Childhood and adolescence
Alexander was born and raised in Murmansk, which is confirmed by the number 51 (region number), which is a kind of talisman for him. It can often be seen on Timartsev’s T-shirts; his first tracks were also released under the pseudonym Tim 51.
Alexander Timartsev in childhood
As a child, Sasha was not distinguished by exemplary behavior and good academic performance, he often got into fights and caused a lot of trouble to his parents and teachers. As a teenager, he became interested in rap music and, like many of his peers, admired the work of Western artists.
After graduating from eighth grade, Timartsev entered the local trade and economic college, where he mastered the specialty of catering technologist. In 2009, he joined the army and served in the special forces medical forces, whose task was the rapid deployment of field hospitals in conditions close to combat.
Alexander Timartsev in the army
After demobilization, Alexander moved to St. Petersburg, where he met the rapper Jubilee and thanks to him he got into the St. Petersburg rap party. Soon he began to participate in freestyle battles, which were organized as part of the impromptu rap battle “Huyaksy”. Timartsev proposed organizing one of these fights in the restaurant where he then worked. From that moment on, the pseudonym “Restaurateur” was firmly assigned to him, under which he is now known to millions of viewers of Versus battles.
Career
The idea of organizing a professional rap battle in Russia came to Alexander’s mind when he saw on the Internet a duel between Blizzard and Mark Grist (“student versus teacher”) from the English battle platform “Don’t Flop.”
Alexander Timartsev worked in a restaurant, for which he received the pseudonym Restaurateur
He began to study foreign experience in holding this kind of competition and two years later, thanks to his acquaintance with the video directors from “Cuts & Scratches,” he managed to realize his plan. At first they wanted to call the project “Suprotiv”, in the Slavic manner, but they still decided to settle on the English-language “Versus”, which literally translates as “against”. The restaurateur before he became famous The difference between the new brainchild and a regular battle was that the participants had to prepare their performances in advance, which made the fight even more spectacular and hot. Everything happens live, without cuts or splices, it is recorded on camera, and then posted on YouTube. When creating “Versus,” all roles and responsibilities were strictly delineated: The restaurateur was involved in the selection of participants and organizational issues, and the guys from “Cuts & Scratches” were responsible for high-quality filming and placement on the channel.
The restaurateur began organizing rap battles “Versus”
Nowadays there is no end to those who want to compete in the battle, but then the most difficult thing was to convince famous rappers of the success of the new enterprise. But the very first fight between Harry Topor and Billy Milligan clearly demonstrated that the project has a great future ahead. It took place on September 1, 2013 - this date is considered the official birthday of “Versus”. The 1703 bar was assigned as the main venue for the event.
The absolute star of “Versus” was the invincible Oxxxymiron, all of whose performances caused a strong reaction on the Internet (the first who was able to defeat him was the rapper Slava CPSU).
The restaurateur judges the rap battle between Oxxxymiron and Gnoyny
By 2020, the Versus channel surpassed the million subscriber mark and began to bring considerable profits to its creators. Many consider the famous battle, in which not rappers, but bloggers Yuri Khovansky and Dmitry Larin, to be the starting point of large-scale success. The video of their performance has received more than 24 million views. Even the organizers of the largest American battles were impressed by the number of views that other popular Versus releases subsequently collected. All this allowed the Restaurateur to quit his job at the electronics store where he sold mobile phones, and the latest BMW model settled in his garage (it was featured in the Versus issue “Eldar Dzharakhov VS Dmitry Larin”). He became a frequent guest on television: in 2020 he appeared on Ivan Urgant’s evening program, and in 2020 he gave a detailed interview to Yuri Dudu. Restaurateur in "Evening Urgant" Now, in addition to the "original" Versus, there are two spin-offs: Versus: Fresh Blood, where aspiring rap artists compete (appeared in 2014), as well as Versus X #SLOVOSPB, where the "residents" of the Restaurateur project meet with performers of another battle - St. Petersburg “Slovo”. There is also Versus BPM: if previously the performers rapped in silence, then in this variety their recitative is accompanied by beats.
Let's not make any more noise.
On the evening of May 1, information appeared online that Alexander Timartsev had finally left Versus. Later, the Restaurateur confirmed that he was no longer interested in battles.
After the rumors surfaced, Rest was asked on Twitter if he had really left Versus. Timartsev confirmed that “at the moment this is so.”
EU. At the moment it is like this
— restorator (@Restorator51) May 1, 2020
Then the Restaurateur published a post on Instagram, where he explained in detail why he would no longer (at least for now) say “Let’s make some fucking noise!”
The restaurateur said that he actually stopped doing battles in December last year due to the fact that it was no longer interesting to him. “It’s difficult to work with rappers, they have seven Fridays a week. But, nevertheless, I continue to respect and love them. They are often very sincere and pleasant people,” noted Timartsev.
According to him, Ian will continue to organize the battles, while Sasha often disagreed with him. Sasha himself is not leaving Versus forever and is ready to support it: “I have not left the project. I took a break. “I am ready to take part in organizing events that are high-profile or interesting to me.”
Many Versus fans greeted the news with sadness.
Yes, I’m really sitting and crying right now because the Restaurateur left the Versus site. This is the saddest news today
