CYGO – Panda E

Welcome to another installment of Media Language Learning. I have been a little lazy about updating this blog recently and I hope to change that from this point forward. Actually, I recently found a YouTube channel with the cartoon Peppa Pig in Russian which I am thinking about using as well to model using cartoons as another media source to practice language. Please leave a comment about that possibility if you’ve got an opinion.

Anyhow, this week, I want to talk about a pretty new rapper called CYGO. From August 20^th to September 2, 2018, his song “Panda E” was the number 1 song according to the chart I usually follow on TopHit.ru.

CYGO, which I learned is pronounced like “tsugo” from this biography, is from Belarus and released the song “Panda E” just this past June. According to this other biography of him, he is about 20 years old and last year was a participant in the TV show “Рэп Завод” where he used the name Leo (his actual name is Leonid Vakalchuk). Here’s another song he released last year in December called “Голос Банши” as Leo.

It’s really cool for him that he was able to have this kind of success. Hopefully, he can keep it going!

New words for me from the lyrics

This song had quite a few words that were unfamiliar to me. I feel like I say that almost every time. There’s so much to learn. If you’d like to see the lyrics page that I used to find the full lyrics, please follow this link! This link is to the Russian lyrics but there is an English link you can follow if you’d like within that page.

Anyway, here are the new words I encountered:

Расстояние – distance, space

This word is in the first line of the song: “Расскажи о том, как рассояние поменяло нас” which I translate as “Tell me about how distance has changed us”.

Создание – creation, initiation, formation

And in the next line: “Как уходили слёзы под созданием темноты” which I interpreted as “How the tears went away as darkness fell”.

Снять тревогу – to relieve anxiety, to calm worries

Занавес – curtain, drape

These two words are in the next stanza in the line, “Я сниму тревогу, ты отпустишь занавес” which I think means “I calm down, you close the curtains”.

Сорваться с цепи – to lose self-control, become furious, fly off the handle, go crazy

Броско – stridently, brazenly, bluntly

This is also in the same stanza as above: “Я сорвусь с цепи, ты скажешь броско” which I interpreted as “I go crazy, you say brusquely”.

Занос – snow bank, skid, slide

The next word here is also in the first verse: “Я на заносах, дело же не в папиросе” and I think it says “I am sliding, it has nothing to do with cigarettes”.

Сносить – to destroy, pull down, tolerate, suffer

This is in the next line: “Разве ты спросишь, кому ты сносишь ты” which I translate as “You actually are asking who you are destroying”.

Кипеть – to boil, seethe, rage, overflow

And this word is in the next line: “Твоё дело не кипеть, и ты будешь петь”. I translated this as “You don’t mean to make me angry and you will sing”.

Покорить – to conquer, bend, enslave, subdue

So, this word is in the chorus: “Правда, покорила меня, сука, твоя правда / Мы бежим стобой как будто от гепарда” which I translate as “You’re right, your truth has bent me, bitch / I run with you as if we’re running from a leopard/cheetah”. I’m not sure what exactly this means but it’s fun to sing along to.

Напоить – to make someone drunk, get someone hammered

Яд – poison, venom

Изо льда – glacial

These words appear in the second verse of the song: “Напоила нас ядом изо льда”. I feel like this sentence is saying something like “(She) got us hammered on icy/glacial poison.” Wow, I am a bit mystified here.

Давить – to squeeze, crush, high pressure

This word is in the next line: “Люди врут пароль, я давлю на газ, я давлю на газ” which I interpreted as “People lie about the password, I put the pedal to the metal, I put the pedal to the metal”.

Review of the song

I would say that, overall, I really like this song. One thing that seems like a trend that I’ve seen from Allj as well is to have a sing-song style of rapping. I think this is quite interesting because I haven’t really hard that from American rappers. So, I think that’s a plus for this song.

Also, the chorus is fun to sing along to. The melody of the chorus is great and also the long-rolled r sound on “гепард” is cool. I personally can’t roll my r’s that long, but it’s been fun to try anyway.

As for the subject matter of the song, I am at a bit of a loss. I can’t exactly understand what the song is actually about. To me it seems like he is in some relationship and maybe there is a fight or something. I am not exactly sure who the bitch he’s talking to in the chorus is. I imagine it is the person he’s in the relationship with since they’re running together as if from a cheetah.

If anyone can help me parse some more of the meaning of the song, that would be super rad. Leave a comment.

One more thing I would like to mention is the rhyming. I think it’s pretty cool that he does some rhymes at the end of a line which rhymes with something in the middle of the line. I have seen lots of American rappers do this too. It’s cool. An example that you can see above is the line I found the word кипеть in which goes: “Твоё дело не кипеть, и ты будешь петь”. It adds a cool rhythm to the song and something for him to emphasize.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! What do you think about this song? What do you think about CYGO? Please leave a comment below!

Dzhigan ft. Artem Kacher – DNA

Welcome back to another installment of Media Language Learning. This week, I wanted to look at another song because, according to TopHit.ru, there is a new #1 song for the week of June 11 to 17, 2018. That song is ДНК (DNA) by Джиган (Dzhigan) featuring Артем Качер (Artem Kacher)!

This is the second week it’s been #1 according to that chart. The music video came out on YouTube on February 15, 2018 so that’s pretty cool for these guys that they got to #1 after several months. Maybe with the weather becoming more summer-like, the scenery in the video got more appealing.

Dzhigan has been active in Russian pop music I guess since 2004 according to his Wikipedia page. The first songs of his that got popular were “Холодное сердце” in 2010 and “Отпусти” in 2012. I have fond memories of hearing these songs over internet radio.

