Another youth idol.
Pharaoh is a popular Russian rapper, and therefore a teenage idol. By the way, it was he who came up with “skrr-skr-skr”. Gleb Golubin (this is the rapper’s real name) is friends with Shnurov and Nevzorov, gathers the biggest clubs in the country and all the time avoids awkward questions about drugs and personal life. If you like Farah and his work, press the light.
Rapper Pharaoh graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University
During his studies, he began recording songs and soon became popular, so that he was recognized at the faculty.
You go to the university, roughly speaking as a couple, and people are chasing you from the subway to your class.
They just follow you in silence and that’s it. And you know that they are coming for you. They can’t come up or take a photo, they can’t ask anything, because they are shackled by some feeling unknown to me. And they follow you and follow you. This is weird. Pharaoh
Girls of a popular rapper
The personal life of the charismatic rapper Pharaoh can be judged based on the photos that he posts on social networks. For some time, the rapper was actively uploading romantic pictures with the lead singer of the group “Serebro” Katya Kishchuk. Then Gleb switched to a little-known stylist and model Natalia Melnikovau.
Pharaoh’s next relationship was with the daughter of the eminent tennis player Marat Kafelnikov, Alesya. The parents of Golubin’s new darling were categorically against this choice of their daughter. It soon became known that the rich and spoiled girl was using drugs. Under the influence of drugs, Alesya shared intimate facts about her breakup with Pharaoh.
In his spare time, the sought-after artist loves to watch the films of the cult American director Quentin Tarantino, especially the film “From Dusk Till Dawn”. Pharaoh also devotes time to his pet Jack Russell terrier Bosilda. The rapper is not averse to spending several hours playing the computer game “Hotline Miami.”
Rapper Pharaoh about studying at the Faculty of Journalism
Farah talked about how he missed classes due to concert tours, but at the same time, when he had free time, he studied. The rapper also said that he wrote the thesis himself, but during the interview with Yuri Dud he could not remember its topic.
The first two courses, everyone was whispering, giggling behind their backs - “skrr-skr-skr”.
I spent very little time in my third year because I had a lot of tours and illnesses. In my fourth year I came, and everyone lowered their eyes. And they came up to take pictures. Pharaoh
Rapper Pharaoh: “I made a revolution in the country and changed the culture”
Photo: Eric Panov Style: Ekaterina Tabakova
Gleb Golubin had his sights set on becoming a football player until he was 13, but then he changed his mind and now, at 22, he is gathering crowds of fans in a different capacity. At a solo concert in Moscow last fall, rapper Pharaoh was sold out - three and a half thousand people. Let's count further: in his creative association Dead Dynasty there are more than two dozen artists, and on YouTube the video “Wildly, for example” has 35 million views in less than a year. On Twitter, a graduate of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, Farah, as his fans also call him, has almost a million readers. What is in the head of the voice of a generation?
You once said that working with gloss is uncomfortable: people look down on you. Has the situation changed?
I spoke because I felt like I was underestimated. It was infuriating. Maybe they didn’t catch up, didn’t understand the things I did. But when you grow in every sense, people begin to treat you differently.
By the way, about attitude: in America and Europe, rap has long become an undeniable part of culture; in the tracks, performers talk about important things. Do you think his position will change in Russia?
In the West, things that are important to everyone are united. One follows from the other. Everything here is fragmented. It’s the same with subcultures: everyone looks sideways at each other. Do not understand. They gather in groups. I think it depends on the mentality. We have a big stratification, people are very focused on material things. Personally, I try to talk about other things.
In your opinion, what are the values now?
Everyone is chasing fiction, comparing themselves with others, competing. I believe that we should not try to appear better, but strive to be better than we are. Then we will begin to understand each other, forgive each other’s shortcomings, and support each other. Instead, we like to peck - our people have such a trait. This must be overcome, otherwise our culture and the people in it will not prosper and develop.
What do you value?
Most of all - life. Plus I appreciate who I am and those I have. I appreciate every experience, good or bad. It helps to study, and this is what I like to do in life - not at school or at university.
From the outside, your life is a successful career, supportive friends, proud parents, but in your work the theme of loneliness is often encountered. Where is she from?
If you look superficially, everyone is satisfied, happy and prosperous. But I am one hundred percent sure that everyone is alone within themselves. People preferred to hide it from everyone and go straight to the top. But where a person is alone, it is like the dark side of the moon. We don’t see her and will never know what she is like. I live with those things that are inside loneliness, and I love being with them more, because they are what show who I really am. Hence this whole concept.
Judging by the number of your listeners, the topic is close to many people. Is our generation really that lonely?
