What's Up with Ukrainian Rap?
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Loading... - Nadine Dombrow
- 04 Oct 2022
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Ukrainian rapper Jockii Druce is a person of this century. Now 22, like the century itself, his entire life has been lived with no memory of the Soviet Union or the first tumultuous decade of Ukrainian independence. Like many young Ukrainians, Ukraine always has just been.
Druce grew up in a Russian-speaking family and community in Dnipro, learning Ukrainian in class. As he approached his teen years, he began rapping with friends after school and on weekends. Discovering an aptitude for the music, he became increasingly serious about rap as a means of expressing his feelings and identity. The more he turned to the music for self-expression, the more he found rapping in Russian unsatisfying. He shifted organically to creating his music in Ukrainian because it empowered him to explore unchartered territories.
Druce already had a following before the Russian invasion this year. Because he is from an eastern Ukrainian city close to the fighting that began in 2014, Druce could not ignore a growing partition between his Ukrainian friends and fans and the Russian-language culture dominating the airways. But Russian culture and language increasingly felt impervious and unchanging while Ukrainian culture and language felt fluid and experimental.
When the Russians invaded in February, he released a new video on TikTok, “So What’s Up Brothers?” ironically referring to Russian propaganda about Russians and Ukrainians being brethren. Full of biting humor and sharp satire, the song racked up millions of plays and has become a favored soundtrack for videos about the war being posted on social media. Its closing line repeating the popular slogan, “Russian warship, go #%&@ yourself,” speaks to thousands of Ukrainians of his generation. Read More...