According to this biography, it looks like Artem Kacher participated in the TV show “The Voice” in 2012 along with a couple of other TV shows like Фактор А (Factor A) and Фабрика звезд (Star factory). Good for him to make a music video with a well established star.

New vocabulary from the song

As usual, there were quite a few words I wasn’t familiar with in this song. I feel like a couple of them really helped me to get a better sense about what it was about. Here is a link to the lyrics if you’d like to read them.

ДНК (дезоксирибонуклеиновая кислота) – DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)

Since this is the title of the song, it’s kind of a big deal. I didn’t know this word in Russian and am not sure where I would have learned it or why. It’s cool to finally know it and it changes how I view the song. Dzhigan says it at the end of both verses:

Verse 1: “Вместе мы высоко, под нами облака. / Она в моей ДНК.” Or “Together we are high, the clouds are below us / She’s in my DNA”.

Verse 2: “Нам так легко, легко быть вдвоём. / Ты в моих венах, в моей ДНК.” Which I translate as “It’s easy when we’re together, it’s easy when it’s just the two of us / You’re in my veins, in my DNA.”

This makes the song a lot more romantic than I figured on first listen. It’s about a close bond.

Невесомость – gravity-free, weightless(ness)

This word appeared in the first verse in the lines “И мы набираем с ней скорость. / Пустой хайвей, ночь вокруг, невесомость.” I translate this as, “And we match her speed / An empty highway, the night surrounds us, weightless.” It seems like a very free feeling.

Порознь – separately, one by one, apart

I also found this word in the first verse: “Вместе мы в сто сильней чем порознь. / Греет, когда я в дали её голос.” I interpret this as, “Together we are 100 times stronger than when we’re apart / It burns when I am far from her voice.” This almost sounds like he’s talking about a drug but, as if often said in pop music, love is like a drug.

Проникать – to penetrate, permeate, spread

Here’s the first word I didn’t recognize in the chorus: “С дымом проникаешь в мой организм.” I interpreted this as saying, “With smoke, you permeate my body.” Hmm, maybe it is about drugs?

Дурманить – to stupefy, dizzy, intoxicate

So, this song is definitely about love or drugs because of this line (also from the chorus): “Ты голову дурманишь необыкновенно.” I translated it as, “You uniquely intoxicate my mind.” Maybe it’s both?

Вершина – the peak, summit, top, pinnacle

Here’s another word from the second verse: “В легкие дым, летим до вершин.” I interpreted the line as, “In the thin smoke, we fly to the top.”

Достать – to obtain, get, come by, take

This is the last new word for me from this song. It’s also in the second verse: “И нас не достанут уже никогда.” I interpreted this as, “And they will never take us.”

Did you know any of these words before reading the lyrics? Were there other words that gave you trouble? Let me know! It’s a fun exercise to enhance our vocabularies.

Review of the song and music video

I have to admit, the first time I listened to this song, I wasn’t into it. The more I listened to it, the more I liked it but I still don’t think it’s that great of a song.

I’ll start with things I like: One thing I noticed, which is kind of cool is the rather minimal take on the reggaetón beat. They have a bass drum and a synthesized snare(?) trade off. This makes the drums sound a bit more sparse and adds to the chill vibe.

Honestly, that’s it. Maybe it’s fun to sing along with the end of the chorus? You get to sing, “Охуенно” over and over, which is fun. It basically means “fucking awesome/great”.

As for the video, I think the location is amazing. I want to know where it is. It kind of looks like it would be in Central or South America somewhere. Also, lots of pretty girls.

Now on to things I didn’t care for: I especially think they overused effects and autotune on Artem Kacher’s voice. Anyone can do his job in this music and music video because you never actually hear his real voice except maybe at the end of the chorus during the “Охуенно” part.

Also, once I got over the initial “wow” about the location, the video itself is actually rather boring. There’s some ballerinas and Dzhigan and Artem Kacher stand around. Sometimes they sort of dance with the girls or look like maybe they will kiss or something. It’s pretty boring.

So anyway, I won’t be looking to listen to this song again. If it comes up on my random YouTube playlist, I may be too lazy to change to the next song though.

Timati ft. Egor Kreed – Gucci

Things have been a bit busy for me recently, but I am hoping to get back to regularly adding entries to the blog again from this week! We again had a new record in number of visitors for the month of May with 205 people! Thanks for coming to those of you coming to check out my blog. I hope it’s useful and/or entertaining.

Today, we’re going to look at another song. For the week of May 28 to June 3, 2018 on TopHit.ru, Тимати (Timati) ft. Егор Крид (Egor Kreed) – Гучи (Gucci) was the number 2 song behind Philipp Kirkorov’s “Цветь ностроение синий” which I reviewed in my last entry. Check it out!

This is the first song in my blog so far with Timati in it. He has been a big name in Russian pop music for quite a long time. I remember hearing about him when I was there in 2005. According to his Wikipedia page, his first album Black Star came out in 2006. His first song I remember hearing was “В клубе” which was on this album.

This song is in a long line of popular songs by Timati.

Review of the song and music video

When I first saw the thumbnail for the music video, I thought to myself, “What the hell is Egor Kreed wearing?” Then I clicked on the video and everything was clear.

The whole point of this music video and song is to make fun of a young rapper in Russia called Face. I actually reviewed one of his songs a couple of months ago. Please take a look here. You can tell from the very beginning with all the stupid facial tattoos on both Timati and Kreed. Also, the noises they made during their phone call were all references to things that Face does in his songs.

So, for the comedy value of this song and music video, I really enjoyed it. I wonder if there is some kind of rivalry brewing like back in the 1990’s in the US between east coast and west coast rappers.

