Blago White

Vladislav Pomerantsev was born in Moscow in 1995 and already at the age of two he moved with his parents to the United States. Until a certain period, the details of his biography before the beginning of his artistic career were unknown, until he himself decided to shed some light on them in an interview for The Flow.

When Blago White turned seven, his family moved back to Russia, but because of the obvious language barrier, he had to finish his studies in English-speaking schools. He saw his friends through the American embassy, and when he returned home, his biggest worry was not seeing the premiere of the new Bugs Bunny cartoon.

At one point Blago lived in Amsterdam, from where he regularly flew to London, where he met Polyana of the rap group Mellowbite. After moving to Moscow it was the Mellowbite party that introduced him closer to the emerging local rap culture. Then he personally observed the rise of Big Baby Tape and Platinum, which influenced his desire to create and promote his music to the masses.

Because Blago White doesn't know much of the rules and doesn't see it as a barrier to rap songwriting, his lines sound highly unusual. Three simple examples are "heart as golden as Neil Young's song," "meat, monsters out of the bolot," and "if I shoot, you're the driver."

He often gets the wrong endings in words - and damn, it's funny. Yes, it's illiterate and against all the rules, but does anyone obligate people, and especially creators, to follow them? Live music has been replaced by electronic music, acoustics have been replaced by amplifiers, and hand painting by digital art. Even the Russian language is gradually being recognized as susceptible to change thanks to the popularization of feminisms.

The thing about Blago White is that he strives to sound like a Russian - and this is exactly the opposite of what all the other rappers around here do, as they try their best to sound like Americans. Vladislav told that he's fascinated by folk expressions and writes them down in his notes, in order to insert them into his tracks. For example, the expression "Whose cow would moo" sounded in the joint with Soda Luv "KaZantip". Perhaps that's why his drivel sounds much more interesting than Obladaet's or OG Buda's.

What is the first thing to listen to?

If we talk about individual tracks in order to urgently understand the uniqueness of Blago White, we should start with "Blessed" - a psychedelic R&B record on the verge of claude of 2015 with trance-inducing vocals. Of course, the second one should include "Myasa" - the very Russian thrill with soul and very unusual lines. And for the bonus track "Plant", for which the rapper received respect from Slava Marlow.

As a bonus, I suggest you watch Blago's freestyle for Fast Food Music - it will help you fully appreciate how organic his English-language lines sound and how active his thrashing aura is.