Battle oxymiron and purulent reviews. Versus oxymiron and purulent. Why did he do this

"trailer for the film Bodied. The movie is dedicated to rap battles, the producer was Eminem himself, and the main role was played by Disaster, the best English-language battle MC. In the caption to the video, Miron called Disaster his future opponent, and it was really strange.

The point is not that they have been talking about their meeting for two years now (rumors began immediately after the destruction of Johnnyboy), but that Oxy had identified his next opponent in advance.

Those who closely follow Miron’s work immediately became worried: he usually keeps secrets until the last minute, and does not leak them to the Internet at the negotiation stage.

The post initially seemed like reinsurance. Fans interpreted it this way: “Don’t pay attention to how I’ll fight with Gnoiny: I have a historic international meeting ahead and a really stellar opponent. That’s where you’ll see the real Oxy.”

The fears were confirmed. Several interlocutors independently expressed the same idea: in the battle with Gnoyny, Oksimiron was completely unmotivated to win.

He made complaints to the organizers (Restaurateur and Chaney) right during the rounds, talked about the terrible state of rap culture, clumsily trolled the audience and regularly forgot about his opponent.

In addition, Miron constantly touched Slava Karelin with his hands, which, according to the battle rules, is considered bad manners - of course, the judges could not ignore such cheeky behavior.

Fedorov devoted one round to himself: Oxy told how he got out of depression thanks to Joseph Campbell’s book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” The tirade turned out to be very touching and sincere, but again it had little to do with the battles.

When the fight ended, all the spectators and judges already understood that Gnoiny had won.

Below are three objective reasons that influenced the outcome of the battle.

1. In Gnoyny’s rap career there were battles when he forgot words or read from a piece of paper, but Karelin came to Oksimiron as charged and prepared as possible.

It is important that Gnoyny did not abuse alcohol or substances before the battle, but treated it like a sports duel. It was only possible to destroy Oxy with this approach.

2. Gnoyny put together all the dirty facts that had accumulated in Miron’s dossier and skillfully integrated them into his text.

I quote one of the spectators verbatim: “After some of Slava’s punchlines, it seemed like Oxy was being buried alive.”

At one time, Oxy said that he had skeletons in the closet, but clarified that these are the skeletons of those with whom he fought before.

Gnoyny talentedly debunked this myth: Slava proved that his opponent’s wardrobe is full of ugly situations. For some reason, Miron’s former opponents were silent about them, but Karelin got back to the fullest.

3. The audience supported Gnoyny after all the punchlines.

The point is also that the residents of Slovo-SPb are accustomed to Slava’s style - as a rule, he reads a few bright lines, and then pauses for noise and applause.

Oxy has a different style - the Oxford graduate seems to read out the track and leaves almost no time for the audience to applaud.

Because of this fundamental difference, everyone who was in the Opera club had the impression that Gnoyny put on a loud and powerful show, while Miron read aggressive poetry in almost silence.

Again: Oxy's rounds weren't unsuccessful or mediocre, he just didn't aim at the enemy and therefore definitely lost.

conclusions

For Russian battle rap, the overthrow of Miron is a fateful event. Moreover, Fedorov himself boldly challenged Gnoyny to a battle, and then himself gave him the crown.

A bunch of questions immediately arose. Will Oxy continue to battle with Russian-speaking MCs or will it stop at Disaster? Will defeat affect Fedorov's relevance as an artist? How will he justify defeat? How will Gnoyny dispose of the hype that has fallen? Who will Slava battle after destroying his main rival in life?

Only one thing is clear: such an outcome is much more intriguing than the everyday victory of Oxy, which was predicted by those who had poorly studied Gnoyny’s work.

The fact that the battle between Oksimiron and Gnoyny, along with other, much less interesting fights, will take place today has long been an open secret (we wrote about this a week ago, for example).

Having previously noted that “this section is the author’s blog, the editors may have an opinion different from the opinion of the author,” let’s begin.

A little over a year ago, Oksimiron, having watched the battle of Ernesto Shut Up against Purulent, challenged the latter to a battle.

Why did he do this?

1. Myron was caught by statements that he had never battled with a real battle MC, which, in principle, is true. Slava also called Oxy a “hype-hungry pig” and stated that the phrase “when it’s beneficial for me,” said by Miron in the legendary battle against Johnnyboy, actually means “when I can’t fuck up.”