To be honest, I am not sure I actually liked the little scenes that interrupt the music video in the middle. One that I thought was especially funny though was the one that starts at 3:33 in the video. The trailer Egor Kreed takes the woman to was filled with his picture which was ridiculous. Then he wants to give her a “surprise” which she misinterprets in a pretty hilarious way.

The music itself was not bad. I think there are a lot of silly lyrics in it mostly to make fun of Face’s style of music. I feel like they were using his style to mock him, which is fairly clever and probably a major reason why the song and music video got popular. Based on the numbers on the TopHit.ru chart, this video got 5.9 million views during the week of May 28 to June 3, 2018. That’s a lot!

I do kind of wonder what brought this song and music video about. Two very established pop artists in Russia decided to really make fun of a newer act. Maybe I will look into it and find an article about what prompted it for my next blog post. If you know why they did this, please leave a comment.

Words I learned from the song

I have to admit that reading the lyrics to this song was really hard for me. It felt like there was a lot of word play that made it extremely hard for me to understand a lot of the lines. So, with that in mind, I only was able to get a few of them even though there were quite a few more that I didn’t really get too.

If you’d like to read the lyrics for yourself, check out this link.

Куча – a heap, pile, stack

This word appears a couple of times in the song. It’s in the second half of the chorus at the very beginning: “Моя сука – модель, три подруги для кучи. / Эта сука Шанель, эта сука, как Гучи.” I translated this as: “My bitch is Chanel, three girlfriends for the pile / This bitch is Chanel, this bitch is like Gucci.” I think that this gives a sense about the seriousness of the lyrics already.

Движ – short for движение(?) – movement, motion

This word appears in the second half of the chorus when Timati joins in: “Это самый грязный движ, будто пятница. / И в моих руках опять твоя задница.” I translate these lines as, “This is the dirtiest movement, like Friday / And your ass is in my hands again.” It sounds much better in Russian.

ЦУМ (Центральный Универсальный Магазин) – The Central Department Store (Check out this Wikipedia link for it)

This is in the first verse of the song: “Папа дал мне денег, чтобы лейбл становился круче. / Я пошел их тратить в ЦУМе, взял себе ролексы Гучи.” I think it says, “My dad gave me money, so my label would become cooler / I went to spend it at the Central Department Store and got myself a Gucci Rolex”.

Опухнуть – to swell up

Шпага – sword, skewer

Here’s another line from later in the first chorus: “Монако-Монако-Монако, заебался, однако. / Монако-Монако-Монако, опухла шпага.” As far as I can tell, this means, “Monaco, Monaco, Monaco I kicked my own ass, but / Monaco, Monaco, Monaco, my sword swelled up”.

Кальяны – hookah, shisha, water pipe

Here is another line from the first verse: “Хожу на шопинг и курю кальяны.” This one was probably the easiest to translate: “I got shopping and I smoke hookah.”

There were a lot more words I had trouble with in this song. Like I mentioned above, it seemed like there was a lot of word play, which is hard to translate but the video did a nice job of helping you understand it. What did you think of this song? Was there any part of the word play you found fun?

 

Allj – Minimal

Welcome back to another post here at Media Language Learning! I took a week off due to a friend visiting from out of town, which was really fun.

This week, we have a familiar face in Allj or Элджей but a new song of his has reached number 1 on the chart I follow on TopHit.ru! That song is called Minimal or Минимал. It’s been out for a while but I guess he just came out with a music video for it around a week ago. This is probably what propelled it to number 1 for the week of April 2^nd through the 8^th.

If you haven’t yet, please take a look at my previous blog post about Allj for his collaboration with Feduk called “Rozovoye vino” – that song topped the charts at TopHit.ru for about 17 weeks from mid-October to early February! Amazing.

New words for me

There were quite a few new words for me from this song and I wanted to concentrate on sharing them with you. Just like the other song I reviewed by Allj, he uses a lot more slang, which as a foreign language learner, you certainly don’t get many chances to learn. Please follow this link if you would like to see the lyrics for yourself with an English translation next to them!

Минимал – minimal is a subgenre of techno or electronic music. Here’s an example of what it sounds like.

This is the name of the song and also it’s a big part of the chorus. The song begins with the chorus and it’s in the second line of the song: “На баре синие / Мы танцуем под минимал” – “It’s blue at the bar / We’re dancing to minimal”. It sets the scene of the song.

До хуя – up the wazoo, a fuck-ton, a lot

Of course this is not a polite way to say “a lot” since it includes the word хуй. If you don’t know that one, you can look it up yourself. This line follows directly after the one above “Да-да-да, ты красивая / Но таких как ты до хуя” – “Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re pretty / But there are so many like you”. You can already tell he’s not that into her – just on the prowl.

Светодиоды – LED’s (light-emitting diodes)

Pretty sure I didn’t know what LED stood for in English before, so that’s great. This word is in the first line of the verse: “Вокруг одни идиоты и светодиоды” – “All around there are idiots and LEDs”. The rhyme works way better in Russian.

Шмотки – personal belongings

Проваливать – wreck, fail, reject

You can find these words in the first line of the second verse: “Забирай свои шмотки, проваливай!” – “Grab your things and get out!” This song definitely isn’t romantic!

Вдребезги – smash, to smithereens, in splinters

This word is in the following line: “Мои мозги вдребезги” – “My brain is in splinters”. This sounds like he had some kind of realization, which is revealed in the next words.

Палево – a tell, a dead giveaway, a smoking gun

This person must have had some bad motives he could see. “Быть с тобою – какое-то палево” – “With you, something wasn’t right”.

Уёбывать – to get the fuck out, fuck off

Since something wasn’t right about this girl, he tells her to leave: “Хочешь мои? Забирай и уёбывай, блять!” – “Do you want mine? Get your things and fuck off, fuck!”. Now there’s some frustration.

