Alexey Dolmatov: biography, personal life, songs, pseudonym and photo of the rapper

Childhood and youth

The future rap star was born in September 1979. From early childhood, the young man showed his complex character. It was difficult for parents to find a common language with their child, so Alexey Dolmatov spent most of his time with friends. At school the boy studied, like many of his classmates, neither well nor poorly. Over the years, the future rap artist realized that the kind of life he led was alien and unpleasant to him. He wanted to make his life more vibrant and interesting, but did not know how to do it. In the 90s, the Dolmatov family makes one of the most difficult decisions in their lives and they all move to live in China. At first it was very difficult for the young man, he did not know the language, and he was very lonely. But soon Alexey got used to the new life and even became inspired. He began to study diligently, and after graduating from school he became a linguist. However, homesickness made itself felt very well and after seven years of living in another country, the young man decided to leave for Russia.

Biography of Guf

Alexey was born on September 23, 1979 in the capital of Russia. When the boy was very young, his father left the family. However, after some time, Alexey had a stepfather, whom his mother married for the second time.

Guf in childhood

Because of their activities, my parents were always on various business trips and were almost never at home. Due to little control over the child, Alexey began to skip school quite often, and in the 5th grade the boy began to have problems with drugs.

After some time, the parents decided to take the boy to live with them in China. There Dolmatov studied at a local school, from which he graduated. After graduating from school, Guf entered college there.

Guf (Alexey Dolmatov) in China

Everything has always been strict in China, even when it came to music. The boy was very happy when his grandmother visited him one day and brought him cassettes of various hip-hop songs . It was after this event that Alexey managed to write his first lines of songs.

In 1998 , Alexey Dolmatov was forced to leave China. The young man began to be suspected of drug use. However, as you know, on one of his trips to Moscow, Guf tried heroin , after which he began to become addicted. Thus, Dolmatov decided to come back to the capital of Russia.

Guf (Alexey Dolmatov) in childhood

Already at home, the young musician decided to get an economic education , which had already become his second higher education. During his studies, Alexey was actively involved in musical activities and after some time he managed to create the group “Rolexx” with his friend Roman.

All this time, Alexey Dolmatov continued to indulge in drugs. So already in 2000, near the Kievsky railway station, the police arrested Dolmatov, having found a large amount of narcotic drugs on him. The story was very confusing, but in the end the young rap artist served about 5 months, after which he was amnestied.

Guf (Alexey Dolmatov) with his grandmother

First steps

According to the singer himself, his childhood and youth were very difficult not only for himself, but also for the whole family. Even as a child, he was interested in rap, but he did not pay much attention to this genre of music. At the age of nineteen, at the insistence of friends, he recorded his first musical track. But due to drug problems, he began to lead an immoral lifestyle. He secretly took jewelry out of the house and sold it for a dose. At the same time, he completely immersed himself in rap, and fortunately, he took the path of correction and stopped taking drugs, but not for long. In the early 2000s, great luck smiled at him, and he became a member of the Rolexx group. Thanks to his diligence and songs, the young group quickly gained popularity. Two years later, all eyes were fixed on the aspiring and promising rapper Guf, who, thanks to his group, quickly became popular. During this time, he recorded several popular tracks with famous domestic rappers.

Nickname rights

In 2007, the first proposal to sign a contract appeared in the biography of Alexei Dolmatov. In those days, Guf led a wild lifestyle, every penny was important to him, and he did not read the terms of the contract. It so happened that by signing the contract, he transferred his name with all rights for 10 years. For this he received $5,000 and was very happy, because then rap did not bring in large fees. After signing a huge stack of papers, the rapper shook the sweat from his brow and rushed back to his old life. The realization that he had transferred the rights for 10 years came to him later, but it was impossible to turn back time.

After the death of the owner of the company with which Guf signed a contract, all rights were transferred to his wife. Then this company was bought by another person. After this, for the remaining 9 years, Gufu received lawsuits and accusations that he was an impostor and was making money on someone else’s name. The organizers of the concerts were at a loss, because they received calls from the tax office and the police, they did not fully understand who they were organizing the concert for until they met the rapper in person.

The total number of claims was 150. The rapper had to pay 150 thousand rubles from each concert; if he had done this, he would now be bankrupt. Due to the huge amount of fines, Guf decides to hire lawyers, because it will be cheaper to get out of the situation. In December 2020, the problem was resolved, and Guf is now the owner of his name and everything connected with it.

The emergence of the group "CENTR"

After Alexey felt the first smell of success, he and his friend created a new group called “CENTR”. In a few weeks they recorded their first successful album, discs which they distributed to all their friends. Despite the fact that the group tried to attract the attention of the audience for two years, they became known only in 2006, when the group released the track “Gossip”. Fortunately, the young man did not forget about himself, and tried his best to promote himself as a solo artist. Over the course of a whole year, he recorded songs with a huge number of different artists. Already in 2007, there was an unexpected addition to the team, the group became extremely popular. However, the more popular they became, the more problems their members had. So one of the founders of the team had serious problems with the police, and Alexey, in turn, was busy with his own career and other more interesting projects. In 2009, Guf decided to leave the Center group; unfortunately, the rapper did not voice the reason for his departure, but many fans are still of the opinion that due to his complex character, he was unable to find a common language with the team.

