Mama ama crime. 5 Russian rappers who had serious problems with the law

Information

• Childhood and adolescence
• Youtube and music career
• Work on the EasyRep project
• Relationships and personal life
• Alisher Morgenstern today
• Bottom line

About early childhood, school

Little is known about Vladimir-QUOK Sorokin’s parents: except that you can read that they moved to the Czech Republic with their children “not for work or for study, but simply for a change of scenery,” - a fragment from a conversation on the Epoch resource. Vladimir doesn’t really like to bare his soul in front of a large number of people, and to the standard question: “Where do you remember yourself as a little kid?” - answered: “There is such a place in the Czech Republic, but I will not name it.” From correspondence in chats, we managed to “find out” the name of the town: this is Rozdoki, not far from Prague, where Vova spent his early childhood. And when he was either 10 or 11 years old (different sites give one or the other number), the family moved to Prague.

https://www.instagram.com/quok.kyok/

Vladimir began to get interested in music at the age of six: his older brother transferred tracks to discs, and these melodies were constantly heard in their house. Trip-hop, music from video games, industrial, ska punk and much more: a simply “diabolical” mixture of these styles had a huge influence on Vova, already shaping his musical tastes. The boy was also interested in online games, and was particularly addicted to Minecraft. It was then that his current creative nickname was born: Vova had this nickname (“QUOK”) in the game, his fellow gamers called him the same when communicating. “I got used to this nickname, I wanted to change it, but I couldn’t find anything better, and it looks great on posters,” Kuok shared today.

The boy “didn’t get along” with the Russian school (his words), he refused to go to the Czech one, went to the American one: “There was an IB system, and I decided that physics and chemistry were not for me, but I would study cinema and music,” - from an interview in 2020. At first the boy could not communicate with anyone there; he did not know English, but he quickly mastered it. Now Vladimir Sorokin, by the way, speaks English fluently. At this school, the teenager studied jazz and learned to play the bass guitar. But already at the age of 9, the boy began to look for a path into music “by trial and error” (also in his words): his older brother gave him a digital station “FL Studio”. They put it on his mother’s laptop, and the games faded into the background: the boy became seriously interested in music, dreaming of “becoming a charismatic psycho like Mike Patton,” from an interview with “the-flow.”

Way to success

And it started back at school! His brother, a multi-instrumentalist and sound specialist, infected the younger one with a fanatical desire to make music, and QUOK’s first successes were performances in the school jazz band. And then rap fell into his soul, and it is logical to assume that the young musician wanted to appear in rap battles: participation in such events was incredibly popular among aspiring rappers. “Maybe I would have gotten into the battle scene if I hadn’t actively written tracks. It’s either one or the other,” a fragment from a dialogue on the studio21 resource. At the same time, Vladimir began producing, collaborating with Czechs, Russians, and Americans.

The music community appreciated the creations of the artist Kuok: the EP disc “Baynari” was unconditionally successful (the release took place in October 2018), and the track “Noir” was especially liked by a large group of fans. “Noir 2” followed the first one in the album “DECADANCE 2” - such a coincidence in terms of numbers. In May 2019, according to the musician, a turning point came in his career: “People who saw me began to find me - I had already shown myself completely and I can do better.” At the same time, the singer and author of the tracks also showed himself as a talented video maker: it all started with regard to music videos in the fifth grade, when Vova was trying to make videos for Minecraft and was engaged in video blogging.

• "Airplane mode";
• "Booth";
• Peer Pressure.

These clips are already in his creative baggage, and there are also documentary videos, the “KINO 2” video, released in February 2020. And fans of the talented rapper and electronic experimenter are already frozen in anticipation of the main event of the year - the release of “Decadence 2”.

Work on the EasyRep project

In the fall of 2020, the artist began a period of crisis in his work due to problems with his personal life. For this reason, he terminated his MMD collective. Alisher decided to launch a new channel. But despite this, at the same time the launch release of the EasyRep format was implemented. According to the terms of this project, the musician must choose a composition by any famous singer and make his own song in his style within a few minutes. Then he just as quickly shoots a video for this song. By participating in this program, Alisher wanted to prove that it is absolutely not difficult to write songs in the modern world. In the first issue, Morgenstern wrote a song in the style of Dremin Ivan, who goes by the pseudonym Face.

Project #EasyRep.

The video collected a huge number of positive responses and views, and thereby encouraged the musician to continue working in this format. Later, a whole series of such clips followed with covers of Eldzhey, Buzova Pharaoh and others.

At the beginning of December, the performer released a video on the theme of the election campaign, in which he appeared as a candidate of the rap party. In the clip, Alisher read out a text that contained information about what would be done if he became president.

In December, as part of the same project, a video was released where Alisher laughs at the performer Kizaru: he teased the rapper for the boring themes of his songs.

At the end of the same month, Morgenstern teamed up with Eldar Dzharakhov. Together they filmed a comic parody of one of Alisher’s first songs. After these events, the YouTuber took part in Dzhakharov’s work, performing a composition in the form of a message to Grandfather Frost in the form of Kizaru.

Alisher Morgenstern and Eldar Dzharakhov.

