Hip-hop takes hold in Ukraine; "Ukra-hop" leads the way (02/03/02)

Hip-hop takes hold in Ukraine; "Ukra-hop" leads the way

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

TANOK NA MAYDANI KONGO

The seven members, all in their early and mid-20s, walk the walk that low-hanging extremely loose baggy pants force upon those like them. They wear the same dark wrap-around glasses and the unstructured hats and caps. Nonetheless they would rather call the music they sing "Ukra-hop" rather than simply hip-hop.

And while the look is the same, the music indeed has different intonations. The harsh rhythms are slightly more subdued, the rapping less agitated and even melodic at moments. They haven't, however, smoothed over the dancing, which seems much more spontaneous and far less polished than anything 'NSync or the Backstreet Boys could ever hope for.

And the name, well the name just puts them way over the top. There is nothing like the name Tanok Na Maydani Kongo, and it is exclusively Ukrainian, as is their music.

Their stage name originated with a book on the history of jazz the band members were leafing through back in their hometown of Kharkiv when they still called themselves Novyi Dim (New House). A passage from the book described the African roots of jazz; how ancient tribesmen danced to certain rhythms, which held specific meaning for the people. At the time the group came up with the name for use as the title of a song they particularly liked. Soon afterwards they decided that they liked the title so much that it should be the name of their act.

It was cast in stone about a year later, after they met Jamaal, an African American from New Orleans, who told them that a Congo Square (Maydan Kongo) is a Rastafarian term for a spliff, (a marijuana cigarette) of all things.

"We found that to be quite interesting," explained Fozzy, 28, one of the band's founders and its spokesman.

In reality the group is absolutely drug-free, although they do experiment with the occasional beer.

The TNMK sound is not gangsta-rap, but then the group does not try to make that kind of music, as Fozzy, who is known to his mother as Oleksander Sydorenko, readily acknowledged. Instead they have focused their energies on creating a sound that binds the traditional music of Ukraine to the emerging tradition of hip-hop. Their latest album, "Anti-Format," which was released in December, incorporates that concept into its title.

"The point is that our style of hip-hop is not standard for today's Ukrainian music scene," explained Fozzy. "It is a difficult hip-hop. And it is not in the Russian language, which absolutely dominates music in Ukraine, where musicians who sing in Ukrainian are still considered secondary talents."

Fozzy admitted that initially TNMK tried to write in Russian - they are after all from Kharkiv, where Russian dominates on the city streets - but found that the language did not fit the rhythms and rhymes they were trying to achieve.

"We began to understand that our groove was better in Ukrainian. We also decided we would be innovators," explained Fozzy. "Let the Russians sing in Russian, but we'll sing in Ukrainian."

Fozzy said the album's title also is a back-handed jab at the Moscow record industry and the companies and producers who put out music in well-worked-out and to a large extent preordained formulas that leave little room for innovation and spontaneous bursts of creativity.

While TNMK lists among its favorite hip-hoppers Arrested Development, The Fugees and one of the seminal acts of the genre, the Beastie Boys, it also acknowledges the influence of a local Kharkiv singer who made them comfortable singing in the local Ukrainian dialect of the Slobozhanschyna region, with its traces of Russian surzhyk intermixed. The music was well received, particularly among the locals who recognized their native accent immediately.

"It brought smiles to people's faces," noted Fozzy.

The group members, whose appearances may remind some of a rag-tag posse of "homeboys" from the streets of Brooklyn, or Hamburg, are actually accomplished musicians with formal training.

"We did not come to music like rebellious drug-abusers," explained Fozzy somewhat defensively.

In fact Fozzy began the group with his friend, Spets Kotia, in 1989, at an age when the two had yet to see the need for a razor. How audiences reacted to the untraditional and to some even unheard of music the youngsters were performing is nicely described in the band's biography:

"In 1992 the kids took part in the initial musical contest 'Young Stars of Kharkiv.' The jury said, 'Phew!' This incident was repeated five more times."

The band went through several changes, moving gradually from a time when it consisted of a 15-person "cast," which included a DJ and a group of break dancers, to its current seven-person line-up. TNMK's composition began to coalesce in 1995 when Fozzy's writing partner, Fahot, joined, after running with the rap outfit RAP Obiymy (Rap Hugs) and also successfully producing a series of rap shows in Kharkiv called "In Da House." Today, in addition to those two, TNMK consists of original member Kotia, along with Dilia, Yaroslav, Vitold and Tonique.

After putting out several well-received albums and music videos, the group disappeared from the music scene for nearly a year at the end of 2000 before recently re-emerging with a flourish - with two new releases in the last two months and another new album due out in the next weeks.

Their music is not yet widely accepted in Ukraine, and the band does not hold Kyiv producers in high regard. Fozzy criticized them for being "of an age at which they cannot accept aggressive contemporary music" and for "wanting to make music a decade old."

TNMK also is not all that fond of Moscow, which Fozzy likened to a tundra: "A lot of noises, but basically empty."

He added that he would not mind if the act made its first international mark in Warsaw, which he considers more contemporary and more open to new ideas. But in the end that is neither here nor there because TNMK does not have and does not want a plan for success.

"We didn't begin this to make money and be in show business," explained Fozzy. "We want to play music. We call it an odyssey, and an odyssey determines its own path."

| Home Page |