MC Vasiliy: The Sound of Disrespect

A few months ago on a Kazakh hip-hop forum, discussions began regarding the identity of an impressive, but well-hidden MC, calling himself Vasiliy.  Questions zipped back and forth, to see if anybody had information regarding his whereabouts.

“He’s got amazing flow!  And the rhymes are really cool, too!  What d’you all think about him?  Where can I get some other tracks?  Does he have any videos?  And where is he from?”

The time spent typing all of those questions might have been put to better use within arm’s reach of a search engine, but MC Vasiliy is indeed something of an enigma.  Most images posted online are deliberately bogus: one of them is included towards the end of this post.

He is professionally associated with the wonderfully eclectic How2Make Records, home most notably to Dzhem and Mujuice.

These deliberate mysteries were put to disrespectful use as the forum’s questions started to produce answers.

“This is the guy who founded the How2Make hip-hop label.  The dude’s got two album’s, a few videos, and a ton of beatbox, hip-hop, and techno mixes.  He’s the best scratch-DJ in all of Russia.  Tickets to his concerts cost $2,000.  There’s no way you could download any of his stuff.  None of it is online;  he only releases stuff on CD – in limited editions of 300 copies.”

If irony was in the room, nobody saw it:  “Wow! I’ve got to buy some of those tickets.  I’d happily splash out with my wages!”  And elsewhere: “I’m off to try and find some MC Vasiliy CDs!”

The straight-faced news “source” offered some more pearls.  “He was on MTV in America recently, giving an interview with 50 Cent.  They were standing there together, saying something or other.  I heard that Eminen wants to do something with him, too.”  Only now did the penny drop.

This same level of disrespect is what constitutes the attractiveness of MC Vasiliy. Nothing is taken seriously, an approach clear on his most recent collection, called “V gostiakh u pesni“;  the cover is at the top of this post.

The title has profound Soviet connotations.  It can be translated, perhaps, as “Visiting a Song.”  The phrase “V gostiakh,” which literally means “to be a guest [somewhere],” was used ad nauseum in Soviet popular culture from the ’60s onwards.

It has the air of a cozy sit-down, allowing the Russian public to get an intimate view of their favorite stars, especially after the loud, severe, and standoffish nature of Stalinist performance.  Nonetheless, in titles like “Visiting a Song,” the feeling of grand, institutionalized music remains.  It’s as if “a/the Song” is a monolithic notion, and we’re all deeply humbled by the chance to “visit.”  We are blessed that Music has let us in.

MC Vasiliy uses this sad aura of po-faced pomp from years gone by in order to cut and paste all manner of samples, some of which come from Soviet folk-tales, kids songs, or straight-laced radio interviews.  Their squeaky-clean prudishness is subjected to a very “grubby,” deliberately sloppy editing.

(Yes, this would be the faux self-portrait!)

On top of this – as the recording’s cover-art might suggest, Western icons are dragged into the act and subjected to the same insolence.  Samples from early Bee-Gee recordings can be heard during a massed giggle-fit, together with some spoken dialog by Bowie. That’s only the beginning…

$2,000 would be a high price for a ticket, but some of his videos are indeed priceless.  And admirably hopeless.

Download these tracks and images to your smartphone at www.cloudtrade.com.  Look for us under far_from_moscow!

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