I think this has always been the case. I'm just talking about things that people care about, but they are so deep that most people don't even realize they are there. I understand people deeper than themselves. It's good for me to talk to them in a language that they know but don't voice.
Your recently released song “Killer” has some pretty provocative lyrics: “I'm cutting your bitch open while you're sniffling. / She died smiling at the boy from the posters.” Don't you think that listeners might think differently?
Firstly, I like that they managed to convey the mood through rap metal and managed to make cinematic references to “Cry-Baby”, “From Hell” and “The Shining”. Secondly, my text about the murder of other people’s women should not be taken literally; it makes sense to think about it metaphorically. And also that the song is designed to leave a residue. I miss the “heavy stuff” - I haven’t done it for a long time - and I know for sure that my fans and I let off steam at concerts with such cool music, nothing more. Some kind of *** (difficult situation) is happening to you, or you consciously get stuck in it in order to feel alive once again, to walk on a figurative blade - this is where dark impressions are drawn from. I think everyone has both a light and a dark side, the main thing is to be able to differentiate between them. Then there will be no problems with anything, including the perception of such compositions.
You have been repeatedly called the voice of a generation. Do you feel responsible for what you broadcast?
I do not deny any responsibility. As I understand it, the remarks about her are answered by older people, from the outside world. I don’t hear anything like that from fans - they are happy to come to my concerts and listen to my music. Maybe the problem is that my texts are misunderstood by the people who talk about it? This means they have a very one-sided view of what I do.
You shouldn't take everything literally, right?
Some yes, some no. It depends on the flexibility of the mind; you need to train it. It's a hip-hop game. And however you want to place the cube in this game, that’s how it will stand.
The game is serious: Sergei Shnurov called you the most promising young musician, “Snob” put you on the cover, even Ivan Urgant made a parody of the video - and this is all over the last year. How do you feel about such rapid success?
It's a set, and always has been. Because the day before yesterday you were nobody, yesterday they didn’t take you seriously, but today they say that you are the flagship of Russian rap. This doesn’t matter to me, because I never seek anyone’s approval. I’m just always true to myself in what I say and do.
What is unusual for modern artists, you are very careful in choosing the media in which you appear. Why is that?
Because more often than not, interviews are a waste of time. Everything I want to say, I try to say in music. And in general, once again it’s better to remain silent. When, roughly speaking, you put in your two cents, it does not go unnoticed. Everything we do and say follows a domino pattern. I am an introvert - I like to stew in my own world, and not make life public. Even Kurt Cobain said: “For the media, my life is food. I don’t want to feed anyone with myself, because *** (why) is it necessary.” I'm focused on myself and my music. I'm a lowlifer.
But you also had a couple of social outlets, as you said, out of curiosity.
Yes, this is also an experience. I never turn down such opportunities. Like Boris Akunin in “The whole world is a theater,” Erast Fandorin went to a play, something from this category. By the way, I would go to a theater rehearsal.
You once explained the words of your track “Wildly, for example” on Periscope, but then you swore off doing that. Why?
It’s disappointing when, for example, you write a book and in it the city is sucked into a huge vagina, like Mikhail Weller’s in “Moscow - Apocalypse,” and everyone thinks that you’re literally talking about this. You just wrapped it up in such a way that other people didn’t have enough brains to figure it out. You find yourself in the position of a person who has asked a riddle, but in the end everything is changed and your riddle turns into the property of primitiveness. And it's infuriating. That’s not what it was all about, I thought you were smarter.
Now hip-hop is at the peak of popularity. Do you think the hype will subside or will this last for a long time?
I don't dare to make predictions. This is the human factor, the market, why predict? Understand where the mass will go? The day after tomorrow - in one direction, three days later - in the opposite direction. For myself personally, I don’t see any point in thinking about this. I made a revolution in the country, really changed the culture. After I appeared, everything else appeared that has become popular today - I don’t just take battle rap, I just don’t understand it.
And I have no desire to fight for the public interest. Because the crowd that applauded your coronation will also applaud your beheading. I don't need this imaginary throne. I am sure that I am one of a kind. And I cannot have competitors. There are unique people who followed my music, I think they also understand and feel it. And I’m happy that it worked out this way for me. I want to do my best for my people. And what about the mass media, who is fashionable today, who is not fashionable - I don’t care at all, because in any case I’m the most *** (cool). Always was, is and will be, because I am me. I don't need to pretend to be anyone.
Text : Ekaterina Poklad
Pharaoh is friends with Sergei Shnurov and Alexander Nevzorov
According to Pharaoh, Shnur himself called him and invited him to St. Petersburg and since then they began to communicate. In 2020, Pharaoh and Shnurov released a joint track “Solaris”. Here he is.
