Hookah rap

Hookah rap (hookah rap, hookah pop, Russian: Кальян-рэп)  is a cliché used in relation to music in a certain style, which spread throughout the post-Soviet states in the late 2010s.

The phrase "hookah rap" itself was popularized by Bahh Tee, the head of the Atlantic Records in Russia. The genre has no clear aesthetic principles, although closely connected to Arabic music, the Middle-East, the Caucuses, and Central Asia.[1] According to the journalist of the Kommersant newspaper Boris Barabanov, this direction was one of the most popular styles in Russia in 2019.[2] The rapper Bahh Tee has argued that hookah rap eventually homogenized into mainstream music, and now is undetectable as anything stylistically different.[3]

One of the main names who popularized the style is Jah Khalibwho, gaining fame for his songs "Layla", "Medina" and others. However the group Idris & Leos note that the rap group HammAli & Navai were actually the first ones to cultivate the style,[4] Navai's former job as a taxi-driver in Russia usually occupied by migrants and other low-income individuals.

Editor of the Russian online site The-Flow.ru Nikolai 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[5])

Characteristics

The music to which the term is applied is characterized by the following features, although the style is not cemented in any one aesthetic direction:

  • Hookah rap is performed in the Russian language.
  • The performers are characterized by the presence of a Caucasian, Central Asian and, in general, an oriental accent, or its intentional imitation.
  • The vocal line is performed with the most indistinct diction and a lot of pitch correction.
  • The presence of oriental melody, characteristic of Arabic music, is characteristic. Some tracks note the use of Latin American music ( reggaeton ).
  • The music is also characterized by the use of traditional hip hop beats. A number of tracks, however, use a straight kick.
  • Recitative in hookah rap sounds, as a rule, softer; the influence of such a genre as meykhana is noted in the style .
  • Also in a number of tracks, the presence of clean vocals in a style similar to soul is noted .
  • The theme of the songs is not similar to traditional hip-hop and is uncharacteristic of it. As a rule, these are themes typical for pop music in general: unrequited love, dreams of happiness. Some tracks celebrate the romance of "club" life. In general, the topics of the texts are quite diverse.
  • Jah Khalib calls this direction not hookah rap, but hookah pop

Performers

See also
  • "Hookah Rap": A genre that everyone hates and listens to anyway (Nikolai Redkin, ИМИ)[7]
  • We are hookah rap, we even have hookahs" (Meduza, 2020)[8]

References
  1. "Что такое "кальян-рэп", почему его хейтят и не ходят на концерты". The-Flow.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  2. "Слушая 2019-й". www.kommersant.ru (in Russian). 2019-12-31. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  3. "Бизнес Zhara Music, победа кальян-рэпа, "художник должен быть голодным": главное из документалки о Bahh Tee • ТНТ MUSIC — Здесь твоя музыка". tntmusic.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  4. "Idris & Leos: "Кальян-рэп ближе людям, чем "хайповый" хип-хоп" • ТНТ MUSIC — Здесь твоя музыка". tntmusic.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2022-04-02.
  5. Николай Редькин // «Кальян-рэп»: жанр, который все ненавидят и все равно слушают, retrieved 2022-04-04
  6. "Кальянный рэп", Википедия (in Russian), 2022-03-26, retrieved 2022-04-02
  7. Николай Редькин // "Кальян-рэп": жанр, который все ненавидят и все равно слушают, retrieved 2022-04-02
  8. "«Мы — кальян-рэп, у нас даже кальяны есть» Вышел второй эпизод документального сериала «Поток» — о рэперах, которых вы наверняка слышали. Вот как они сами описывают свой жанр". Meduza (in Russian). Retrieved 2022-04-05.


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