Похоть – lust

At this point in the song, he’s unhappy with himself and with her. Maybe we can live vicariously through it or relate depending on who you are: “Такая пиздатая похоть” is the line from the song, which I translated as “Some fucked-up lust”. I had to double-check the meaning of “пиздатая” because sometimes it’s good or bad. You can always tell by context though!

Бесить – to enrage, madden, infuriate

And this is the last word that was new to me in the song. This line is also in the second verse: “А остальное бесящее” – “And what remains makes me angry” is how I interpret this line. It sounds like he had a pretty bad experience here.

Review of the song and music video

I really like this song! Now that I am aware of minimal as a subgenre of techno, I can feel the influence of it over Allj’s music. When I first heard this song, I had the chorus stuck in my head and would find myself singing it to myself.

The video is also pretty good. I think it does a pretty good job of sticking with the content of the song. Maybe the violent scene that you see throughout is a bit too much for some people but I didn’t mind. It wanted to know why they were all dead.

Maybe one complaint I have about the dead bodies is that they were all women. Also, it mostly shows the vengeful woman killing other women. This is so common in media everywhere – always victimizing women. I guess it would make sense sort of that the woman would focus on other women in her rampage though, considering the situation.

In any case, I quite enjoyed this song and the music video. I feel like, especially after I learned the lyrics, the music video also made more sense. I like that the song tells a story. It’s not a happy story. It’s a pretty cliché story for pop music but I prefer that kind of song.

What do you think of the song and its music video? Please leave me a comment to let me know. Also, were there any new words for you that you learned? I like learning a bit of slang here and there like you can from a song like this. What about you?

Also, last month was my best month so far in terms of viewers of this blog, so I want to give a quick thanks to everyone who has been visiting my blog! It’s always nice to have encouragement and knowing that some people are reading what I write gives me just that!

Egor Kreed – Sleza

Hello again! I am back with a slightly lighter topic than last week. We are back to pop music!

This week, I took a look at TopHit.ru’s charts for YouTube and radio and there has been movement! Number 1 is “Штрихи” by Burito, #2 is Loboda’s “Парень”, and #3 is Polina Gagarina’s “Обезоружена”. I have already written about all of those but the #4 song is “Слеза” (Tears) by Егор Крид (Egor Kreed)!

This is an artist I haven’t written about before on this blog, so I am excited to do a little research on him to help introduce him to you. He has a pretty interesting story!

According to his Wikipedia page, Egor Kreed is about 23 years old and has been involved in the music business since 2011 when he self-released his first music video for the song “Любовь в сети”. The following year, he entered a contest on Вконтакте (basically Russian Facebook) and was nominated for best hip-hop project. After that, he signed with the music label Black Star Inc. and it seems like he’s enjoyed a lot of success since then!

The oldest song of his that I remember being aware of is “Самая самая” which was released in 2014. It could just be the way YouTube makes playlists but over the past couple of years I heard a lot of his collaboration with Timati from 2016 called “Где ты, где я” as well as another collaboration he had with Molly from Serebro called “Если ты меня не любишь”. This guy has some connections with established acts in Russia.

New vocabulary from the song

Since Kreed seems quite popular, it was very easy to find the lyrics to this song on the site that I have normally used to see a side-by-side translation. There were four words or phrases that I either wasn’t sure about or didn’t know before. Let’s take a look:

Кофта – a light jacket

This word is in the first line of the first verse: “Чувствую запах твой на моей кофте” which I translate as “I smell your scent on my jacket”.

Не на той ноте – in a bad way, not on good terms

When I read this line in the lyrics, I could figure out by context what it meant but it was something I hadn’t heard or read before. So, it was good to just go check it out. Anyway, here’s the line also from the first verse: “Мы попрощались с тобой не на той ноте” which can be translated as “We said good bye on bad terms”.

What a lovely rhyme with “кофте”!

Стереть – to erase, clean, wash

I did know this word from the first couple of Russian classes I took but I think I knew the imperfect version (стирать) so, it was confusing when I saw: “я снова растерян и снова пишу, но сотру сообщения” which can be translated as “I am confused again and write again, but I’ll erase the messages.”

Вничью – a tie or draw in a game

I found this word towards the end of the song in the line: “а конец у игры постоянно вничью” which I translated as “And the end of the game is always a tie”. I’ll say more about what I think about a line like this is my review.

Review of the song and music video

I am going to start with something I really like about the song and music video and that is the fact that it feels like the music video really follows the subject matter of the song. That is really cool and doesn’t always happen, so I enjoyed that a lot.

One other thing I really liked about the music video specifically is that, at the beginning, you maybe think that Egor Kreed and the woman are a couple that is breaking up. Towards the end, the reality is that they are having an affair and he saves her from a super abusive dude. So, that’s an interesting twist.

I also generally like the visuals in the music video. They have some good use of slow motion to help you get into the destruction she’s wreaking on his stuff. Man, I am so glad I never dated a woman with that kind of personality!

Now, on to some things that I didn’t particularly like. The first one I will mention is that the beginning scene takes way too long. Maybe I’m just picky about music videos but I would prefer they didn’t have all this bad acting at the beginning. I took a look at the time and the actual music for the music video doesn’t even start until 1:13 in the music video. So, you have a music video that is 4 minutes and 36 seconds, when it could just be 3 minutes and 23 seconds. That’s a significant amount of time, like a quarter of the music video just is dumb filler.

Personally, I found the song itself to be pretty unremarkable. The subject matter is something I can’t really relate to – some kind of an on again off again relationship where you both love and hate the other person. That’s never been an experience I have had, but it does seem to be very popular in certain cultures, not just Russia.