Indeed, there is something to be offended about. Previously, many tried to offend Oxymiron in the hope that he would pay attention to them - but there’s no hype, Oxy has so many subscribers that he can change someone’s career with one tweet.

Reader, do you agree that Oxy wisely selects his opponents and times the battles at the time when he needs it?

2. Oxy understands perfectly well that the public constantly needs to be given something new, and that perhaps the main event in his entire career is the battle against Johnnyboy, who raised him to the level of a celestial being, and made Johnny a coffee merchant.

Miron promised a mixtape for last fall - and a few days before Oxy’s presentations, he happily announced that the tape was postponed indefinitely. If he managed to write, record and publish “Gorgorod” in 3 weeks, then, apparently, he allocated a week for the tape?

A mixtape or a battle - what difference does it make, what matters is that you will be heard, it is important that people talk (about the battle, I think, more so). So why not choose your opponent, pretending that you were offended by his words, and with one tweet elevate him to almost the same height as yourself, and then easily defeat him on Versus? Brilliant, isn't it?

But Gnoyny turned out to be far from a fool and began to make full use of this gift of fate. Slava released a whole bunch of tracks under different pseudonyms, sold a bunch of merchandise, gave a lot of concerts over the year, and constantly hyped as much as he could, trying not to disappear from view.

Why do I wish Oksimiron defeat?

1

Because he neglects his listener (It’s worth clarifying right away that I am not a hater of Miron and, for example, I listened to “The Eternal Jew” to pieces). Proof - for example, the aforementioned creation of "Gorgorod" in 3 weeks. I sincerely believe that it is impossible to write, record, mix, master, etc., a good album in 3 weeks almost from scratch.

Many embarrassedly noted that there was something wrong with the sound in the album, that it was mixed “somehow strangely.” Oxy fans immediately came running in response, shaking us with arguments like “Don’t you understand, this is such an idea”, “Do you even know how they work in the West?”, etc. The casket, it turns out, was simply opening - on a tight deadline.

I remember very well how, having listened to “Gorgorod” twice on the day of its release, I could not believe my ears - is this what everyone has been waiting for for so long? From an MC of Oksimiron’s level (and he is both an excellent poet and a great rap reader) - this? Then I realized that the cunning Miron decided to beat everyone and publish two albums. The first one is this one, about the writer, the tower, and so on, with a couple of good tracks for the entire release. Well, the second one, apparently, will consist entirely of bangers in the spirit of old Oxy. I even wrote a column about it then, tying everything to Tolkienism, which I myself was fond of as a child.

And what? And nothing. Here, dear listeners, is what I put together in 3 weeks. Those who didn’t like it, you simply didn’t understand the full depth of our depths. Those who liked it - well done, if you are in the forest, look around, somewhere nearby a tearful Polozkova is wandering with a stroller.

Why I consider “Gorgorod” a weak album is described in detail.

Finally, Oxy promises a mixtape - and it doesn't come out on time. Ah, everyone who has not returned tickets for the canceled Oxy concerts will be able to come to the concert at the Olimpiysky completely free of charge! Unprecedented generosity.

2

Because he really picks his opponents. It is not known how the stars had to align for Miron to lose to ST (it is known that ST needed to joke less and be more violent, or something), Oxy understood this very well and agreed to this fight. But Oxy ignored Schokk’s calls.

First, he realizes that Shock can actually win.

Secondly, Shock probably knows some details from Oxy’s life that are still unknown to the general public and which could damage his reputation.

3

I recently wrote in the comments that more than anything in the world I would like Babangida to come out against Oksimiron instead of Gnoyny - an old opponent, inconvenient, slippery, one who can leave no stone unturned against Myron. Do you remember well the third round of Purulent against Ernesto? Shut up? There he quotes Babangida abundantly, as if hinting unambiguously. Do you know how, for example, in classical literature one poet, inspired by another, began to write in a similar style, and was subsequently considered his student?

In exactly the same way, Gnoyny can be called a follower of Baban, who gave up rap several years ago. Those who previously followed online battles remember very well how irreconcilable the enmity between Oxy and Baban was. If it is Gnoyny who throws Myron off Olympus, it will be beautiful and symbolic.

