Владимир Высоцкий - Vladimir Visotsky

To any Russian of any age, Vladimir Visotsky needs no introduction. The man was a legend. A brutal poet, a wizard of words and delivery, always lacing his political and social commentaries with street slang like a well versed criminal. Rough guttural voice ravished by stress, booze, drugs and smoke. Straight forward, with no topic spared or untouched during Communist times when most would think a dozen times before speaking privately, let alone internationally about the state of affairs, he lived a short life of a singer, actor, performer with most of it plagued by drink.

When I was a little kid growing up in Moscow, my father would often play Visotsky on full blast, singing along and playing the guitar, so I came to love his music at an early age, perhaps subconsciously fueling my love for hiphop as I got older. Visotsky's dark wit and humor mixed in with clever wordplay would make him one hell of a MC. In fact, he is often quoted and referenced throughout Russian hiphop. He died summer of 1980.

Last  year a movie was made about the last few years of his life, and apparently got poor reviews but that is irrelevant. I'm looking forward to seeing it. Below is the trailer and a few of my favorite tracks by Vladimir, I don't expect most to "get it" as it is quite an acquired taste, but I assure you, this dude fuckin tears it up and I listen to him often when I need a little pick me up or a reminder about priorities in life.

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