There is a line in the breakdown (before the last chorus) which I kind of liked “Я тебя себе выдумал / или себя тебе выдумал”. I translate this similarly to the way it is on the lyrics website I linked above “I made you up for myself / or I made myself up for you”. It’s kind of an interesting way to look at being in love.

So, overall, the song isn’t bad. It’s just not that good either. I would grade it “middle of the road” or “meh”. What do you think? Please leave a comment. I would be interested to see what others think about this song. Maybe we can have a discussion.

Face – Ya ronyayu zapad

After a few weeks of a break from writing, I am back to share more Russian media with you. Did you miss me?

This week, I checked the chart I usually have been looking at on TopHit.ru and found a surprise at the 3^rd position (I already reviewed #1 and #2 on the chart). It was an artist I hadn’t heard of before called Face. When I saw the name of the song (“Я роняю запад” or “I’m dropping the West”), I had a feeling that it was going to be interesting to put it mildly.

Face is almost 21 years old and has been releasing music since about 2015, according to his Wikipedia page. According to this biography of him, Face got his start by publishing music on SoundCloud and Вконтакте (a Russian social media website kind of like Facebook). According to TopHit.ru, the only other song of his that got onto the charts there was called Бургер. It’s not bad.

Here’s a link to his YouTube page if you’d like to check out more of his music.

New words for me

This song had quite a few new vocabulary words for me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to use my normal site to help me see a side-by-side translation of the lyrics. I was able to find them at this site. Please follow the link if you would like to read them!

Something kind of cool about the website where I found the lyrics this time is that there are some notes about a reference to some places this rapper likes to hang out, which I didn’t understand, while reading them. Thanks to this note, I was able to get a better idea about what he was talking about.

On to my new vocabulary:

Ронять – To drop, shed, discredit

This word is essential to understanding the song. It’s repeated over and over in the chorus/hook of the song “Я роняю запад” – which means something like “I’m dropping the West”. And, if you follow the song, specifically the USA.

Эшкере – Let’s get it

They say this a couple times early on in the song as kind of an interjection.

Трахнуть – to have sex

I kept the definition above pretty simple but I want to expand here. According to multitran.ru, this is a slang word for having sex which is less impolite than “fuck”, so maybe we could say something like “bang”, “shag” or “bone” to name a few examples from English.

This word appears twice in the verse of the song: “Снова трахнут этих двух, мне не нужен ‘друг вокруг’” which I translate as “I banged these two, I don’t need ‘friends around’”. I am not sure if there’s any significance to ‘друг вокруг’ since it was in quotation marks on the lyrics site. Maybe not.

The other line this word is in is: “Они пишут в инстаграмме, просят трахнут своих сук” which directly follows the above line. I translate it as “They write on Instagram, ask to bone your bitches”. I feel like this line is just kind of a throwaway to rhyme with the other one.

Долбоёб – a stupid person, dumb-ass, douchebag, stupid fuck, dickhead

This word is in the line “Я не видел долбоёбов хуже, чем мои учителя” from the verse. I translate it as saying, “I’ve never seen such dumb-asses as my teachers”. It’s a pretty interesting line. I feel like a lot of young people feel this way.

Review of the song and music video

The first time I watched the music video, I got pretty offended actually. I’m American and seeing the imagery of all the burning buildings, monuments, and flags as well as the rapper destroying things like a kaiju or Godzilla would was a bit disturbing to me. I think the aggressive sound of the song also makes it feel like it’s not exactly a joke or satire either.

I know Gucci is a brand from Italy and the song is primarily about not liking the USA, but I tend to consider Italy to be part of the West. So, I find it kind of ironic that this guy is wearing a t-shirt with a Western brand name on it also using a style of music invented in America (rap) to tell us how he’s “dropping the West”. Also, what’s with wearing 2 sets of sunglasses?

I do think some of the scenes in the video are funny though. I like the part where Captain America fights a bear and some random black guy stereotype fights some silly Russian guy stereotype like giant monsters in the streets of New York.

I’m not a huge fan of how the music video depicts him with a Russian flag on our Capitol Building in Washington DC. I guess he got the response he wanted out of me. If an American singer or rapper made this kind of video about Russia, I wonder what would be the reaction.

Anyway, the style of the song really reminds me of some Atlanta rappers like Lil Jon and Big Boi. The song is thankfully short. There’s not much to it other than the chorus or hook. The one verse is pretty much filler so he can chant the chorus again.

I can see how it could be popular though. It’s got a chorus that chants the same thing over and over again, which can be fun to sing along to. I also think that the provocative nature of the music video is what’s getting a lot of attention.

Burito – Shtrikhi

Introduction

After two weeks off for Christmas and New Year’s, I am back with my latest blog entry. This week, we’re going to take a look at the song Shtrikhi (Штрихи) by Burito, which is number 4 on the TopHit.ru charts for the week of December 25 to 31, 2017.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure whether I had heard of Burito before but, after visiting his Wikipedia site, I discovered I had! Well, I hadn’t heard of him specifically but I discovered that he is part of a pop group I had heard of called Банд’Эрос (which you can read like the Spanish word Banderos).

Some songs I like by Банд’Эрос are Караоке, Эти сумасшедшие ночи, and Про красивую Жизнь. Follow the links to the YouTube clips!

According to his Wikipedia page, Burito started doing a solo project back in 2015 after being involved with various projects in the Russian music industry since the mid-90’s.

New words for me

This song had twelve(!) new words for me so, as I listened, it was hard for me to figure out what the song was about. As I looked up a few of them, it became clearer. Here is a link to the lyrics that I used because my normal website did not have it.