Pharaoh is friends with her one unusual character - journalist Alexander Nevzorov. The rapper told Dudu that Nevzorov gave him a dinosaur tooth.
Pharaoh and Nevzorov
Childhood and youth
Pharaoh, whose name in ordinary life is Gleb Golubin, was born in January 1996 in the family of a Moscow businessman - the former general director of the Dynamo football club, now the head of the international sports marketing agency ISPORT. Gleb has a younger brother, German.
When serious critics started talking about the hip-hopper who suddenly appeared in the music space, assumptions immediately arose that it was not without his father’s support. But in an interview with Snob, Golubin said that no one allocated money specifically “for him,” and if we are talking about finances, then people just want to believe in it.
As a child, the boy was no different from his peers. The father saw his son as a football star, and Gleb spent hours at the stadium practicing feints and strikes. Until the age of 13, he managed to play for Lokomotiv, Dynamo, and CSKA, but did not achieve success. And when he was injured, his parents considered it best to give up professional sports.
As a teenager, Golubin became interested in hip-hop, listened to, and, and at 16 he left for six months to study in the USA. In America, the guy’s biography took a sharp turn, he realized that the perception of rap in Russia and here, at its origins, are completely different things. After Gleb “hanged out” with the dark-skinned guys, by his own admission, he returned a different person. Golubin brought a previously unknown cloud-rap from the States.
The parents did not oppose their son’s hobbies. Towards the end of school, they only asked the question whether Gleb intended to continue studying, to which they received a positive answer. In 2013, Golubin became a student at the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University.
Personal life
The rapper Pharaoh, whose biography we are considering, never complained about the lack of female attention. There were always many young and beautiful young ladies around him. Several years ago he met with Katya Kishchuk, who was a member of the popular group “Silver”.
Then he had an affair with model and stylist Natalya Melnikova. Fans really liked their couple. And when it became known about the separation of Melnikova and Golubin, fans asked the guy to return to the “beautiful and unpretentious” Natasha.
In January 2020, Gleb came to the premiere of the film “The Illusion of Love” at the Moscow cinema. He was accompanied by Alesya Kafelnikova, the daughter of a famous tennis player. The couple immediately fell into the lens of all secular photographers. And the very next day the media wrote about their romance. Later the guy and girl confirmed this information.
The relationship between the young people was difficult. Firstly, Alesya’s parents were opposed to her chosen one. Secondly, the girl struggled with addiction to illegal substances. As a result, Kafelnikova and Golubin broke up (at the beginning of 2020). For some time they still sorted things out using social networks.
In October 2020, Alesya celebrated her 21st birthday. The model’s ex-boyfriend, rapper Pharaoh, was also present at the celebration, which took place on the 58th floor of the Moscow City complex. It looks like the couple has rekindled their relationship. After all, a video has appeared on the Internet in which the beautiful Alesya makes a wish, blows out the candles on the cake, and then kisses the Pharaoh.
A wave of popularity
It was a completely different matter when Pharaoh released the videos “Champagne Squirt” and “Black Siemens”, which went wildly viral on the Internet, and individual phrases and even sounds (the famous “skrr-skr”) were pulled apart into quotes. After these clips, Pharaoh gained long-awaited popularity. Pharaoh is releasing a mixtape “Dolor” with his new band Dead Dynasty.
In 2020, Pharaoh releases the album “PHOSPHOR”. There was also a joint EP with Oleg LSP. The rapper has developed a certain direction in which he continues to work. This is a mixture of cloud rap, thrill, hip-hop. However, Gleb Golubin does not stop there and continues to experiment. For example, after his release “Pink Phloyd” (the beats of which were written by Shadow Playaz, Dexter Dukarus and Dead Dynasty), he recorded a guitar track for a new acoustic album. Pharaoh also decides to remember his preferences from his youth and record a completely rocker album.
Discography
- 2014 — “Wadget”
- 2014 — Phlora
- 2015 — Dolor
- 2016 — Phosphor
Joint releases
- 2015 — Paywall
(with Boulevard Depo) - 2015 — Rage Mode (Rare Action)
(with i61) - 2016 — “Plaksheri” (with Boulevard Depo)
- 2016 — “Confectionery” (with LSP)
Videography
- 2014 - “2002” (“Wadget”)
- 2014 - “Nothing has changed” (“Wadget”)
- 2014 — “In the Zone” (“Wadget”)
- 2015 - “Black Siemens” (single)
- 2015 — “Champagne Squirt” (with Boulevard Depo) (single)
- 2015 — “Idol” ( Dolor
) - 2015 — “Liquid Death” (Single)
- 2015 — “Rustrell” — (with Acid Drop King) ( Dolor
) - 2015 - “1-800-SIEMENSIXONE” (with i61) ( Rage Mode (Rare Action)
) - 2016 — “Phosphorus” ( Phosphor
) - 2016 — “Let's stay at home” ( Phosphor
) - 2016 - “5 minutes ago” (with Boulevard Depo) (“Plaksheri”)
Phlora
The composition “Nothing Has Changed” created a real sensation. Fans of cloud rap positively noted the unusual style of the video for this song. It featured an aesthetic very similar to Californian artist Bones. The Russian rapper Pharaoh himself denied rumors that he was inspired by the work of a Western musician, although he admitted that in his youth he listened to his album [email protected] Kid. So it is unknown whether it was just a coincidence or whether our hero really adopted some of the “tricks” from the American. In the summer of 2014, Pharaoh released another mixtape, Phlora. It received average reviews from critics, but was loved by fans.
