| Hookah rap | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Кальянный рэп,кальян-рэп,шиша-рэп |
| Other names | Hookah pop |
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Mid 2010s, |
| Typical instruments | |
| Music of Russia | ||||||||
| Genres | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Specific forms | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| Media and performance | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| Nationalistic and patriotic songs | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| Regional music | ||||||||
| ||||||||
Hookah rap, orhookah pop (Russian:кальян-рэп,romanized:kal'yan-rep,IPA:[kalʲ'janrɛp], Russian:кальянный рэп,romanized:kal'yannyy rep,IPA:[kɐlʲ'jannɨjrɛp], Russian:шиша-рэп,romanized:shisha-rep,IPA:[ʂɨ'ʂa-rɛp]), is a genre ofRussian rap orRussian pop which originated in Russia during the mid 2010s and popularized across thepost-Soviet countries in the late 2010s.
The genre has no clear defined principles, although it is closely connected to music and modern aesthetics ofthe Caucasus, sometimes taking the use of the melodies ofArabic music,music of the Middle East,music of Central Asia, and intersecting with the production style of various trending in mid-to-late 2010s genres, such aship hop music,trap music andhouse music, as well as being inspired by and crossing over into other mainstream genres likeestrada.
The albumChernika (transl. Blueberry) released by Russian rapperRem Digga [ru] in 2012 is called to be a precursor of hookah rap.[1]
The first tracks in the genre date back to 2014 from the artistJah Khalib, who has been called a pioneer of the genre.[1] These tracks were characterised by hedonisticDrake-like lyrics and with a distinctive melodic immersive production style.[1] A few years later, the artist released major hits in the genre such as "Leyla", "Medina", "Sozvezdiye angela" and others.[1]
In 2016, when house rap was at the peak of popularity with a special form of production that mimicked deep baselines ofdeep house, rap duoMiyaGi & Andy Panda [ru] (then known as MiyaGi & Endshpil) tried to combine this trend with hookah rap in their track "Tamada", which became one of the first major hits in the genre.[1] Later on, this style of production increasingly overlapped with the genre.
The rap duoHammAli & Navai released their biggest hookah rap hit "Khochesh, ya k tebe priyedu" (transl. If you want, I will come to you) in 2017.[1] Later in 2018, they were named as those who cultivated the style.[2][3] The first use of the term "hookah rap" is also traced to them in 2018.[1] But the term itself was popularized byBahh Tee [ru], the head of theAtlantic Records Russia (then known as Zhara Music).[4] According to the journalist of theKommersant newspaper Boris Barabanov, this style was one of the most popular styles in Russia in 2019.[5]
Editor of the Russian music mediaTheFlow.ru Nikolay Redkin described hookah rap as:
"Hookah rap is music in which there are a lot of one-hit wonders. This is the music of artists who appear out of nowhere and also disappear into nowhere. This music does not work in the album format."
— Nikolai Redkin, "Hookah Rap": A genre that everyone hates and listens to anyway (Nikolai Redkin, ИМИ[6])
In 2020, Bahh Tee has argued that hookah rap eventually homogenized into mainstream music, and now is undetectable as anything stylistically different.[7]
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Hookah rap" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(April 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Hookah rap is characterized by the following features, although the style is not cemented in any one aesthetic direction: