He became the first rapper to collect Olimpiyskiy. A year ago, Basta played two sold-out shows with an orchestra at the State Kremlin Palace as part of a traditional birthday concert.
It seemed that there was nowhere to grow further, but at the end of last year, another performance was announced at the Olimpiyskiy, in which it was decided to remove the overlaps, opening a 360-degree all-round view. Initially, it was planned to gather 25 thousand people, as a result, on the eve of the concert, a sold-out was announced with a figure of 35 thousand spectators. On a rainy Saturday evening, this figure, I confess, did not inspire any optimism - many still remember the recent crush at the entrance to the DDT concert. but
Vakulenko, as an organizer, did the obvious - he opened more entrances and organized a meeting of the public with the help of more than a hundred volunteers.
As a result, the concert, which was supposed to start on time - exactly at 19.00, was still delayed for half an hour, but by that moment most of the spectators had calmly and comfortably entered. Basta's appearance on the stage set in the center of the hall was furnished with an intensity worthy of a decisive boxing match. After the thunderous instrumental introduction, Vakulenko appeared on the stage, running through the entire stalls surrounded by guards, and
began the concert with the song "I look at the sky" from last year's album "Basta 5", around the songs from which the current program is focused.
This is logical: the fifth album is not only the latest work of the artist, but also the most vivid demonstration of his creative ambitions, which are aimed at
assimilation of hip-hop in the fertile soil of rock and art song.
That is why the first part of the concert was devoted to semi-acoustic numbers, among which there was a hypnotic cover of the song "Native" by the group "Kalinov Most".
Another thing is that such material assumes a more intimate atmosphere and requires the listener to be sensitive, which is difficult to demand from a crowd of 35,000. In this regard, the audience, of course, sang in chorus, but Vakulenko had to achieve a proper swing from Muscovites by using all his showman skills. At some point on the stage again (this has already become a good tradition) a guy who came from the army made an offer to his chosen one, in the final Basta's daughter Masha took the stage - and this is in addition to the masterful management of a giant choir and protracted races on the stage. At the same time, the artist had to struggle with the sound both on stage (with the ear monitors switched off) and in the giant Olimpiyskiy bowl. These difficulties somewhat blurred the impression of the concert and gave it in many ways
the mood of a great sporting feat.
If you try to analyze this success, it turns out that everything rests on the mighty figure of Vakulenko himself, who rushed for two hours under the gaze on the stage of the "Olympic". Besides musical and artistic talents,
Basta managed to earn a colossal credit of trust, becoming for a very different people a hero whom they have not had almost since the days of Balabanov's "Brother".
With the understandable difference that Vakulenko is not a product of a producer's or author's genius. Another analogy can be drawn. In 1974, after the young man's concert at the Theater, music critic John Landau wrote the legendary phrase: "I saw the future of rock and roll and his name is Bruce Springsteen." Let's not be so presumptuous as to think about the future, but thanks to Vakulenko, the musical present in this country for the first time in the last couple of decades looks very promising.
And he sang "Sansara" with his daughter and Diana Arbenina
Rostov rapper Vasily Vakulenko, better known as Basta, on Saturday, April 22, gave the most big concert in Moscow. The sports complex "Olympic" gathered 35 thousand fans of the musician's work. Concert in 360 became an absolute record both for the stage and for Russian performers - before Basta, not a single Russian artist had assembled the completely circular arena of the Olympic Stadium.
Photo from Instagram Basta
During the concert, Basta performed 26 songs that became hits. The rapper's performance ended with a joint performance of the new song "Sansara" with Diana Arbenina and the children's choir. In addition, Vasily Vakulenko for the first time brought on stage his elder daughter Masha, who also sang "Sansara".
Later on his Instagram, Vasily Vakulenko thanked the organizers and guests of the concert for their support.
“We thank everyone who was with us today - for coming, for tremendous support, for emotions and sincerity. Thanks to all those who could not attend the concert - we have you, and we will definitely see you at another time and in another place, ”Basta wrote on his Instagram.
Recall that this is not the first time the rapper has broken records for the scale of his concerts. At the celebration of the City Day in Rostov, Basta gathered more than 120 thousand fans at Teatralnaya Square.
Rap concert
Vasily Vakulenko, known as Basta, performed at the Olympic sports complex in the capital. Boris Barabanov appreciated the organization of this sold-out concert and sang along with 35 thousand spectators the main hits of the rapper.
In itself, the rapper's performance at the largest indoor arena in Moscow is not a sensation. Vasily Vakulenko made his debut here two years ago. Timati also performed here, and in the fall a concert of Oksimiron is planned. The use of all the Olympic stands was a sensation.
