Bando Calrissian

September 3rd, 2015 at 7:39 PM ^

Naw, man, didn't think you were. I mean, the album is called "Rap," but.. It's really a lot more like Grandmaster Flash mixed with rock than anything else that came after that we would consider "rap" in 1984. An oddity, and kind of surprising that it's the only one, considering so much of Soviet music (both official and underground) was so effective at mimicking just about every other style of Western music. Rock, reggae, punk, New Wave, jazz, heavy metal, even a little funk... They just never really got to rap.

Also, calling it "propaganda" is a little misleading--Soviet popular music of the rock/Western variety didn't tend to be propaganda--it was either underground music critical of the state, or officially released material deemed acceptable enough. "Rap" was samizdat--it wasn't released by the official channels.

justingoblue

September 3rd, 2015 at 7:49 PM ^

I noticed the same in (I believe) the second and fourth or fifth sound, re: Grandmaster Flash style. That's a bit earlier than my taste goes, but from what I know wouldn't be surprising at the time it was recorded.

With a language barrier you're pretty much left to the description you're given, and I trusted the guy who retweeted it (Rice history prof).