The popular rapper Dino MC 47 has just recorded a song, "March 29," that skewers the Kremlin elite and the security services, in the wake of this week's twin bombings on the Moscow metro.
Here's a translation of a small fragment (bear in mind that it sounds much more poetic in Russian. You can listen here and read the full lyrics in Russian here):
"With serious faces our leaders promise that the struggle will continue;
There can be no negotiations with terrorists, every one must be destroyed;
Brazen well-fed faces with flashing lights and security speak from the television screen and say they aren't afraid;
While their children are in London and their money in the Cayman Islands"
In an interview with RFE/RL's Russian Service, Dino MC 47 said the song reflects emerging sentiments in society:
"The moods I sing about are very strong in society. People are discussing these things in kitchens, with friends, and on the Metro. I just said what everybody thinks. We were lied to and told that everything is alright, that everything was just fine, and so on. That there are only 10 terrorists left. And now it turns out that this isn't true."
Dino MC 47's protest song comes just weeks after veteran rocker Yury Shevchuk, front man for the band DDT, lit into Russia's rulers in a four-minute monologue between songs at a recent Moscow concert.
It also follows a widely circulated protest song the rapper MC Noize posted on the Internet after LUKoil Vice President Anatoly Barkov was involved in a traffic accident that killed two women.
-- Brian Whitmore
Here's a translation of a small fragment (bear in mind that it sounds much more poetic in Russian. You can listen here and read the full lyrics in Russian here):
"With serious faces our leaders promise that the struggle will continue;
There can be no negotiations with terrorists, every one must be destroyed;
Brazen well-fed faces with flashing lights and security speak from the television screen and say they aren't afraid;
While their children are in London and their money in the Cayman Islands"
In an interview with RFE/RL's Russian Service, Dino MC 47 said the song reflects emerging sentiments in society:
"The moods I sing about are very strong in society. People are discussing these things in kitchens, with friends, and on the Metro. I just said what everybody thinks. We were lied to and told that everything is alright, that everything was just fine, and so on. That there are only 10 terrorists left. And now it turns out that this isn't true."
Dino MC 47's protest song comes just weeks after veteran rocker Yury Shevchuk, front man for the band DDT, lit into Russia's rulers in a four-minute monologue between songs at a recent Moscow concert.
It also follows a widely circulated protest song the rapper MC Noize posted on the Internet after LUKoil Vice President Anatoly Barkov was involved in a traffic accident that killed two women.
-- Brian Whitmore