What do you think Rick Ross’s favorite Fiona Apple song is? When you picture him in the audience at last week’s show at the Hollywood Palladium, where he was filmed pulling up in his Porsche for his new video, what song do you imagine him singing along with, standing on his seat in the front row, clasping his hands in front of his chest, just totally into it? “Criminal” is a good bet. Or “Paper Bag,” or “Anything We Want” — that’s my favorite one on her new album. But I think “Extraordinary Machine” is actually more his style. That phrasing — I could actually see that being a song title on his next album. (His new one, God Forgives, I Don’t, came out on Tuesday. It’s full of immaculate beats, as you’d expect, and is expected to sell around 200,000 copies its first week in stores. But I find his rapping kind of boring.) Relatedly, an even better rap video hit our shores yesterday. It has been viewed almost 13 million times. But not so much around these parts, I don’t think. It’s from Russia. And in Russian.
As Youtube commenter WxStarr says, “I dont understand a word — but this shit is DA BOMB!!!!”
Another commenter, Illyasemenkov, helpfully explains: “This is a public diss from a russian rapper Timati to the russian ‘pop king’ Kirkorov, the rap is actually pretty genius, and the setting of the video is a parody of another viral video.”
Here’s Kirkorov, whose first name is Philip.
According to the website Europopped, “Timati is basically the biggest rapper in the game these days in Moscow.” Here’s what Europopped says about Timati’s new video:
“Rock N’ Roll is dead. The new rock stars are Russian rappers like Timati, who are all too happy to take the place of American and English rock stars of yore. We’re talking private jets. We’re talking copious amounts of cocaine. We’re talking sex with international supermodels such as Kate Moss, who gets a special shout out in this new today clip, “Rock Star” (“РокСтар”).”
Oh, wow! Sure enough, Timati is huge! He’s worked with everyone from Fat Joe to Puffy to Snoop Dogg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umLCov9tj7g
The things you learn from the internet! (This particular rabbit hole somes courtesy of our world-trotting friends at ego trip.)
