was falling apart. I won't talk about it. Just believe it was.... And this battle itself ... - it was a cherry on such a cake! That in comparison, its size is simply ridiculous. I never reviewed it. I only remember that I freestyled there and it was even too frank.

The miserably lost Versus battle took place at the end of 2013 - the battle movement in Russia at that moment had not yet gained momentum; Noize MC was almost the only artist who collected five-thousander clubs and ventured to enter Versus

When you were younger, you could indulge in funny and daring attacks on or Andrey Malakhov. And now they're jumping on you.

Some things make you think about karma. I'm not as aggressive as I used to be. Even if you take some completely early period, up to and including 20 years old, I, as a rule, still concentrated on creativity that was unpleasant to me, and not on personality. As for the mentioned examples… My actions at that time were a response to someone's rudeness and so on. That is, when I received some kind of poke from the outside, I immediately rushed to answer, I had such a motive, now I don’t have it. Just not interested. Do what you are inspired to do. If you're not inspired, don't do it.

- You've been your own manager for the past few years, right?

I have a manager, I never wanted to deal with administrative matters, and this is simply impossible with such a volume.

Yes, but now it's your employee, and before your producer was in charge of your management. Could you consider whether the artist needs producers in the future, where we all suddenly find ourselves?

By by and large An artist needs a team. Good SMM manager good designer, a good booker that rocks concert activity. It is even better if there is a manager who is able to negotiate at a more serious level. However, there are artists who do all the work themselves, and it’s more convenient for them. And for me it's uncomfortable.

I like to give examples of the same Shnurov or Oksimiron, who turned their social networks into popular media that provide contact with the audience without intermediaries. Why are you ignoring social media?

I understand how powerful a tool they can be. But for this they need to be properly addressed. If I have a good idea about how the world works, I'd rather try to turn it into a song. To be honest, in the current state I am much more comfortable than 5 years ago. Because I'm finally doing a lot more time with music, without being distracted by other husks. And it's great. And much less extra people around, who perceive this music much more superficially. When at your concert half the audience just came to visit the donkey exhibition - "Oh, this is cool now" - I went through it. Of course, this flatters self-esteem. But it's much cooler when the people who came to you know where they came.

I recently saw you leaving the Sokol metro station on the way to a concert Twenty One Pilots - and got scared by the number of people who literally jumped in to take pictures. Did you even go to the concert then?

Yes, everything is fine. On the way, I found out that it was not in vain that I had Twenty One Pilots like - audiences strongly intersect.

You are now giving 2 concerts in a row in Moscow. Isn't it difficult? And what is it like to give a concert on your birthday?

Vania: Why is it difficult? It's hard to do 20 gigs in a row (laughs) and here there are 2 concerts and moreover in the same city where I live. As for the birthday... We already had experience. 2 years ago, when we presented our disc called "The Last Album", by the way, in the same club, only it was called "B1", our bassist Sasha Kislinsky had a birthday. Therefore, this is already a passed stage. (smiles)

I have often been to your concerts. Where is it more convenient and easier for you to perform: in big clubs, in small “kvartirniks” or in general on the Arbat?

Vania: They often ask me this and ... I never chose ... (laughs) There are no festival concerts on your list, but that's another story altogether!

OK then. Your kids are growing up now and the question is: How do you feel about the current school education?

Vania A: Well, I like the old generation (smiles) Of course, I say that in our time everything was much better and education was also better.

It has always been interesting to communicate with you... Here, tell us your opinion about the civil war in Ukraine and about that situation in general.

Vania: I can't understand what's going on there. That's what, namely the war, I don't want to see there. Yanukovych is not best president and who is the best, I don't know.

It's clear. And what is the most unusual gift or surprise you were given or made?

Vania: During the last tour, a girl from Penza gave me a small copy of my guitar. This is very nice.

Cool ... But ...

Vania: Oh, wait... Gifts... I completely forgot... Today my family, namely my wife, gave me a pendant in the morning, which contained the fingerprints of my sons: Vasya and Misha.

Oooh, how cute...

