Hip-hop allstars

Hip-hop, the cultural phenomenon that was begun by inner-city youngsters in New York in the early 1970s, has gone mainstream in Russia.

Thanks to MTV, Russians are getting used to graffiti, and youths sporting baggy jeans and doo rags tied around their heads, and the sound of hip-hop music.

Now in its third year, the Hip-Hop All Stars festival takes place in St. Petersburg on Saturday. This year, the event has moved from its former venue, Yubileiny Stadium, to the smaller Manezh Kadetskogo Korpusa.

“After considering all the strengths and weaknesses of carrying out large music events in the summer, it was decided to focus on bringing star guests rather than on organizing a large-scale event,” Invox Publishing, the show’s organizer, said in a statement released Tuesday.

The festival will feature three events this year, including a “Special Edition” show featuring Guru, a veteran of the American hip-hop scene. Guru and his crew will perform with Russian rap bands Kasta and Krec.

St. Petersburg-based Krec is the youngest and least hardcore of the show’s participants but became famous after its song “Nezhnost”(Tenderness) was chosen for the soundtrack of the film “Piter-FM” released earlier this year. Krec is expected to present its third album “Po Reke” (“Along the River”) at the event.

Rostov-on-Don-based Kasta is arguably one of the best rap acts in the country and the winner of the 2006 Best Hip-Hop project of the year award from Muz TV music channel.

The band has also received recognition from within Russia’s mainstream showbiz circles.

DJ Groove, one of Russia’s most prominent electronic musicians, told the Rap.ru web site at the awards’ ceremony that he was convinced Kasta would win.

“They are honest, they are honest with their words. These are true lyrics, true folklore,” he said. “Real hip-hop is not R ‘n’ B. It has to be free from gold (bling), expensive cars and all the rest of that nonsense.

“Hip-hop is about the problems of the human race. Let pop music sing about how everything is good, but hip-hop, as well as rock, has to talk about problems,” he said, adding, “Kasta has the right attitude.”

The band said it has participated in Hip-Hop All Stars projects from the very beginning and are looking forward to perform at the event alongside Guru, a “legendary American rapper.”

Guru earned his underground celebrity as the mouthpiece of the duo Gangstarr and is now considered by many in the international rap community as one of the genre’s most original voices.

Rap-meets-jazz pioneer Gangstarr enjoys cult status in the hip-hop world. Classics include “Just to Get a Rep,” “Manifest” and “You know My Steez.”

“Influenced by jazz, doo-wop and ’70s soul more than any other still-standing hip-hop act, Gangstarr understands better than any other the correlation between jazz and rap — two black art forms with similar cadences that thrive on spontaneous innovation,” a reviewer for the BBC wrote about “Ownerz,” the bands most recent album.

“The group’s songs typically feature jazzy basslines, horn riffs, and obscure jazz samples that form the perfect foundation for Guru’s conversational, laconic vocals to weave their hypnotic spell,” the review continues.

To be successful in the coming concert Guru will have to connect with audiences half his age, but the challenge of “exchanging information” with younger generations has never stopped the MC. Describing his revival as a solo artist in a 2004 interview with AllHipHop.com, Guru said: “I was able to look at the younger cats and see what they were doing and learn from them as opposed to being one of those bitter cats looking at the young dudes in a spiteful way. I could never be that dude.”

“A lot of MCs can make a good record, but…do they have a stage show? It’s a total package of an MC is what you get with me,” the old school rapper said.