4

If Myron loses, it will be a great kick in the ass for him. Then he will simply be forced to write new tracks - for 2 years there has been almost nothing new, just think about it! Then he will be forced to release a tape/album jumping out of his pants, and not in the status of “you’ll still eat everything I throw at you.” Then, finally, perhaps, there will be a battle with Disaster, which everyone has long been tired of waiting for. Then Oxy will again be forced to climb to the top, and without quality material there is no way to do this. Actually, isn’t this what we want from him as an artist?

And not a bunch of unfulfilled promises, postponed dates, convenient rivals, silence that lasts for years, stupid attempts to make a star out of Corruption thanks to a diss on LSP, etc.

For all these reasons, I sincerely want Gnoyny to defeat Oksimiron on Versus. In the end, people here have already prepared appropriate stickers for Telegram:

Finally, I’ll ask you: who are you betting on? Who do you want to win? Why?

On August 13, 2017, a video of the battle Oxxxymiron vs Slava CPSU appeared on YouTube. And although Gnoyny spoiled the result in the track “Cool My Ardor,” the battle turned out to be truly historical, spawning dozens of reports, interviews and memes, generating almost 36 million views and temporarily turning rap battles into the main Russian hype.

Today we will figure out where this hype went and what ultimately happened to the main characters of that event: Gnoiny, Miron and battle rap.

How battle rap has changed

He died. At least, this is what the overwhelming majority of MCs think - from parties Words St. Petersburg to important representatives of the genre, like Seimur. The arguments in favor of this position are very simple. The level of battles has averaged out. It's been a year since we've seen high-profile battles. No new stars are visible. Experienced battle fighters are increasingly saying that they don’t want to perform anymore.

After the crossover with Versus, the organizers of Slovo SPB finally switched to team battles to the beat. The other day, the “Slovo Spb” public page was even closed, and the link to it on their YouTube channel now leads only to the “Rip on Bits” community.

A year earlier, the 140BPM platform began to specialize in beat battles. Let's not forget about the Versus BPM format with ten million views and the participation of accomplished rappers like Dirty Ramirez.

The trend also affected Russia’s first battle platform Slovo, where they abandoned the old motto “No music. No microphones. Only Slovo” and launched BPM season(alas, the weakest: a minimum of new talent, insignificant views and a finale with attacks of amnesia).

The hype on battles that arose after the “battle of the century” attracted the attention of television, women’s magazines and politicians of varying degrees of ugliness. At least two large TV channels were working on a show project based on battles (none started). Both the deputies and Tina Kandelaki were going to battle. On Channel One, Galkin and Basta had a complimentary battle. Any crazy person who wanted to attract attention reported that he was challenging someone to a battle.

Perhaps the hype around the battles reached its peak at the beginning of winter, when ex-members of the Centr group came to Versus for record fees (initially Guf was supposed to receive 2 million, and Ptah 1, but thanks to more advertising integrations they almost doubled their fees ). And although the personalities of the participants and their conflict provided this battle with spectator interest, objectively its level was extremely low.

A platform also emerged that was the first to try to turn battles into a mainstream show. But the dead horse of the Fidelio Punch Club has been kicked so often that we will limit ourselves to simply mentioning it. Another show format is Fresh Blood 4. In the fall, the Restaurateur announced the start of a new season, which will turn into a confrontation between two teams led by mentors: Oksimiron and Smokey Mo. But in fact, FB4 turned out to be a reality show with a poorly written script: dubious heroes, changing rules during the game and a minimum of good battles (the case when the opinion of the guest author sharply disagrees with the opinion of the editors - our more or less point of view is that that FB4 is a step in the right direction; - Note The Flow).

There are also orthodoxies left who advocate battles as they were before. Oxxxymiron, having mentioned RBL and Zabe at the battle, opened them up to a very wide audience. Which turned out to be too lazy to Google: there is still a problem with views and hype.

Although the influence of both Anton and his platform within the battle community is growing: the streams of “Beggar Hype” are watched by mentors, Restaurateur and Fresh Blood in full force, leaders of the genre consult with Zabe, the weight of his opinion and influence within the battle scene is growing.

But the most important thing is the battles. RBL is the strongest acapella platform in the country. The second season has every chance of becoming as revolutionary for culture as the second season of Slovo SPB, which separated from the Krasnodar project and discovered a huge number of iconic names.