Vania: Yes, it's actually very cool!

Well, look, since we have a music site, the following question follows: What groups do you quote?

Vania: Good ones! Quote only good bands! Bad - I do not quote! (laughs)

What interesting things have you heard in the last 3 months?

Vania: Over the past 3 months….

Well, at least for 2014

Vania: I spent the last 3 months on Koh Samui, in Thailand. And at some point, all our friends were there. All the musicians were there and it felt like a kind of KUBANA (laughs). Here Yura Kaplan, also known as Valentin Strykalo, played all his songs. You could ask him, and he would play whatever you want (laughs) That was the coolest concert!

Cool! Do you go to any concerts yourself?

Vania: Certainly! I have been to Die Antwoord 2 times. Of the groups that perform under the backing tracks, this is the coolest.

Exactly! Whose concerts would you like to attend?

Vania: They told me that Deftones play very cool live ...

Well, here they are all onParkLive this summer...

Vania: Yes, Park Live, for sure ... We must remember ... If we don’t go anywhere, I’ll definitely go.

Look, a question from our reader: “They say that architecture is frozen music. And about your songs, you can say ... "

Vania: What is this architecture falling apart? (laughs)

No, “Can you say something similar about your songs? Does it feel like when you record a song, it takes on some shape or color?”

Vania: Shape or color... Well, yes, the shape, but sometimes the color does not get (laughs)

What next releases can we expect?

Vania: Our New film. Along with it, a soundtrack disc for the film will also be released. Just six months later.

And the clips?

Vania: Are the clips also a release? Of course there will be clips and songs… There will be a video for the song “Captain America”… We are really looking forward to it!

Well, look, such a fast blitz. You must respond very quickly.

Vania: Let's

What do you thinkGTA5?

Vania: Not played

What is your favorite dish?

Vania: Well .. let there be dumplings

When to cut?

Vania: In future. Get a haircut in the future.

How much do you sleep at night?

Vania: How much will...

What a sad blitz...

Vania : (smiles)

What is your favorite vacation spot?

Vania: Well, let there be a coast.

Vania: Good! Very good! He would help everyone! (Laughs)

Thank you Van and happy birthday again!

Vania: Thanks, bye. (smiles)

Interviewed by: Alexander Nechaev.

Ivan Alekseev has passed over 30, and he has remained an idol of teenagers, a fighter against the system and an inconvenient artist for government agencies .. It contains a reasonable refusal to emigrate and a special look at arrest Centr groups.

website: You announced an English-language album. As part of the work on it, did you study what texts your British and American colleagues write?

Ivan Alekseev: I have a RapGenius application in which I analyze tracks. But this is not the main source of information. Rather, it is needed to keep track of new expressions and phraseological units that rappers use.

website: From a literary point of view, is Russian rap richer than Western?

Ivan Alekseev: As a rule, Russian-language texts are stronger regardless of genres. In our space, poetry is given more attention. And paradoxically, our musicians have a broader outlook. Even in marginal music.

website: Vitya AK-47, a conditional native of Yekaterinburg, is still more educated than a rapper brought up in Compton quarters?

Ivan Alekseev: Vitya AK-47 certainly strives for Western counterparts (laughs), but compared to trap artists, he is simply a storehouse of knowledge about the world around him. In the West, more attention is paid to how. And we have to that - what. The text part suffers there, in Russia the musical part suffers.

website: But at the same time, the level of the concert industry in our country is growing?

Ivan Alekseev: This is true. Even despite the fact that in Russia, for economic reasons, there is a decline in concert attendance. People have less money, and a full refrigerator is always more important than music.

website: Were there times when you tried to repeat some tricks from Western concert shows?

Ivan Alekseev: We peeped at one moment, it seems, at Rammstein. They put me on the hands of the spectators in a rubber boat. It was a good swim, I managed to read a farewell freestyle for about five minutes (smiles). Then I saw this chip at Max Korzh. Normal succession!

website: What is the fate of the collaboration with Fred Durst that you have been wanting to do for a long time?

