Горгород - рецензия на английском

A rap concept album? It sounds inspiring! Usually rap is about consumerism, women, cars, drugs and criminal adventures, sometimes about social inequality and solitude. However, someone has made it a Wikipedia to the beats.
Oxxxymiron is a famous Russian rap artist, someone who has lately overthrown the game. He is the most unusual representative of this genre, as he mixes long passages full of mythological and literary allusions with harsh and provocative  street smart punches. This combination of intellect and brutality has made him increasingly popular even among people who are far from listening to rap. As a battle artist, he has beaten many Russian rappers and he was even admitted to be stronger than Dizaster in their competition in 2017. Oxxxymiron states that he moves the Russian rap culture to the West, and he’s quite successful in this: his battles have millions of views, his albums are played on the radio, there are some artists who try to copy his style. His signature highlight is double rhyming and a technical flow. He delivers his lyrical meanings in a passionate, intense way. We can see he is being sincere and authentic. One of the most widespread comments about his creativity is this: “I never thought that rap could make me read”. This is true. There is even a student in Russia who has written a dissertation based on the analysis of Oxxxymiron’s lyrics.
So here is a unique masterpiece of this rap star: ‘Gorgorod’, his second album and seemingly the first concept album in Russian rap. This is a mysterious, dramatic, socially disturbing story about an imaginary town in which hypocrisy is mixed with crime, drugs, corruption and extreme poverty. There are a city mayor, his lonely and misunderstood daughter, a successful writer, his literary agent and a Guru who is the only one brave enough to confront the power. The story combines social pathos, mythological similes and a romantic storyline. Someone suffers a creative crisis, falls in love with a wrong person and is killed by an unknown murderer. The tension grows from track to track, you can literally see the town’s contrasts between rich areas and dark, untidy favelas full of beggars and criminals. You delve into the spiritual world of Mark, the main character, follow his life from the childhood to fame, hear the voice of his agent who is preoccupied with his progress, and long preaching of Guru who wants to destroy the existing order by means of a working class revolution. The lyrics are deeply psychological and full of brainy literary connotations. Pay attention to ‘Everything is interlaced’, a song about a conspiracy theory, ‘An ivory tower’ - the track that closes the main plot, and ‘What have you become?’ - a story about fame and its influence on a person’s character.
The album is meaningful, bright and unusual for the genre. It reveals human nature through a consequence of events and dark omens. It is, in fact, an antiutopia novel in music, with allusions to Orwell and Huxley, Indian philosophy and European classical literature. It is an inspiring attempt to  take rap to new intellectual heights.