RBL not only opens new names, makes meaty confrontations and experiments with formats - the League One project, in a successful scenario, can grow into a competitor to Versus: they also pay money here, and its system implies fundamental battles and the ability to challenge any opponent.

Slovo branches also follow the canon, but unlike RBL, they bend. Everything depends on the enthusiasm of individual organizers. But even the leaders have minimal views and new students. It’s gotten to the point where dull battles are being diluted with reaction videos: section "Wear and Remember" immediately became more interesting than absolutely any other content.

The strongest of the regional branches of Slovo Ekb has dismissed its graduates from all top leagues and is stuck in the search for new names. The venue thrives due to a careful departure from the classics and experiments - bad bars, team and complimentary battles. The remaining branches operate with varying success: if Kharkov and Nizhny Novgorod are still holding on, then the once top Krasnodar and Moscow have ceased to exist. Endless peripheral leagues sometimes open strong MCs (True Battle - AO), but often close, barely having time to declare themselves (Battle Point).

Today, when the hype has passed, each of the leaders of the battle scene answers the question of what needs to be done next differently. This is an unfinished process, which we continue to watch with great interest and hope for new “battles of the century.” In the meantime, the conversation will focus on the fate of its two main characters.

What happened to Slava CPSU

Fame came to Slava after fateful tweet, where Oxxxymiron promised to cool his ardor. The victory made a star of a man who a couple of years earlier was known only to battle nerds.

August 23 – interview in “vDuda”. An hour of trolling from Slava, a legendary controversy with Zamai, a lot of memes - from “easy-easy, reel talk” to “guest”. Classic.

September 16 – Gnoyny and Zamay on the “Culture” channel. The fact itself is already an outstanding performance. But there was no provocation as such. Vyacheslav Valerievich Karelin and Andrei Andreevich Khan Zamai were surprisingly nice, and the discussions about battle rap from the perspective of cultural studies turned out to be really interesting, even if the battlers themselves were embarrassed by Shvydkoy and the experts.

October 25 – release of the album “Sun of the Dead”. Slava announced the release back in winter, giving it the aura of a serious and iconic creation. The end result was a rather boring tribute to Letov. The experiment definitely did not live up to the expectations of people who recognized Slava from the battle and the song “Cool my ardor.”

November 10 – premiere of the show “Success”. If the appearance on "Culture" was too strange, then in this case - even before the pilot was released - everyone screamed about the mess. In fact, it turned out very funny and cheerful for TV. In the first episodes, Slava severely trolled both Philip Kirkorov and the participants. But by the end of the show, he had softened, found personal favorites, and even shed a tear once. It all ended epically - with the phrase “I officially accept Philip Kirkorov into Antihype!” Reality took on a rather strange shape when Vera Brezhneva, Philip Kirkorov and Nyusha chanted “Antihype!” and joked about Slava’s work. This was the peak of popularity - to the pseudonym Gnoyny Even housewives are used to it.

November 26 – Slava’s return to battles. The group "Monthly" made their debut on "Rip on the Bits". The loud poster about the “return after the legendary battle” and “revenge from Ernesto” turned into yet another fun round without serious preparation. Its “new king” has not truly returned to battle rap until now.

December 28 – publication of the video “Vladimir Putin”. Probably the main banger of the Glory of the CPSU, where name-dropping in a truly post-ironic manner is brought to the point of absurdity. The round from the first battle, “Rip on the Beats,” turned into a track that provoked an impressive resonance and conversations: “Glory to the Kremlin has sold out.”

February 6 – publication of the video “Sad Dancing”. Slava saddles the trendy straight kick drum, making a frankly pop track and video. There has never been such a fashionable and high-quality video from Slava CPSU. A hit sound, a good text, a talented video sequence - but no one believed in Gnoyny’s reincarnation, because even in this case everything was supposedly presented through the prism of post-irony.

April 18 – diss against Nikolai Sobolev. Slava destroys the country's most popular blogger and launches a Diss Challenge, in which dozens of rappers and bloggers of varying levels of fame took part. I wanted to take Sobolev’s challenge as a joke, but everything turned out to be serious - now Slava is looking for opponents of the appropriate level of hype. The dialogue of provocations and responses lasted for a couple of months, after which it became clear that there would be no battle.

April 27 – release of the album “Adult Dance Music”. An entire album in the style of house rap, which fans perceived as yet another conceptual post-irony and mockery of trends.