Ivan Alekseev: History in limbo. Fred will soon come to Russia with a tour, and we will warm up in one of the cities Limp Bizkit. So there are many meetings ahead, I hope we will bring to mind the idea of ​​a joint song. Recently, by the way, I saw Fred. He said that he really liked our latest clip "Jordan".

website: The feeling that this video was filmed somewhere in the Middle East.

Ivan Alekseev: In fact, the shooting took place in Leningrad region. The illusion of the desert was created by a talented team of clip makers, probably the most professional I have ever encountered in my entire career. I hope we keep working.

website: Whose idea was it to shave your head?

Ivan Alekseev: My own, but it fit well into the overall concept of the video.

website: By doing this, did you want to support the vocalist Sasha Sokolova, who performed the chorus, who already had cancer at that time and, unfortunately, died?

Ivan Alekseev: I understood that this would have many reading options, including those related to oncological diseases. But I did it for some internal, purely personal reasons. I can't explain them.

website: You flashed several times on the popular Battle Versus. Is this project a completed chapter for you?

Ivan Alekseev: I don't want to go back there anymore. This is not at all like the spontaneous rap battle that I'm used to, nor the songwriting, as in the battle of hip-hop.ru. The way Versus exists doesn't inspire me. In addition, it requires a long preparation, and time is a very rich but limited resource. It is better to spend it on more creative things. Versus is still a destructive Babylonian entertainment.

website: You fought there with the poet Yuri Khovansky. After this scandal, did you want to “wash yourself off” or, on the contrary, did you feel like a peasant?

Ivan Alekseev: Well, I wouldn't call it a fight. He behaved inappropriately, waving a can of beer, pouring over me and my wife. Although I approached him with a peaceful attitude, joking, of course, but with humor. He took everything with aggression, so he got on the scoreboard. In the same way, I could get on the scoreboard, but Khovansky did not answer. The story that I hit him without warning - kindergarten... Although it is clear that there is nothing to be proud of here. Dealing with issues like this is not my thing.

website: You disown Versus, but instead, as a jury member, you participate in the battle of the MTV channel. What is this project?

Ivan Alekseev:"Beats & Vibes" is somewhat reminiscent of "The Battle for Respect", but it has a slightly different mechanics of what is happening. Each MC is given a topic on which he writes a track. After that, two DJs - they are also the sound producers of the show - turn on the backing tracks in turn different paces. The difficulty is that you need to read the text to the music that you hear for the first time. Participants will have to adapt to the beat, changing the manner of performance on the go. Now the casting is going on.

website: The other day you also freestyled in “ Evening Urgant on the occasion of the 120th birthday of Sergei Yesenin. Taking into account the fact that Channel One is state-owned, and you have recently been an unshakeable artist for government agencies, were you surprised at the invitation?

Ivan Alekseev: No, because Vanya Urgant does something that stands apart from everything that happens on Channel One. He invited me for the third time. In 2012, we performed the song “The Universe is Infinite” there, then there was participation in the program, dedicated to the day Pushkin's birth. Plus, once we were called to freestyle with Will Smith. True, while I was getting to the studio, he googled who Noize MC was and refused to meet with me. Will Smith is a white and fluffy show business character. Apparently, something frightened him in my turbulent biography.

website: Last year, law enforcement officers canceled half of your concerts. Has the pursuit come to an end?

Ivan Alekseev: More like dots. Last year, we not only had cancellations, but also transfers to other venues on the day of the performance. Of course, we struggled with the circumstances. Somewhere they did it, somewhere they didn't. And so the warnings to the organizers constantly come. The Chelyabinsk prosecutor's office, for example, sent a paper that you need to beware Concert Noize MC. We are dangerous! (smiles).

website: What do you think is wrong with the city of Krasnoyarsk? First, your concert was canceled there, then the members of the Antidealer movement contributed to the arrest of the Centr group.

Ivan Alekseev: Apparently, the people ruling in it revel in their power and thus fulfill themselves.

website: Revel or PR?

