Love lyrics of spring aggravation: hip-hop poets cracked the bonds

Alternative scene artists sang on the theme of tender feelings

On the eve of the hormonal surge of spring, artists of the alternative scene began to sing on the theme of tender feelings. In one day, two releases appeared at once from representatives of “high” hip-hop, which you can listen to without fear that your ears will curl up from rudeness – Matey and “OdnoNo”. As it turns out, even the brutal genre is no stranger to calf tenderness.

Neodecadence by Maity

The new album by the artist Matey was released on the terrible date of March 22 and now looks like a heavy premonition, although, of course, it was accidental, like all mystical coincidences. The disc is called verbosely, but elegantly and not without conflict, “If you think so, you don’t have to put my plate on the table.” Like everything Maty does, this is intelligent, subtle poetry aesthetically framed in the social frame of hip-hop.

The album contains ten short tracks, mostly around three minutes each. In some of them, the artist does not support the verse-chorus format that developed in the 20th century, but follows his own free compositional logic without unjustified repetition of individual lines. Given the presence in its repertoire of the old romance by Marie Poiret “I was driving home” and “The Cocaine Addict” by Alexander Vertinsky and the general sluggish but rather ominous atmosphere of doom, we can say that this is a kind of decadence from hip-hop. As the performer himself says, he doesn’t write anything when he’s happy. “Don’t sing, nightingale, near my cell, don’t disturb my prayer, nightingale” – this is how this sad album ends…

But what about the author’s plate? The track about her is in the very center of the album’s composition, and it’s called “Plate.” It turned out to be a fierce thriller about the intolerance of a lyrical hero accustomed to the highest manners (the author himself comes from the modestly populated but proud city of Alatyr in the Chuvash Republic, and was unlikely to be a participant in high-society novels). It tells of a castle surrounded by a palisade with human heads – this is how wives in this kingdom are punished for bad manners: “A castle would live without coins, but a wife without manners is a skull on a post.” If we translate this line from a high calm to a simple one, then here, apparently, it is said that with a sweetheart there is heaven in a hut, but the girl does not share this idea. As a result, the hero, intolerant of the abuse and rudeness of his poor wife, sleeps alone, which he bloodthirstyly does not regret. By the way, the chorus of this gothic symphonic rap repeated several times in melody is reminiscent of the chorus of the megahit “Strange Dances” by the group “Technology”.

“The forks of phrases and the candlesticks of words are thrown by the flock, / Since you think so yourself, then you don’t have to put / My plate on the table.”

It is gloomy and sad that the love boat once again shattered into pieces in everyday life, while in “Technology” the conflicting love at night ended quite peacefully, and everyone remained alive every morning.

Neoclassical love “OneNo”

Another sad release on March 22 was the single “Smoke” from Alexey Myshkin and the OdnoNo group. The team, which from the very beginning had a reputation as the spiritual direction of the Russian indie scene, and the songs were filled with reflections of a seeking soul, parting words and calls to turn to the highest within oneself, finally sounded on the theme of the simple and understandable suffering of romantic love and the pain of parting. After many years of hip-hop, mixed with dense electronics and acoustic ethno-rock, the group turned to the neoclassical genre and gentle violins in collaboration with musician Anton Kholomiev.

This is already the second love single for the upcoming album; the first sign was a song with the trendiest name “Oversize”. A single about the loneliness of a beautiful businesswoman in the flow of days, who yearned for a tender love relationship, and here is an offer that cannot be refused… The topic is tooth-grindingly relevant for hormonally dependent, but still independent and strong residents of megacities. One such successful lady, sitting with a laptop in a “golden cage” with a swimming pool somewhere in nature, apparently remotely, is constantly shown in the video for this song. Either she throws flowers from the balcony in madness, then she swims alone in the pool right in an evening dress, then she cries in the dark at night – the suffering of loneliness is monstrous, but senseless, because, despite the off-screen whispers in Myshkin’s voice about curls of hair and promises of all kinds of delights of love, in The man never appears in the frame. The girl dissolves into the darkness in tears. That’s all neoclassical love. It’s not clear to the average viewer: are the musicians taking such exquisite revenge on their heroine for her independence, or are they really compassionate?

Against the backdrop of the main international spring holiday – March 8 – both works look worthy of discussion at a meeting of the party cell of Bulgakov’s “Heart of a Dog”. And jokes aside, they encourage extensive reflection on the possible change in the place of women as an inspiration and muse in the soul of a modern poet and musician.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29244 dated March 27, 2024

Newspaper headline:
Love lyrics of spring exacerbation