Biography of the young Pharaoh
Pharaoh was born on January 30, 1996. His hometown is Moscow. Real name: Gleb Golubin. He lived in the Izmailovsky district and studied at the 1409 gymnasium. Since childhood, Gleb loved to kick the ball in the yard. The guy was predicted to have a sports career. His father was the director of the Moscow football Dynamo. After leaving office, he continued to work in sports marketing. Young Gleb managed to play for Dynamo, CSKA, and Lokomotiv.
He devoted almost the entire period of his youth to training and games. However, Golubin did not have any serious development as a football player. No matter how hard the young man tried, his level remained average, and even his father’s connections did not help push him forward up the ladder of his sports career. Gennady was not too pleased with the success of his son (which, however, did not happen), and Pharaoh himself already realized that he did not want to play football professionally. After that, he tried himself as a football referee, but then finally decided to give up football.
Another thing is that he liked rap and rock music. Among metal bands, he preferred the Germans Rammstein, who were then gaining popularity. Pharaoh even decided to learn German and attended courses for some time. Golubin’s idols were also Nirvana and Marilyn Manson. Among rappers, he liked Snoop Dogg and Kid Cudi. Another team was Reign Clan, which influenced the choice of style.
Atmosphere
In April 2020, a video clip for the song “Phosphorus” was released, where the Russian rapper Pharaoh decides to use a new extravagant performance technique - screaming. In May, the hip-hop artist again delights his fans with a new music video for the track “Let's Stay Home.” Both tracks were included on the Phosphor album. It was released in mid-July.
Gleb collaborates with such influential rappers as JEEMBO, Scryptonite, Thomas Mraz, LSP and many others. Pharaoh has gained the love of rap connoisseurs and critics thanks to his unique image, interesting manner of performance and the atmosphere of hardened nihilism that characterizes his lyrics. Note that our hero is involved in the unification of YungRussia. In 2020, a video was created for the song “Let's Stay Home.”
Pharaoh (Pharaoh) is a youth idol, a new phenomenon in modern Russian rap culture. He is a representative of the so-called “cloud rap”, which is characterized by slow beats, smooth readings and philosophical, often depressive lyrics (although disputes about Pharaoh’s affiliation with cloud rap continue to this day).
At the age of 19, Pharaoh, whose real name was Gleb Golubin, became the leader and ideological inspirer of the Dead Dynasty formation, the leitmotif of which was a defiant mixture of nihilism and rudeness. The main themes of his tracks are drugs, girls and sex.
Life path
Pharaoh is a Russian rapper whose biography is interesting and very eventful.
Golubin Gleb Gennadievich - that’s his real name. He was born on January 30, 1996 in Moscow (Izmailovo). My father worked in a management position in one of the companies specializing in sports marketing. Gleb Golubin became the first-born in the family. Later, in 2003, mother Elena gave birth to her second child, a boy, German. Gleb played football from the age of six. The father was very proud that his son was involved in sports and wanted the boy to have a corresponding career. The young man trained hard several times a week and dreamed of the future of an outstanding football player. In his free time, the boy loved to play on the console. Gleb himself could not even think at that time that ten years later he would become known as the Russian rapper Pharaoh.
Not long ago, our hero gave an extensive interview to the online publication “Snob”. Pharaoh is a Russian rapper who told the general public that he had been listening to Kid Cudi since his school years. We are talking about a hip-hop artist who was popular in the West at that time. He also said that other performers who influenced him in childhood and adolescence were Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50-cent and some others.
Gleb went to gymnasium No. 1409 from 2002 to 2013. During this period, the passion for football reached its apotheosis - the talented young man was invited to play for the teams CSKA, Dynamo, and Lokomotiv. But, unfortunately for the coaches, the parents insisted on stopping the classes. His father really wanted Gleb to become a football player, but after the young man almost received a serious injury in one of the matches (he was lucky and escaped with scratches), dad decided that he should leave the sport.