Usually, when they say that a musician has “got the Olympic”, it means that there was a full house only in half of the stadium. While the second half is most often closed by a collapsible wall, and 17-18 thousand spectators are allowed into the hall. Sometimes, as at concerts of DDT or Zemfira, the stage is moved as far as possible from the stands, then you can sell 25-30 thousand tickets for the concert. But so far only the organizers of tours of foreign stars like Metallica and Muse have decided to make a round stage and fill the hall as much as possible. According to the information of the creative association Gazgolder, which deals with all of Basta's projects, 35,000 people gathered at Olimpiyskiy on Saturday.
But selling 35,000 tickets is half the battle. It is also necessary to make sure that each of the spectators feels comfortable, which means at least not to spoil his mood by the need to stand in line at the entrance. Otherwise, an unpleasant aftertaste may remain even from the best shows, as it was after the recent performance of DDT (see Kommersant on March 7).
It is generally accepted among promoters that Olimpiyskiy has a conservative and intractable management, and it is almost impossible to agree with him about deviating from the rules that have been in force for decades. Gazgolder managed not only to gather the maximum number of spectators in the hall, but also to open large cargo entrances, which has never happened in the memory of the Kommersant observer. In addition, 150 volunteers helped the spectators to navigate in the "Olympic", who knew the answers to all questions regarding the order of passage and placement in the hall. Finally, shops with drinks and snacks were installed right on the dance floor. All this would be self-evident at any such site in any large European city, but not in Moscow. This is a real breakthrough here.
Basta began his performance with compositions from the latest album "Basta 5". And right away from those that belong to the category of songs "for life": "I look at the sky", "Partizan", "Where we are not." From time to time, the rapper gives concerts with an orchestra, and they are addressed to a greater extent to an adult audience - the one that subconsciously recognizes in him a new Leps for those who do not listen to Leps. There was no orchestra in the "Olympic", but there were a lot of instrumentalists and backing vocalists on the stage, who provided a sense of scale and coolness. There were a lot of electric guitars in the arrangements, which surprised those viewers who don't follow Basta's work too much. It was interesting to watch how these electric guitars sound in the song "Damn" by Alexander Galich and in the new arrangement of "Casting".
By the middle of the concert, Basta got to the songs in which he is usually revealed as a master of recitative. Moving in the direction of greater chanting and melody, he still has not yet reached the level of voice control that would allow him to build the whole concert on "vocal" material. It is very difficult to build a clear sound in the Olympic sports complex, so Basta pulled out the concert at the expense of his own energy. This helped to cope with the peculiarities of acoustics, and with the diversity of arrangements.
Perhaps the talent of stylization is generally the main talent of Vasily Vakulenko. During the concert, he demonstrated an understanding of a wide variety of music, ranging from a Caucasian restaurant ("Mama") to Rage Against The Machine ("Ice"). Such a palette is hardly subject to anyone else from our rappers. And it is she who gives Baste the opportunity to appeal to a wide variety of audiences.
At the very end of the concert, Vasily Vakulenko played "Graduation (Slow)" - a song that last year instantly secured him a place in the pop charts and on the waves of "national" radio stations. The audience selflessly, almost with tears in their eyes, rejoiced at this courtyard composition with a chorus performed in a deliberately orphan timbre. For a second it seemed that this is what Basta does best. And even the final "Samsara", an impeccable stadium hit, performed by Diana Arbenina and Vasily's daughter Masha, did not completely dispel this feeling.
More recently, the likelihood that any Russian rapper will collect the Olympic was negligible. At the moment it is with varying degrees of success already succeeded three: Baste, Timati and Miron. Today we would like to talk about who else from the Russian rappers could try to collect the Olympic
Huge solo concerts have died down in the Olympic with Timati and Oksimiron. The bar has been taken - Timati leaves the stage for a while (which, of course, does not mean that he will leave the game - he will probably release material in the same way, do business, build his empire, not the one that is from scratch, ride the board more and pay more attention to her daughter), Oxy is likely to sit down for new material as mentioned during a recent presentation with Reebok.
More recently, the likelihood that any Russian rapper will collect the Olympic was negligible. At the moment, three have already succeeded with varying degrees of success (in the sense of different openness of the stands): Baste, Timati and Miron. Probably both Basta and Oxy in next year will try to repeat the set bar, but today we would like to talk about who else from the Russian rappers could try to conquer Olympus.