April 27 – publication of Philip Kirkorov’s video “The Color of Mood is Blue”. The king of the stage captivated the young audience with a comedy video, in one of the episodes of which he shows fuck to Gnoyny. Now Slava is officially on a par with Nikolai Baskov, Yana Rudkovskaya, Olga Buzova, Grigory Leps and Timati!

June 18 – diss against Sergei Shnurov. Supposedly tough, but in fact very pop, a track based on the separation of Sergei and Matilda Shnurova. Slava aimed at a new magnitude, but did not receive a response.

July 9 – diss track on Fresh Blood 4. Slava waited a long time before publicly expressing his opinion about the new Versus experiment. The strongest among all the diss songs over the past year - both in technique, and in text, and in message. Gnoyny has finally returned to a comfortable role, but still does not know with whom to battle and why.

July 28 – Purulent League. The return of the legendary underground battle project: now battles for fun have turned into an event with a two-hour queue and a soldout. Something is definitely wrong in the world, even if the “League of Purulent” is now held on stage, in front of spectators, and even with full-fledged filming.

Boxer Vladimir Klitschko was the world champion for a very long time, until at the end of his career he was suddenly beaten by the young English gypsy Tyson Fury. Having won the crown, he immediately quit training, became wildly fat, and was then disqualified for using cocaine - but he was not the least bit upset. When he was stripped of his championship belt, he took a photo of himself drowning it in the toilet. In some ways, this is similar to the story of Gnoyny, whose battle rap led to incredible popularity - so why not make a fun performance out of it?

How Oxxxymiron has changed

Oxy's first battle loss, instead of burying his career, gave him new impetus.

September 14 – Oxxxymiron releases a new track, something he hasn’t done for 500 (500! 500!) days. The track "Bipolarochka" is too personal and unexpectedly old school. A window into the artist’s inner world was opened for listeners, and the title of the track turned from a diagnosis into a meme.

September 21 – publication of the video “Fata Morgana”. The release outlined several trends that will manifest themselves more than once: a) the CEO of Booking Machine turns almost every new track into a fit with a mentee, which contributes to his promotion; b) as a rule, these releases are accompanied by an expensive and spectacular video; c) there are no more year-long downtimes - releases from Oxy are still rare, but at least regularly.

September 27 – Oksimiron announces that he will make his film debut. Director Victor Ginzburg selects a non-professional, but very famous person, for the cast of the film adaptation of Pelevin’s Empire V.

October 16 – battle against Dizaster in Los Angeles and the best performance of Oxy’s career. The battle was not formally judged, but this did not stop all Russian fans from claiming a confident victory over an equally strong, but not so convincing opponent that night. The effect was akin to what people felt after winning the football championship - it was almost pride for the country that Miron so effectively put on the world map of battle rap, simultaneously building bridges with Western battle leagues and rehabilitating himself for the defeat from Gnoyny.

November 6 – concert at the Olimpiysky, where about 20 thousand spectators came. Legitimization of Miron in the status of one of the most commercially in demand musicians in the country right now: Leningrad, Basta and... that's all?

November 12 – announcement of the new season of Fresh Blood. After the disastrous FB3, the format changed radically - there is reason to think that it was at the instigation of Miron. A biblical character expelled traders from the temple; after Oxy's tweet, the temple of battle rap "1703" expelled the fuck merchants. Bloggers, models, and even former judge Khovansky were mercilessly sent to the ban list - all for the sake of a more creepy and authentic atmosphere at the battles.

December 4 - interview with DJ Whoo Kid and a week later - publication begins series of interviews for Vlad TV. From Russia, it is difficult to objectively assess who these media outlets were truly aimed at - the American audience, for which Oxxxymiron is anonymous, or the local audience, which is ready to see such interviews as a consequence of recognition in the West.

March 8 – the start of the Fresh Blood 4 season. For the first time, the selection of applications was made public and for the first time, someone other than Restor and Ian did this. Video instantly became memes and generally looked cheerful. But if there are fewer complaints about the newcomer to the party, Smokey, then Oxy’s reactions and arguments raised questions among the hardcore audience of rap battles. Miron recruited no names to the team, ignoring the RBL Sector champion. Battle fans concluded: the mentor is familiar with Western battles, but does not keep his finger on the pulse of the Russian movement.

