Moscow Times-Russian Rapper Slams Police After His Apology

Russian Hip Hop artist Noize MC (wearing the hoodie) and his crew: Moscow Times

(Story reported by Sergei Chernov for the Moscow Times) 

ST. PETERSBURG — Rapper Noize MC, who was jailed for 10 days for “disorderly conduct” during his set at an outdoor festival after the local police took offense at his mocking them with a song and improvised rap, has released a new song that lambastes the police and calls Russia a “police state.”

In the song rush-released last week — almost immediately after the artist’s release from jail — Noize MC, whose real name is Ivan Alexeyev, sarcastically thanks the police for the inspiration and 10 days spent in “paradise,” while the video demonstrates endless and extremely diverse instances of Russian police brutality — from two policemen stopping and beating a lone cyclist to the recent outburst of police violence at the July 31 demonstration in St. Petersburg.

The powerful protest song has two names, “10 Days in Paradise” and “10 Days (Stalingrad)” — in a reference to Volgograd’s Stalin-era name — and describes Russia as a “police state” and Volgograd as its “capital.”

The song, posted at NoizeMC.ru, features a sarcastic “apology” — a brief, videoed rap that Alexeyev read from a piece of paper distributed by the Volgograd police’s press service while he was in prison.

In an interview with Gazeta.ru, Alexeyev explained that he wrote and performed the “apology” rap under pressure, when he was threatened with having his charges changed to “insulting a policeman,” an offense punishable by up to one year of “correctional labor,” but the sarcasm was lost on the police — as well as on some of the public, as he later discovered.

The “apology” rap in its entirety has been included in “10 Days” as the chorus. Alexeyev’s arrest brought a rare show of unity from other musicians, with hundreds signing a letter in his support.

One of the first to sign the letter was Alexei Nikonov of punk band Posledniye Tanki v Parizhe, or “Last Tanks in Paris,” which is renowned for its anti-establishment stance.

(Click here to read the full story on the Moscow Times website. Below is the YouTube video for MC Noize's "A Song For Radio.")