At the very beginning of January, the artist presented a diss track against Yuri Khovansky. The clip received the highest rating by YouTube standards and received more than a million views within a few days. In his video, the blogger spoke unflatteringly towards MC Khovan, which provoked some conflict.

Clip “Morgenshtern - Diss on MC KHOVANSKY (go na versus goof).”

Against the backdrop of the incident, Alisher significantly increased the number of his subscribers; they increased by more than 150 thousand. At the moment, advertising on a blogger’s YouTube channel costs not much, not less than 300 thousand rubles. A tour of Russia was planned for the spring of 2020; tickets for the concerts sold out quite quickly. Before the tour, a new video clip was released, which talked about Alexey Navalny, an oppositionist to the current government of the Russian Federation. Alisher pointed out that rap has come close to politics, since every significant government official has his own rapper. Timati is the President’s rapper, and Morgenstern proclaimed himself Navalny’s rapper. At the same time, he noted that he is not a person involved in political affairs.

The video was filmed in different locations. At one point, the video blogger even raced in the official car of the policeman who gave the boy such an opportunity. Having published this clip, Alisher began to actively collect dislikes from everyone who does not share the opinion of opposition YouTubers.

On the eve of his birthday in February, when the guy turned 20 years old, his new album “Hate me” was released. All 6 songs were supplemented with clips. However, there were accusations online that his album was very similar to the tracks of Ghostemane, who is a recognized foreign rapper.

At the same time, or to be more precise, at the end of February, the number of followers on Alisher’s YouTube channel increased sharply to 1 million. Morgenstern decided to celebrate this important event by filming a joint video clip with one of his loyal Tomsk subscribers.

QUOK: latest news

What prompted him to switch from rap to electronics? Kuok himself will answer this question best: “In rap, everyone is always fussing, running somewhere, trying to get to the top. But in electronics, everything is much more measured: people write something for themselves, doing production in between, and some make money from streaming.” More of his words on the topic of electronics: “Here you don’t have to set yourself a deadline. But in rap there’s constant fuss and tension—you have to keep your finger on the pulse.” The musician now lives in Prague, together with his friends he started equipping a new studio; on his Instagram and VK account you can find photographs of the renovation and finishing process.

The guy entered the university with a degree in Film Editing: however, he keeps secret what city he studies in and what educational institution. The release of the album “DECADANCE 3”, meanwhile, is already scheduled for mid-March, and Vladimir’s fans will be able to hear 24 new tracks at once. So young, but already successful and popular, QUOK is besieged by journalists, they are tearing it apart with the desire to get ahead of competitors and post a fresh interview. Of course, they ask him about plans for the future, about dreams. Answers: “I don’t think or dream about fits, I never planned it. I would like to do something serious with a symphony orchestra - here is an idea. There were tests with chamber orchestras, but so far it hasn’t been very interesting.”

Alisher Morgenstern today

On January 17, 2020, Alisher released his 3rd studio album entitled “Legendary Dust”.

The peculiarity of the album is that it was recorded in just a week (from January 6 to 12) and live (broadcast on YouTube, on the artist’s channel).

In just half an hour after its release, the album received more than a million plays, and in 24 hours - more than 10 million (according to the VKontakte social network).

Despite such a huge number of plays, many reacted negatively to this album. In particular, Danila Golovkin from InterMedia expressed himself about the album as follows: “Dirty sound, simple music and lyrics about who the hell knows what” (proof). Also, many fans noted that Morgenshtern “is no longer the same.”

Personal life

QUOK celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2020: not married, no children - this is the official information about him in terms of his personal life. Does he have a girlfriend? “My ex was a mess, and that’s enough for me,” the guy said frankly in an interview with the Epoch resource, immediately mentioning personal matters and his attitude to drugs. What exactly happened to this girl is unknown. “I ignored drugs because my acquaintances and friends lost their lives because of them,” – more on the topic of drugs from the same conversation. The topic, after all, relates to personal life: this area includes habits, good and bad, and style of behavior. “They tell me I’ll end up like Cobain, but I’m not twenty-seven!” – these words are in one of his tracks.

Vladimir constantly emphasizes that he has a negative attitude towards drugs. In his words: “Why they think that I use them is unclear - the message in the songs is completely different.” He has a calmly positive attitude towards alcohol: the guy doesn’t pretend to be a good boy, there are photos on his Instagram where he’s holding a glass that’s clearly not filled with Fanta. A little more about the personal: fans noticed the ex-soloist of the Serebro group Katya Kishchuk in several photographs next to Vova and immediately raised hell, suspecting them of a close relationship. But most likely, they are only friends - there is no confirmation of a romance between the QUOK musician and Katya Kishchuk.

Biography

On April 7, 2019, rap fans closely followed the young musical fighters who competed for the title of winner in Versus: Fresh Blood - 4 and a million, or more precisely, 820 thousand rubles. Everything here was new. The participants were initially divided into two equal teams, supervised by masters of their craft - Oksimiron and Smokey Mo. And the format was reminiscent of the usual talk shows: meetings with mentors, the arrival of celebrity guests, discussion of performances and the introduction of peculiar monetary sanctions. Among the memorable rappers is Rostov resident Piem.