April 25 – announcement of the Booking Machine Festival. Oksimiron’s non-label, which is strong in the field of organizing concerts, launched its own festival. Oxy's only performance this year was combined with a showcase of all BM artists and sets by Western stars such as Bones, Xavier Wulf and Lil Xan.

May 1 - Miron comes to RBL - and this is generally the first appearance of Oxy in the Russian battle league outside the walls of Versus. The superstar after Versus, avoiding unnecessary attention, went into an almost adjacent bar to watch the battles.

August 9 - publication of the video "Konstrukt". The concert business is expensive, and organizing festivals is even more expensive. The cypher of the Booking Machine participants with its extremely impressive visuals spurs interest in both the non-label artists and the festival of the same name.

And at the same time it leaves a feeling - especially coupled with the facts listed above - that Oxxxymiron is becoming more and more firmly accustomed to the role of a mentor not only in battles, but also beyond them.

Instead of a total

Most people from the battle community believe that there will be no more confrontations of this level. Revenge makes no sense, and a third equal figure is not visible in the future. Battle Oksimiron - Glory to the CPSU is definitely not the best for this culture. The Hyde-Chaney and Oksimiron-Johnnyboy fights did much more for battle rap and made revolutions, the echoes of which can still be heard to this day. And yet, a year ago we saw the peak of battle rap as a genre.

Historical, because it was not just a meeting of two professional MCs, it was a legendary battle of platforms: Versus and #SLOVOSPB; the MCs representing them were Miron Fedorov and Slava Karelin, respectively. The judges were Dmitry Egorov aka Gaboon Viper (from Versus), Lokos (from #SLOVOSPB), independents: beatmaker DJ Bassboost, film critic Evgen BadComedian Bazhenov, stand-up comedian Ruslan Bely. The presenters are the constant Restaurateur and Dan Cheney.

We believe you already know the result. Gnoyny (Slava’s pseudonym for battles) turned out to be more technical, more inventive, and in some places more emotionally powerful, so he won the battle with a score of 5:0 (that is, absolutely all the judges voted for him). Oxy, however, showed the highest class, presented his site with dignity and put on an excellent battle.

Miron emerged victorious from all his battles - with Kripple, Dunya, ST, Johnyboy - however, alas, in a fight with a real battle rapper, Miron could not survive and suffered the first defeat in his life, he was probably not ready for this kind of level and technology. It is worth recalling that Miron himself called Gnoyny, as he put it, “for sport.”

The reaction of bloggers and artists to the battle was not long in coming.

Posted by Oxxxymiron (@norimyxxxo) Aug 14, 2017 at 2:21 PDT

On the night of August 13-14, 2017, hundreds of thousands of people across Russia frantically pressed the F5 key, refreshing the page with the Versus channel on YouTube. The epochal video was delayed, but no one went to sleep - they had been waiting for this battle for more than a year, since July 2016. Then the video finally appeared, and the link instantly spread across the Internet - the battle immediately topped all sorts of trends.

On Monday morning, there was no more important topic in the country. “Gnoiny defeated Oksimiron 5:0”, “The battle has already received 3 million views”, “What book did Oxy talk about at the battle with Slava CPSU?” - such headlines flashed even on those resources that previously wrote only about politics and economics. As a result, the news feed reached federal television, and the battle was intensively discussed for a couple of months after its release.

Now a year has passed since the video was published - quite a long time to draw conclusions about how the confrontation between Oksimiron and Gnoyny influenced culture, battle rap and the heroes of this duel themselves.

Myron recovered quickly

Collage © L!FE Photo: ©RIA Novosti / Evgenia Novozhenina

Before the battle with Slava, Oxy was depressed, lacking inspiration and tired, he suffered from loneliness - he actually sat on the Kiev balcony and did not know what to do next. His social network was managed by his assistant, and he himself disappeared from the media space, organizing a digital detox for himself. Even Myron’s close friends admitted that they did not know where he was: the man was completely locked in his own world.

As a result, Oxy never got into shape for the ideal battle with Gnoyny. It was felt that he was incredibly worried, that he was being overwhelmed by the shouts of the crowd (although this had already happened with Dunya), that his opponent was extremely cold-blooded and that his own text was far from ideal (the rhymes “truth - truth” are a symptom).