Штрих – stroke (of a brush), line

This is the title of the song and it appears in the first line: “Мы штрихи одного рисунка” which can be translated as “We are all strokes of the same picture”. This already sets a tone for the song as one about unity and finding common ground among people.

Безлинкий – faceless, anonymous, commonplace, impersonal, nondescript, featureless

This word also appears in the first verse: “Безликие тени на пустых перекрестах” which I translate as “Featureless shadows on empty street corners”. I think the point of this line is to juxtapose a bleak world with what the song-writer wishes it could be.

Созвучие – chord, harmony

This word is also in the first verse: “На созвучие сказанных слов”. There were 3 words in a sentence that I was unfamiliar with, so I will wait to translate it till I introduce the other words…

Мутный – Troubled, foggy, dull

Here is word number two from that group, which is in the line: “Поминутными мутными формами в воздухе”. We’ll bring it all together with the last word/line next!

Разлиться – to overflow, spill, flood

So, now I will give all 3 parts: “На созвучие сказанных слов / Поминутными мутными формами в воздухе / Разольется любовь” which could be translated as: “Love spills out / In the harmony of the words spoken / By the foggy figures outside”

That was kind of hard to do it justice. If you don’t mind, I would love a little help with this set of lines. Leave a comment!

Перо – feather

I know this word, but I didn’t recognize it when it’s in the instrumental case like you see it in the lyrics to this song: “Яркими перьями белыми укрывая внизу города” which we can translate as “Bright white feathers hide them underneath the city”. I think “them” here are the clouds from the previous line in the song.

Разлучить – to part, separate, sever

This word is in the last part of the chorus: “Наши сердца не разлучит никто, никогда” which can be translated as “No-one will ever separate our hearts”.

Распадаться – to decay, crumble, break up

Частоты – frequency shifts

I put these words together because they appear in the same line of the second verse: “Краски снова станут ничем / Распадаясь, становясь частотами” which I might translate as “Colors become nothing again / Decaying and becoming radio noise”.

Чётный – divisible by two, symmetrical

This word is in the second verse as well in the line: “Чётнымй и нечётнымй / Радиоэфирными волнами / Нас кто то встретит ещё” which is a bit difficult to translate but I’ll try: “Symmetrically and asymmetrically / By radio waves / Someone will meet us again”. It sounds a lot better in Russian.

Вселенная – the cosmos, world, universe

It’s the last new word I found! We made it! It appears in the final verse of the song in the line: “Руки вселенной держут нас” which can be translated as “The universe’s hands are holding us”. I think this is just talking about how we are all brought together by the world.

Song and Video Review

Since there were so many words I didn’t know in this song, I don’t have much space for a review of the music video and the song itself. Therefore, I will keep things short here.

I think that, overall it is a pretty good pop song but it won’t be that memorable much like most of the genre.

I like the sentiment in the lyrics though. After I finally had a chance to examine them, it seems like a nice idea that the world is kind of bleak but there is beauty if we just look for it. There are things that can unite us. I like that a lot.

Burito’s vocals in this song really sound like he’s got a reggae influence over his rap, which is cool but not terribly surprising after listening to some of the music from his time with Банд’Эрос. That group had a lot of Latin influence over their music as well. Several of their songs have a reggaetón beat and they even have a song called “Adios”!

The last bit I wanted to mention that I liked about the song was structural. There was a fairly unexpected part when he launched into the second verse immediately after the first chorus. In many songs, there is a short musical interlude between the two. The musical interlude did happen after the second chorus which then also became unexpected because of how he handled the transition from first chorus to second verse. I really liked the fact that there was something a little different to make the song not completely predictable.

I feel like I may have misunderstood some of the lyrics now that I listened to his phrasing again so if you can help me, I would be really thankful!

Vremya i Steklo – Troll

Introduction

For the 7^th straight week, Элджей ft. Feduk – Розовое Вино is number 1 according to Tophit.ru. This week we have a new number 2 song though and that song is Тролль by Время и Стекло! Макс Барских has been moved down to number 3 for last week after spending 6 weeks at number 2 on that chart, which is very impressive!

Vremya I Steklo is made up of 2 people: Aleksey Zavgorodniy and Nadya Dorofeeva who are both from Ukraine. They started working with Potap in 2010 when he founded Mozgi Entertainment. I learned of Potap, who is a Ukrainian rapper, through this song back in 2008 or 2009. In fact, I think you can see Zavgorodniy in that video during the breakdown bit. In any case, Vremya I Steklo has been active since about 2010 with their first single, Так выпала карта and they’ve enjoyed critical success since 2011 when they won the Golden Gramophone award in Ukraine for the song Серебраное море. Just this year in May, they won the RU.TV Award for best song for their song Навернопотомучто, which I happen to like a lot too.

Most of their music is fun, especially their recent stuff since about 2015. It’s upbeat and fun to listen to. Plus, they seem to enjoy some word-play in their lyrics which also makes it fun. Troll is no exception. Let’s go on to the review!

Things I liked about the song and music video

I really enjoyed this song and the music video. To start, I will talk about the music itself, which I think is a cool departure from a lot of pop music. To me, it seems very sparse and there isn’t that much going on so you can focus on the voices of the singers. It’s mostly dominated by drums and bass which, as a bass player, I can always get behind.

One other thing I enjoyed about the music itself is the synthesizer sound they have during the pre-chorus and chorus. It has a cool kind of 80’s tinge to it like the synthesizer in the original Bladerunner soundtrack. Also, they have some good samples. For example, the sample during the second verse at the end of the lines where Nadya is saying “быт с тобой” is a cool guitar riff (at around 1:15 in the video). It’s kind of subtle but I like that. It fills the pause and feels a bit like a call and response.

