Russian Ghetto Compilation Vol.1

Russian youngsters are used to ignore the cruelty and poverty of the place they live, especially when it comes to the music. They rarely describe the reality and prefer to think like they are from Brooklyn, Berlin, London or, maybe, Paris. What to say, for many reasons protest songs are nearly extinct as a genre and that’s surely not because the times are getting better. Thankfully, with every month new electronic scene here becomes more connected with “poor Russia” reality. Not that I am starving on the street, but check out these pics from «Berjozka» community: they are insane and it is required to stress additionally that they are true.

It all started two years ago when Vtgnike release a tape called «Vanity of Nothingless» where he created a brand new juke subgenre based on the Soviet pop music and weird Russian scene of the 90s. It took a time to understand what Danila had done to us, but to the end of the year he ended as an acclaimed creator behind the most popular record of local underground scene.

It took a year more to get courage and accept that Russian pop music of 90s was not just funny — sometimes it was really impressive. In attempt to make it all serious, DJ Azamat and Raumskaya created a «Beryoza» community that had just released a first «Russian Ghetto Compilation Vol.1». It could be uncanny to sample all these 90s and 00s artists even a couple years ago, it was creepy even to think that most talented Russian producers would agree to do it in a serious way. Finally, the music is here to enjoy — Russian juke made of birch juice, infinite carpets, bandit vibe and cruel samples.  To move further it is important to accept the world we live in. Here is our first attempt.

Words by Dmitry Vesnin