Слава КПСС – Eternal Return & Funeral

Slava KPSS (Слава КПСС) = Vyacheslav Mashnov, born in 1990 and from the rather far east, Kharabovsk or Хабаровск. Turned as a rapper—also under the name Sonya Marmeladova, a character from Crime and Punishment, and under the nickname Гнойный (Gnoiny), meaning something like festering—with a diss aimed at many.

Against

Against Face, against Oxxxymoron (with Замай/Zamay), against Nikolay Sobolev with the Sobolev diss, against many others at the same time with the I’ll sing my music diss. There’s a Shnurov and a Freshmen Diss, and more—there’s even a Top 10 Slava KPSS Disses.

Even Vladimir Putin isn’t safe from Slava, and he’s been banned from Ukraine after referring to Ukrainians as a несуществующей нацией (non-existent nation), which is also quite the diss. For more on that, see Wikipedia (RU).

Battle Mode

Slava no longer does battles. See Slava KPSS – who is his girlfriend, Noize MC – person of the year, why he no longer wants to battle (Вписка, 2019, 50 m). Of almost another era is Russia’s viral rap battle: is this the last cultural space for free speech? (The Calvert Journal, 2017). About ‘the new enfant terrible of a subculture that immediately falls in love with anyone who can aggravate it,’ and about this battle (between Slava KPSS and Oxxxymiron, 2017) with its own Wikipedia page.

Moving Away from Rap

Now, he’s done with all that rap. Not a surprise after F*CKRAP (also with Zamay) from 2017, but still a bit of a shame when you hear how smoothly everything flowed in No, Thanks (2018). The new direction was set with Чудовище погубившее мир (Monster that Destroyed the World), just before the end of 2020. See Why Slava KPSS is leaving rap. A candid interview (Flow, 2020) on the creation of Slava’s most tragic and, it seems, best album.

Below are two tracks from that album.

Eternal Return

Eternal return, make your choice as if you’re living this moment forever (eternity). All the pain and joy will repeat, and in me, there’s no more fear (no fear).

   Eternal return, make your choice as if you’ll live this moment for eternity (Eternity)
   All pain and joys will repeat again
   And there’s no more fear in me (No fear)

    ( Lyrics)

Funeral

Whatever they do (and whatever you do), however wrong it may be: their (and your) funeral will come.

   They can lie and kill
   And set brother against brother
   They can even screw the Gods, but their funeral will come
   And you can lie to yourself and others, always taking payment in advance
   But no matter what, that day and your funeral will come soon

   ( Lyrics)

More

Also from Чудовище погубившее мир are Art Track, No Hope, No God, No Hip-Hop, and singles Scarecrow and I Will Kill Myself. Listen to the full album on Apple Music and Spotify.

Older works and also videos worth watching—though they can’t be embedded—are all on YouTube:

• Spiritual Beggar (2019)
  
• Toyota Cresta (2019)
  
• Twenty Twenty (2019)
  
• Patsan Flex (2018)
  
• Sad Dances (2018)
  

Portrait and Interview

• SLAVA KPSS – on the Psychiatric Ward, Protests, and Leaving Rap (SpeakOut, 2020, 60 m)
• “Oxxxymiron set me up for life” (Ksenia Sobchak), 2019, 75 m)
• Gnoiny – big interview after the battle (вДудь, 2017, 58 m)

Most of the music here is also available in an R1 playlist on YouTube (in order of posting).
Check out Best Russian Music and Russian Song Lyrics.

last edited 18-12-2020