On to the video! I like the fact that this video is kind of goofy but artsy at the same time. It doesn’t take itself very seriously and I love that. A lot of Vremya I Steklo’s newer videos have been kind of like this. I also really liked the video for Имя 505 which is similarly artsy but also silly at the same time. It’s creative and fun. These are two things I can definitely support.

One kind of funny moment I liked toward the beginning of the video was when Nadya spanks and then caresses the lobster. The dancing throughout the video is silly but you can tell the dancers are all professional and they seem to be having fun. During the breakdown, Aleksey pulls out his banana phone and I love that too!

Lastly, I enjoyed the story of the song. It seems kind of like the woman feels a bit misled by the man she met at the club and maybe disappointed by his appearance. She says she’ll never be with him but then he apparently drives a Mercedes, so she seems to reconsider. Based on the whole “troll” element in the lyrics I feel like maybe this song is making fun of that but I could be totally off base.

Things I didn’t like about the song and music video

To be honest, I really like this song and I really like this group. One thing I think that is rather problematic in the music video that I didn’t really think about until I watched it a few times was there is a scene in it at around 1:02 where one of the male backup dancers is groping one of the female backup dancers. It’s hard to tell whether she thinks it is the guy directly behind her or the guy behind him but she seems to like it. Heck, I am looking for something to dislike about this music video and that’s the best I can do.

The other thing that was a little frustrating is that, since this is a pretty new song, the lyrics that are out on most sites don’t actually match the song especially in the breakdown part. I’m not sure why. Anyway, I found this link, which shows the actual lyrics for the breakdown, which was great.

Words I learned

Since the lyrics to this song weren’t completely accurate at my usual site, I also used this one to help me find the words. Here are a few of the words that I learned from this song:

Тряпка – milk toast, wuss, wimp, pushover

“Ты оказался тряпкой, я жалею что хотела” – is the second line of the song. We might be able to translate it as: “You turned out to be a wimp. I feel bad for wanting (you)”. Harsh!

Язык тела – body language

This was a little confusing but I was able to figure it out as it’s basically a translation of the concept in English. It’s in the second verse: “У тебя не все в порядке с языком твоего тела.” This could be translated as “Something is wrong with your body language”.

Погнали – Come on! – Go on! – Move on! (and other similar possibilities)

This is in the breakdown, which I had to find separately from the other lyrics. The line it appears in goes like this: “Всё по местам расставить. Погнали!” Maybe you could translate this as “All is in place. Let’s go!”

I hope you enjoyed the song too. If you learned any new words or want to share with me what you liked, please comment!

T-Fest – Uleti

Introduction

For the 6^th straight week, Элджей ft. Feduk – Розовое Вино and Макс Барских – Моя Любовь are number 1 and 2 respectively according to Tophit.ru. If you’d like to read my reviews of those songs, please click on the names above. Just like last week, we’ll be taking a look at the number 3 song, which happens to be Улети by T-Fest.

Much like the other young rappers I have reviewed so far, I had to find a biography of T-Fest through a Russian website. As a side-note, that’s another way to help me practice reading Russian, which is great. Anyway, T-Fest is only 21 years old and is from Chernivtsi, Ukraine. According to the biography I found, he’s been involved with music since he was 11. In 2010, he put out some music with his older brother and in 2013, he made some of his own solo work but 2017 has been his real breakout year.

He’s released 2 full albums – 0372 and Молодость 97’ this year and several singles. One single of his that I like a bit more than the song I am about to review is called Lambada. But without further ado, let’s get to the review of Улети!

Things I liked about the song and music video

First thing I want to mention that I like about this song is the background music and beat. The intro has a cool guitar sound and the verse parts are really atmospheric. It sounds great! One thing I noticed that is really different and cool is that there aren’t any drums during the verse. They kick in a little bit before the chorus and go until the end of it. This makes the chorus seem a lot faster and creates a bit of tension during the verse, which sounds cool.

The chorus is very repetitive, but it sure gets stuck in your head. I’ve found myself walking down the street humming it to myself. Sometimes I’ve even caught myself without really thinking about it singing the chorus to myself “Улети и не вспоминай меня”. It’s catchy and fun to sing along to as well.

This actually brings me to another thing I wanted to talk about which is the subject matter of the song and the lyrics themselves. They aren’t anything groundbreaking but it’s kind of cool to hear a 21-year-old with a bit of maturity about relationships. There’s a part where he says “Я бы пропал, но я себя и не нашел” which we might translate as “I would get lost but I haven’t found myself”. He sees the relationship not working out and how they said it would last “forever” but, in reality, it won’t. That’s partly why the chorus could be fun to sing. I feel like lots of us may have wanted to say something similar to a person in our pasts.

The last thing I will mention is about the video in general. I think it’s got cool visuals for every scene. There is a lot of color and also lots of beautiful women. What’s not to like? It’s also nice to see that T-Fest is not a great dancer. We could groove together and neither of us would look out of place although maybe I’d have to change my style of clothes a bit to fit in.

Things I didn’t like about the song and music video

Most of my complaints about the song are actually about T-Fest’s voice and also the effects that they chose to put his voice through. Personally, I just don’t like T-Fest’s voice at all. The style of singing/rapping mostly sounds like he is very bored. It reminds me of Sean Combs, when he was rapping as Puff Daddy back in the day. He just sounds so bored and there’s no energy. For this song it kind of works since it is a pretty chill song but it’s just not my style.

Also, I think they put T-Fest’s voice through way too many effects. There is so much reverb on his voice, it sounds weird and echo-ey all the time. Some reverb is good but this is too much in my opinion. Also, there’s some weird autotune going on in there which makes his voice sound strange to me.