Third attempt - successful reboot

In 2004, Guf, together with his friend Nikolai Nikulin, better known as rapper Princip, created the project “CENTR”. Over the course of several months of fruitful work, the guys managed to record the demo record “Gift” and release 13 cassettes. At the same time, Guf recorded several tracks with longtime acquaintance Slim, including the compositions “Leader” and “Wedding,” which became hits.

In December 2004, Slim and Ptah joined the CENTR group. The updated lineup recorded the soundtrack to the comedy “Heat.” Despite the success and popularity of the project, Guf continued to work on his solo career. The rapper actively collaborated with Vasily Vakulenko (Basta) and rapper Smokey Mo. IN

In 2007, Guf released the album “City of Roads,” which received a positive review from the famous publication “Rolling Stone.”

In mid-2009, a split occurred in the CENTR group and an emotional Guf left the project, loudly slamming the doors. Alexey created his own label, which was called “ZM Nation”. By the end of 2009, Dolmatov recorded a new solo album, and received prestigious awards for it. According to the portal "Rep.ru" Guf won in such categories as: "Best Performer of the Year", "Best Record", and "Best Video".

In 2010, Dolmatov presented his joint album “Basta/Guf” with Vasily Vakulenko. In support of the new record, the rappers went on tour. Alexey’s next award was the title “Best Artist of the Year” according to Russian Street Awords. In 2011, Guf’s piggy bank was replenished with another prestigious prize - a Muz-TV statuette in the “Best Hip-Hop Project” category.

Falling popularity, a huge army of fans, and regular tours reminded Guf of his addiction to drugs. In the period from 2012-2015, the rapper began to appear at parties less and less, and canceled all concerts and tours.

The reason for this was long-term treatment for drug addiction in one of the Israeli clinics. After completing a rehabilitation course, Alexey began writing a new album with the simple title “Everything.” Despite efforts, the record did not become popular.

In 2020, Guf once again decided to start a new life. The rapper made peace with his longtime friend and stage colleague Slim. Soon the guys presented the joint album “GuSli”, which was greeted warmly by fans and highly praised the work.

In 2020, Dolmatov established relations with Ptah, but soon the conflict escalated and the rappers met in the Versus Battle ring. Guf looked much more convincing then. The rapper won and even received an impressive fee for participating in Versus.

Also in 2020, it became known that rapper Guf was beaten and robbed instead of his own performance in the capital’s club. The rapper has two broken ribs and a concussion. The artist filed a lawsuit against the attacker, but details of the development of the story were not reported.

Solo career debut

For a long time, despite the fact that he was a member of the group, the young man quickly acquired a huge number of fans. Every year he churned out one hit after another, recorded joint tracks with different performers, and each song received not only awards, but also positive reviews. Every year the rapper's popularity became greater, and thus, because of his popularity, he was always pursued by the paparazzi, who followed almost his every move. In 2014, he took part in the filming of the film “Gas Holder”. However, despite its very impressive cast, which included many rap stars, the film failed to pay off and, moreover, mostly received a huge amount of impartial criticism.

Band reunion

2014 is becoming a significant year both for fans of “Center” and for the biography of Alexei Dolmatov. First, the song “Caspian Cargo”, on which Guf and Slim appeared. Then a photo on Bird’s Instagram account, in which the same trio is standing. The end point, when everyone realized about the group’s reunion, was the joint track of Ptakhi and Guf “Po Nizam”.

Later, the group announced the start of concerts and performed in full force on Channel One. The group members admitted and forgave each other for past mistakes, and also realized that they had done something stupid when they broke up the team.

During the concerts, Alexey Dolmatov (Guf) realizes that he has stepped on the same rake as before. He cannot get along on the same team with Bird. The band informs fans about the end of the concerts. The group members also note that the album “System” will be the last joint creation.

Despite the fact that Alexey Dolmatov (Guf) could not get along with Ptah, they had a good relationship and mutual understanding with Slim. As a duet they even release two albums GuSli and GuSli II.

Personal life

For a long time, the young man had exclusively friendly relations with Aiza Vagapova. At first they communicated as friends, but feelings flared up between the “friends” and in 2008 they got married. Two years later, it became known that Guf’s wife gave birth to a boy, who was named Sami. For a long time, love and understanding reigned between the lovers, but soon various information began to appear in the press that the couple began to have serious problems. While the couple remained silent, the media, in turn, blamed everything on the rapper, who allegedly got hooked on drugs again and, at the same time, cheated on his wife with two girls at once. Having refuted all these speculations, in 2013 the lovers filed for divorce and, naturally, the divorce process could not pass silently. Former lovers insulted each other in every possible way.

About a sad experience with drugs

In the fall of 2020, the single “About Summer” was released, in which the rapper raps about the fact that he has again left the smooth structure of life. He talks about planning a productive life. But due to creative impasse, after 4 years of abstinence, he returned to drugs again. I decided to try it once, but in the end it turned out that Guf doesn’t remember how six months passed. And in August he himself felt that just a little more and his life would end in death. It all ended with him being sent to rehabilitation, where he was injected with sedatives so that his body would recover and no longer require a new dose.