Ivan Alekseev: If you are talking about Dmitry Nosov and his Antidealer movement, then there is an obvious PR rationale. This person does not shy away from creating newsworthy stories. He is both a wrestler and a singer, and in general I am surprised that Nosov still does not write pictures and does not make films. It will probably start soon (smiles). As for our notorious circumstances, other goals were pursued there.

website: The story of the arrest of the Centr group is probably consonant with yours, given the fact that you were once imprisoned for 10 days?

Ivan Alekseev: Yes, and in a global sense, this means that Russian rap has become big genre, an instrument of influence. What is happening with various rap groups repeats the history of American gangsta rap in the first half of the 90s. There are clear parallels with N.W.A. and Public Enemy. Naturally, for people who have to experience unpleasant emotions in a cell, this is a negative. But it's a sign of recognition! State structures would not pay attention to some radical death metal bands gathering 15 people at the highest grossing concerts.

website: Will there be more and more persecution of Russian rappers?

“Given the course chosen by the leadership of our country, our prospects are not the most favorable.

website: The song “Save my speech”, written for a film about Osip Mandelstam, can be updated in this regard?

Ivan Alekseev: I looked at individual scenes of the picture and realized that this is an incredibly timely work. Roma Liberov is a great fellow for being able to choose a topic so competently and develop it so sharply. When it comes to destroying works, technology has changed. It will not work to extract information at once. What is happening then and now is not analogous, but rather rhymes in trends. Today, fortunately, is not 1937. You can't lose your life for what you wrote. At least within the law. And when we have the 37th again, I hope it will coincide with the last century only in numbers.

website: Is Osip Mandelstam among your favorite poets?

Ivan Alekseev: Communication with Roma made me pay more attention to him. close attention. To some extent, I rediscovered Mandelstam. From school curriculum I remembered only a few of his poems, because the poet was not the most popular. But the fact that he is a little deprived of attention is undeserved.

website: Does the image of a truth-seeker bother you today?

Ivan Alekseev: Well, it's not a fictional legend. I only talk about things that really matter to me. Yes, it is combined into a sum of impressions and decomposed by people into stereotypes. But people always do it! It's easier for them to perceive reality. Because there is not enough space in the head to store a lot of details and details. As a result, everything is compressed into a compressed press release. I don’t reflect on this topic, because I don’t have the opportunity to compare it with how it would be if everything had turned out differently. You know, when you mix a song in the program, you can listen to the voice with and without the effect. Choose an option. Life is a linear thing, in it, unfortunately, this is impossible.

website: After centuries, descendants will still be judged by a press release. As now they sometimes judge Yesenin or Pushkin.

Ivan Alekseev: I don't have to think about it anymore. Yes, and as soon as you look back at what they say about you, you make a mistake. You look back and can't take the next step. I used to have reflections. Between 2010 and 2012, for example, when many of the labels you mentioned were put on me for the first time. I tried to resist and chew, but I realized that I was only losing people who did not need these explanations. After all, they understand everything. And the other part of the audience did not understand even after chewing. So I left this idea.

website: You love dystopias. Is life in Russia moving towards this genre?

Ivan Alekseev: Partly. Dystopia can depict a capitalist society reduced to the point of absurdity, or communist terror, as in George Orwell. But they are united by the fact that the ruling circles manipulate public consciousness through information control. In our country, too, attempts are being made, and sometimes quite successfully.

website: When you see that the nuts are being tightened, concerts are being canceled, cinematography is being strangled, troops are being sent to Syria - don't you want to get away from all this garbage? Somewhere in Bali, for example?

Ivan Alekseev: At such moments, I start thinking about my children. I really want to give them a good education, make versatile personalities. All this is not entirely compatible with downshifting. I appreciate the Russian language and Russian-speaking cultural space. Therefore, I do not think about any emigration. It is clear that if I had a choice: either execution or life imprisonment or moving, I would choose the latter. I don't want to be a suicidal hero.

Text: Vasily Trunov
Photo: Zhenya Khazhei

The editors of the site Chelyabinsk expresses gratitude concert agency for help in conducting the interview.