L "One
Black Star is great at counting. Money, views, tickets sold - here professionals keep records. L "One, in fact, is the most popular artist of the label after Timati, his faithful partner, right hand- and, perhaps, the Olympic would have already been assembled by him, but the date L "One wanted, his birthday, was busy. Well, this has its advantages: the more time it takes to prepare.
L "One has a new album planned for next year, although recently he hinted at the possibility of reuniting with Nal and reviving Marselle. Will this distract his solo work?
Nevertheless, L "One easily conquers other large venues - for example, on November 19 he will perform at Crocus City Hall with a symphony orchestra - it must be very cool!
Scryptonitis
He said about Black Star - talk about the closest competitor, the Gas Holder. The head of Gaza is so far the only rapper who has collected a full Olympic, but there is at least one other artist on the label who can aim at such a thing.
Scryptonitis has been on tour almost since the release of House with Normal Phenomena, its live performances are getting better, their live performance skills are being honed, the venues are increasing. The impetus for really big tours at Skrip, as noted above, was the release of "DSNYA". And already this month, the rapper should release not just a new album, but a double album! Why not try to collect the Olympic in a year?
Max cake
We continue to sort out the labels: we have dealt with Black Star and Gazgolder, which means it's time to look towards Respect Production. Here the picture is clear - "Casta", of course, has remained in power, travels, performs, released a good album this year, but it is unlikely to become a cult. At the moment "Respect" has one really great artist who has regularly collected the largest venues for many years - Max Korzh. While listening to his latest tracks, it seemed that they were made specifically with an emphasis on a huge crowd that would rage under the stage in a slam, but Max still remains himself. No, no, this is by no means the story when an artist is trying to create something at the request of the crowd, when an urgent need to make a formatted track for TV, which means I'll write a song about the sky and wings. Just watch what's going on at his concerts. Isn't it very easy to imagine such a thing in the Olympic?
Pharaoh
Rumor has it that Vladi wanted to sign Faro to Respect a long time ago, having discerned great potential in him. You can't refuse such a Vlad - Korzh was examined! Now, here seems to be another musician from the people ... However, this is not about him. Right now Pharaoh is on tour, and it’s impossible to immediately recall the larger scale at least this year - initially 50 cities were announced (!!!). Also in 2017, Farah released an excellent mixtape and video, which has already gained over 25 million views. But quite recently he was the subject of ridicule, a bunch of memes, and he himself was associated primarily with "skr-skr-skr". However, Gleb withstood the wave of hate (XXXtentasion, study), becoming one of the most touring Russian artists. Is it possible that he will collect the Olympic? It's not a fact that next year, probably, Farah will take a smaller site in 2018, but after all, a year ago, many said that Oxy would not be able to assemble the Olympic one.
Guf
Literally last Saturday, Guf went on stage with Timati in front of more than two tens of thousands of people. I don’t believe that he didn’t like such a crowd and that it didn’t sound like “you can do the same”. In the case of Guf, there are certain reservations, a few "if".
If Guf keeps the promises he made during the "day of live broadcasts", primarily about the new material. If Guf releases a good album next year (in principle, he hasn't had any bad ones yet), inviting eminent friends like Timati and Basta there and if he removes a couple of high-quality videos.
Guf has been and remains at the forefront - we say this, relying on the statistics of news views on our website, any news with Guf collects 5 times more views than others. Add to this the wild hype that follows him everywhere - the tabloids continue to discuss his new girls, disses ex-wife, etc., and this is also easily converted into purchased tickets. We hold our fists for Guf so that he has enough fuse - he has enough experience and opportunities now.
LSP
2017 turned out to be ambiguous for Oleg LSP - probably the strongest album in the history of the group was released, and, perhaps, the best album of this year, which has every chance of becoming a classic. Half of the LSP is gone - Roma the Englishman died, giving the group much more with his instruments than an ordinary beatmaker - he and Oleg had chemistry, in fact, this is a classic ideal composition - a strong MC and a strong beatmaker. In addition, someone who, and an Englishman, knew how to make a drive - just look, for example, what happened in the Olimpiyskiy during Oksimiron's concert on the chorus of the track "Fucking Girl". Rumor has it that Oleg wrote an incredibly beautiful song about a friend who passed away from this world, it is likely that a new album may be released in 2018 (although “Tragic City” has been waiting for 2 years - and nothing). And if there is a hit of the level of the same "Coin" or "Madness" - who knows, perhaps Olympus will submit to him. At the beginning of the year, the LSP, however, has already planned a Stadium, so it is likely that the Olympic will be postponed to 2019.
Who do you think has the greatest chances to assemble an Olympic stadium next year?