Album of the week#316: Kasta - Gromche Vody, Vyshe Trawy (2002)

Allrighty, here comes the last album of the week in this very slavic month. The album title translates as followed: "Louder than water, higher than grass."

Why "Kasta"? Why are they so important for russian hip-hop? Well, I do not know much about russian rap scene BUT I know much about the evolution of it and about German hip-hop. The evolutions of both genres are pretty much the same. One of the first famous German hip-hop groups "Die Fantastischen Vier" (Fantastic Four) made that kind of music that you could introduce to your mom. "Real" rap crews became even bigger than them and introduced the public to a much rougher sound. There is a similar thing with Russian rap. First there were funny shenanigans, then rap artists who didn't wrote their own songs rose to fame and then came Kasta. Which means "caste" in English.

Kasta delivered a whole new style of Hip-Hop. At least in Russia. Neither "Gangsta" nor fixed on the four elements of Hip-Hop. Real stories about friendship and life in the streets of Rostow on Don. And a grandma who likes talk a lot. Or about this friend called Max who was the truest motherfucker you have ever known until the day he got stabbed.

Kasta simply do not give a fuck if they are "real". The introtrack says "Some people say that rap is "yo!". Others say that rap is "baggy pants". Others say that in Russia there is no real Hip-Hop at all. But those guys from Kasta...those guys from Kasta do not give a single fuck! They do they own fucking thing."

Kasta are the Russian Wu-Tang Clan. No copy. No clone. Just genuine streetwise Hip-Hop. Fucking right.

songs you should check out: My berem eto na ulitsah, Pro Maksa, Ey Babka, Raz-dwa-tri,