Myron’s performance sagged both in presentation (narcissism, which causes rejection) and in composition. Obviously, if Oxy had swapped the second and third rounds, there would have been a much greater chance of victory (or at least a non-crushing defeat). And so - a battle-like first round, a furious but distracted second round and a frankly boring finale.

It is much more curious that Myron actually listened to what Gnoyny told him. Now Fedorov works much more carefully on the lyrics of the tracks (there are no lexical errors there anymore) and closely follows the battle culture. Slava’s line “You’ve never been to a third-party party” is no longer relevant - Miron went to RBL and reviewed all the battles he watched there.

In addition, Oxy took up mentoring at Fresh Blood. This is the most controversial fact of his biography over the past year, but it is clear that Fedorov is really passionate about the idea of ​​​​raising six young but dangerous universal rappers who could not only battle, but also write songs. So far, not everything is working out, but you can’t refuse Oxy’s efforts - he does this not for money or fame, but purely out of love for battle culture.

“I am grateful to Gnoyny,” Miron admitted at one of the concerts. And this is not hypocrisy: Slava knocked off the crown just in time, brought Oxy down to earth and motivated a man who no longer knew where to find new challenges.

The purulent one quickly deflated

During the first viewing of the battle, it seemed that with his punches Slava was burying the coffin with the body of the Russian rap icon. Gnoyny convincingly shredded the image of Oksimiron, and he was nervous, interrupted, tried to answer and looked rather ridiculous. But if you listen to the battle now, it turns out that Slava many times either made up facts about Miron (about the price of sneakers), or embellished reality (about the politicization of the album), or included pathos (“when you fight, you die faster”), or poured out impersonal punches that can be applied to anyone, not just Oxy.

Miron chose a competent line: first he explained that Gnoyny repeated every one of his joints, and then suggested that Slava would then go into pop music.

And so it happened: a show on STS, friendship with Kirkorov, filming videos with Pugacheva, a completely absurd challenge to Nikolai Sobolev - all this no longer had anything to do with the ideals for which Gnoyny stood for, until he even had a thousand readers in "Twitter".

If you take away the battle with Oxy from Slava, you will be left with a fruitful but mediocre rapper who releases five albums a year (maximum of one) and performs at festivals (demonstrably poorly).

For example, on July 28, the fatter Slava organized the “League of Purulent”, but carried it out disgustingly. The battles started only two hours after the nominal start, and Gnoyny himself, paired with Jigglypuff, tried to freestyle, but it turned out to be completely primitive.

Alas, the more time passes after meeting Oxy, the stronger the feeling: Gnoyny has no idea how to move himself forward. Considering that the image of the winner Miron will sooner or later become bronzed, nothing good awaits Slava’s career.

Oversaturation of battles and stagnation of culture

Collage © L!FE Photo: © Screenshot © L!FE

It is important to understand: battle culture has never been mainstream anywhere in the world. Even in the States, top videos get hundreds of thousands of views, but not millions. Now it is clear that this is for the better.

As soon as Miron and Slava became perhaps the most talked about people in the country, battle rap was joined by showmen, poets, TV presenters, politicians and other people who until recently did not know what punch was, but quickly adjusted and began to encrust their speech with the word "hype". Of course, soon this effect became nauseating: I was tired of the mediocre battles of imitators, and the very term “hype”, which was used with or without reason.

What happened to the battles themselves this year? Nothing good either.

The main event at Versus is a very expensive and tent-like meeting between Guf and Ptah. The a cappella "Word of St. Petersburg" was bent. The Moscow “Slovo” also went on pause. The Fidelio Punch Club project was born and died, where battles took place either at the Spartak stadium or in a strip club. RBL is getting the same views as a year ago. Versus Fresh Blood is more amusing than pleasing so far - there are enough freaks there, but there are no real discoveries.

We can already say: the battle between Oxy and Purulent is a key event in the history of this culture, but globally it had almost no impact on anything. The world of battle rap will continue to live from one deafening event to another.

The only sad thing is that so far there is not a single really cool confrontation on the horizon. There are rumors that Versus will hold a crossover with RBL this winter. There is speculation that Johnnyboy, who has returned to the game, will challenge someone. There is hope that Gnoyny will still get his act together and find an opponent, for a battle with whom he will prepare as masterfully as for the meeting with Myron.

But for now this is all too vague and abstract to expect anything seriously.