After that, he returned to Moscow, but again could not restrain himself. Guf understood that this was no longer possible and with a serious attitude returned to rehabilitation, which lasted a month and a half. This is not the first time; the rapper was close to death from an overdose in 2012.

Drug problems

Even as a teenager, Alexei got involved with bad company and started using drugs. However, he later left them, but over the years the need for this began to grow and, despite the fact that he had a family, he took drugs, and as it turned out, not alone. His wife Isa, in turn, also took drugs, which caused her to suffer seriously. For a long time, the rapper became the initiator of many scandals, which were mainly related to drugs. At the moment, Alexey is trying to get rid of his serious drug addiction not only for himself, but also for the sake of his son, who is already eight years old. In 2020, Guf tried himself again as an actor and starred in the crime drama “Yegor Shilov.”

Who are all these people on Guf’s album “The House That Alik Built”

The joint album by Guf and Murovya, “The House That Alik Built,” released this week, turned out to be chock-full of features, including with artists whose names are unfamiliar to long-time listeners of Alexei Dolmatov. Let's tell you who they are.

Murovei

Co-author of “The House That Alik Built”, who wrote almost all the music for the album and sang several choruses in it.
He was also responsible for mixing. Murovei is a rapper from Belarus, a hero of the underground wave of the early 2010s. At first he was part of the Minsk group Slozhnie, then he went solo (we recommend his latest album “Gloomy Season”). This is not the first experience of working with Guf: Murovei already appeared on the 2012 album “Sam I” in the song “Insomnia”.

“We met at his birthday party,” this is how Murovei talked about meeting Guf in our interview. — Guf was familiar with OU74 and invited them to perform at his celebration. And they already offered to invite OM Lab and me. Like, we like them, we are from Chelyabinsk, they are from St. Petersburg and Minsk, when can we see each other again?”

Deemars

One half of the Moscow duo Gunz & Deemars.
He first gained fame after he released two joint songs with Guf - “OG” and “Waves”. There was even talk about a joint release of a duet with Alexey and rapper S4 - for some time all the performers recorded a lot with each other and even lived next door - but since last year there has been no news about it. What Deemars said about Guf: “Despite everything that happened to him over the years, Guf remained the same kid he was at our age. That’s why we don’t feel the age barrier at all.”

Nemiga

Electropop project by Minsk resident Vlad Sobolev.
Up until this point, Nemiga has remained a very local phenomenon: here's their most-watched video, "My City," and below, a recent collab with local rapper Freddy Red. Detail: Sobolev’s manager is Nikolai Serov, one of the main concert organizers in Minsk in the 2000s, who also drove the Centr group at the peak of their popularity.

V$XV Prince

Reading “Asha Prince”.
Few people know the Almaty performer Askhat Rysbekov in Russia, although in his homeland he is a star: millions of views on his videos (watch the video “Oylash”), tours of large venues, appearance on the Kazakhstan Forbes list, which lists the 25 most promising stars of local show business. Askhat already had one joint track with Guf last year. They also have a common concert director - we can assume that the connection happened through him.

Smoky Mo

We think no explanation is required here.
Alexey and Alexander have a long history of cooperation: last year there were even talks about a joint EP, but then plans changed. “Analysis: the rapper earned 10 million for the label, but he didn’t even receive 3 million - how can this be?”

Carier start

Alexey Dolmatov began to get involved in rap since his school years. However, the first composition that received radio airplay was written by him at the age of 19. It was from this period that a successful career as a rap musician was supposed to begin, but his passion for addictions caused a delay in popularity.

At the age of 21, Guf returned to the world of music and became a member and one of the founders of the Rolexx group. The project became a kind of start in Alexey’s career, but did not last long.

In 2002, Alexey Dolmatov became one of the founders of another group, which was called “Centr”. Popularity is growing at a rapid pace, new friends appear, new songs are written and after a while Guf becomes a solo artist. Alexey's final departure from Centr occurred in 2009.

The most replicated tracks of this period are the compositions “Gift”, “Wedding”, “Gossip”. The Centr group won several awards, and two songs even became the theme song in the youth film “Heat.”

Reconciliation with Slim and Ptah

On October 24, 2013, Guf releases a new song and along with it a video clip called “Sad”[15], where he explains the reason for the collapse of the Centr group:

And so, in 2014, the song “Winter” appears on the album of the group “Caspian Cargo” with guest verses by Guf and Slim. In a subsequent interview for Rap.ru, the Caspian Cargo group reveals that the track was put together with the consent of both ex-members of the Centr group[16]. But later, many different guesses appear on the network that the group members will record more tracks; in one of the interviews, Guf states that a joint concert of the group is possible, nothing more; Bird says the same thing. However, on April 27, 2014, a joint composition with Guf called “Killer City” appears on Bore’s album “On the Bottoms.”

In 2020, the Centr group released the album “System”, after which it broke up again.