In particular, there’s a breakdown section of the song that starts at around 2:37 in the music video. There are parts of the breakdown where T-Fest just sounds spastic to me. I think he’s trying to give emphasis or something but it sounds silly to me. My last criticism of T-Fest’s voice is a part where he says “Пока“ over and over but to me it sounds like he’s a chicken saying “Bkawk!” Go to around 2:03 in the music video and see for yourself.

Words I learned from the song

We get to go back to the normal website for lyrics in Russian and English side by side. Please take a look! Here are a few words that I learned from this song:

Пепел – ash

Клеить – to glue, paste, stick together

“Слово “навсегда” мы клеили из пепла.” This is the first line from the song. I wasn’t sure about the two words above but, after looking things up, it seems we might be able to translate this line as “We made the word ‘forever’ from ash”. I decided not to use the specific word “glue” since it seems strange to glue ash together.

Пропасть – to disappear, get lost, to be fed up

This word appears in the second verse: “Я бы пропал, но я себя и не нашел”. It’s the same line I referenced above in the part where I talked about things I liked.

I think the lyrics to this song were a bit easier than the last three songs I’ve reviewed. There were quite a few less words that confused me while reading but many of the lyrics were hard to hear while listening to the song.

Miyagi and Endspiel ft. Rem Digga – I got love

Introduction

In my second week using Tophit.ru’s chart to find the song I should review, Элджей ft. Faduk – Розовое Вино is still number 1. I have also already reviewed Макс Барских – Моя любовь, so we’re gonna take a look at song number 3: Miyagi and Эндшпиль ft. Рем Дигга – I got love!

Let me start with a short introduction of the main artists: Miyagi and Endspiel. They’re both from Vladikavkaz in Russia, which is near the country of Georgia. They’re both pretty young too, according to this biography of Endspiel, he was born in 1995 and a biography on the same site of Miyagi states he was born in 1990. They started collaborating last year (2016), when they came out with the album “Hajime” although Endspiel, according to the same biographies linked above, had been doing solo work of his own since 2014 and Miyagi since 2011.

Just looking at the data from Tophit.ru, it looks like this song has been carried by YouTube views (2,189,015 in the week of 10/9-10/15) rather than radio play (2,458 times in the same span) which is super interesting! “I got love” came out on June 1, 2017 and the music video came out one day later. Let’s get on to the review!

Things I liked about the song and music video

I first heard this song a week or two ago while listening to my usual “pick a song on YouTube and let it create a mix for you” method of listening to music. Much like the recent Dima Bilan song, this one grabbed me and I flipped over from the other thing I was doing to take a look at the video and see who the people were. It was unusual but cool.

One thing I really like about it is the reggaetón beat they use. It’s simple, doesn’t take over the song and lets them rap over it. Also, it’s fast but somehow the song is still super chill and laidback.

I think that has to do with the voice style Miyagi and Endspiel used in “I got love”. They use a really deep voice for most of the verse parts and it sounds really cool! That’s actually what got me to flip over and check out the song. I wasn’t sure if it was Russian to be honest mainly based on the style. It’s very different and I like it!

Another thing I really liked about “I got love” is the background piano. It doesn’t sound like it is sampled or anything, just someone playing piano. The song also starts with it and ends with it. That’s also different and cool because it’s different.

The last thing I want to mention that I enjoyed was this part where kind of in the background they go “Oooh Oooh Oooh Ahhhh Ahhh Ahhh”, which starts at 1:57 in the music video and comes back again at about 3:36. It’s atmospheric and adds to the general ambiance of the music as rather dreamlike.

Things I didn’t like about the song and music video

To be honest, I like “I got love” overall but, and not to pick on Rem Digga, I think his part doesn’t really fit that well with the rest of the song. Really, I might just be reaching for something to dislike about the song. It’s not that bad.

Something that I think is rather played out though is the style of music video. How many music videos, especially rap videos, take place in a club with tons of pretty girls dancing and the rappers are the only guys in the entire place? You can’t blame them for wanting to portray that kind of fantasy but I think it’s the least creative thing about the whole package.

Words I learned from this song

The lyrics to “I got love” are nothing special but I really enjoyed the rhythm and how they rap so that really doesn’t matter too much in my opinion. If you follow this link, you can visit the website I have been using to find lyrics and a rough translation. Just click English toward the top if you’d like to read through a person’s translation of the song. That site is really interesting because it seems to be community run and people submit their own translations.

This song had quite a few words since it is rap compared to music where they sing so there are quite a few words I did not know. Some of them I also could not find definitions of, so I decided to not include them but here were some interesting ones for me:

Окутать – to shroud, envelop, enfold

“Окутала меня, окутала” is the first line of the song. Basically, this line can be translated as “You shrouded me, shrouded” and the line is followed by “Ты будто мой сорт – мариуанна.” This can be translated as “You’re like my type – marijuana”. So, I wonder if this is him comparing someone to marijuana or if he’s being shrouded in smoke from marijuana.

Алмаз – diamond, crystals

“Небо в алмазах – лето летало.” This line is right after the ones I discussed above and can be translated as, “A sky like diamonds – summer went by fast”. It’s kind of a non sequitur but maybe they’re trying to rhyme.

Озарить – to illuminate, light up

This word appears in the second verse in this line about half-way through: “Но ты светом добра озарила свободу.” You might translate it as “But you lit up freedom with the light of goodness”.

Завесить – to veil, cover up, curtain

“Окна завесим, будем опять принцесса и деспот.” This is the first line of the second verse which you might translate as “We’ll put the curtains over the windows, we’ll again be the princess and the despot”. Sounds sexy.

The song seems to mainly be about the club experience, similar to the Элджей song I reviewed last week. They’re fun songs. Not too deep but that is not the purpose.