Interesting Facts

1. He is perceived so differently that the phrase “from hatred to love is one step” is exactly applicable to Vova. One of Kuok’s haters online spewed curses at him, threatened to disfigure him, and at a concert in person, he suddenly began declaring his love.
2. The voice, according to QUOK, is much more important than music and beat. “One time I was angry, I ran home and recorded a song even without an instrumental. I liked it so much that I left it in this form,” in his words. This probably refers to a fragment from “Morning, I’m dragging myself from the party angry.”
3. Sometimes he doesn’t get along with people because they don’t perceive him as a whole. “I’m a rapper, a kid from the area, an electronic engineer, a student and many more. Everyone judges me based on one thing, but not everyone can put it together into a single whole” – from correspondence on “genius.com”.
4. Reads with pleasure; from what I read about Hemingway: “I didn’t understand the religious overtones of the book the first time, then I re-read it several times,” from an interview with “the-flow.” And QUOK’s favorite writer is Haruki Murakami.
5. There is no information at all about QUOK’s father and mother, but here are the musician’s words about his father: “He is my idol for all time, an example in everything. I dream of meeting a person who would be at least a little like him.”
6. About his favorite places: in addition to the city where Vova spent his childhood, he loves to mention the Japanese city of Harajuku: “The walk at 6 in the morning will be remembered for the rest of my life. Nowhere have I been so energized as I was there,” from revelations on “the-flow.”
7. KUOK’s statement about the music industry: “There are tons of shelves there, like in a supermarket. There is a place for everyone on the shelf, if, of course, they want it.” And also: “Behind everything we do is blood, sweat and time.”

Youtube and music career

As a youth, Morgenstern was in a rock band, where he was a guitarist. The group had songs in foreign languages ​​in its arsenal, but they did not receive enough popularity. Due to the lack of further prospects, Morgenstern leaves the group and creates his own. A young man decides to write humorous songs for social networks. His band wrote songs in punk and rock styles, as well as in the form of acoustic guitar playing. Alisher chose a name for his team that, when translated into Russian, sounds like “My mother is a virgin.” (abbreviated MMD).

Mamavirgin’s works were different, ranging from the touching “Youth” to the heavy track “Let’s Talk”.

In order for the group to actively promote and develop, it was necessary to invest in an advertising campaign and performances. Thus, providing for the team required large expenses, and there was no talk of large incomes yet.

Morgenstern before he became famous.

Morgenstern's further fate was marked by attempts to make money. Having once met a musician playing in the subway, the guy decided to start performing on the street. Having only a few Tsoi songs in his repertoire, the young man played them in a circle for several hours. This day brought the performer 1 thousand rubles. Then Alisher chose a point on the main square of the city, where he played the electric guitar and sang into the microphone. In just a few hours of work, he already received 2.5 thousand rubles from passing listeners. With the onset of cold weather, it became clear that performing outside would no longer be possible. Therefore, the musician decides to open his own recording studio in his hometown of Bashkiria. Renting the premises where the singer installed all his equipment cost about 15 thousand rubles per month. From that moment on, the guy began to earn money by providing recording services for numerous Ufa rappers.

After graduating from school (the boy studied at an elite school for 10 and a half years, and spent the last six months before graduation and passing the Unified State Exam on the territory of a private educational institution), Morgenstern entered the university to major in teaching. There he receives a cash benefit for the loss of a breadwinner due to the death of his father in the amount of 8 thousand rubles. The guy didn’t like studying at all, but he still continued to go there just for the benefit. In 2020, at the university, in the assembly hall, the rock band MMD recorded a cover of the popular YungTrappa track “I’m Good.” Classmate Alishera took part in this work and played along on the piano.

By that time, the recording studio was bringing in almost no income. The money earned was completely spent on renting an office, and sometimes the budget even went into a big minus. It was decided to leave this matter. At the beginning of 2020, the MMD group recorded a joint track with the popular blogger Andrey Martynenko, which was called “It will be mine.” In just one year, the video for this track collected about 2.5 million views and a huge number of enthusiastic responses from viewers.

Soon the musician got himself a tattoo with the image of 666. According to him, he did this in order to never be an employee, since working in an office is equivalent to death for him. At the same time, Alisher radically changed his image, making dreadlocks out of his hair.

Alisher Morgenstern.

In April, the YouTuber released the song “Graduate Anthem,” which describes the indecent behavior of modern schoolgirls.

A month later, the video blogger was expelled from the university due to the style of his work on Youtube. One of the university teachers came across a video where a young musician, during an internship at one of the schools, approached a schoolgirl and whispered obscene things in her ear. As the artist himself later commented, this girl was familiar to him and she is an adult. But this did not influence the decision of the university management to expel Alisher.

Then the performer unsuccessfully tried to get a job at a popular recording studio in the capital of Bashkiria. After this, Morgenstern wanted to go to study to become a sound engineer, but he was not accepted because of his too shocking appearance and tattoo. As a result, the video blogger was able to get a free place at an aviation university, where he began studying computer science.