"Rap without the Bling"

I saw this article, and thought it was a pretty interesting angle on Georgia. Certainly one that I haven't covered in this blog.

Excuse me for copying in other people's articles instead of writing my own, but I'm so bogged down with reading and writing at school at the moment, that I have no mental space or heart inspiration to write. Nontheless, I'll keep posting a few things here and there until I get back to Georgia next summer for the second Monastery Tour! Now take a look at this funny article:


Rap without bling in Gori
Paul Rimple
Georgia Today

“Yo, whuss-up!” Kabu shouted. The audio technician at the foot of the stage pushed a button, the hip-hop beat filled the air and Kabu went into his routine, rapping his song to the standing room only crown at the Gori House of Culture for a variety show of pop singers, rappers and dancers.

Backstage, girls with notebooks were collecting autographs, phone numbers and mobile phone photos of their favorite starts. Shavi Printsi (“The Black Prince”) was in the corner offering shots of vodka to break the chill. It was colder than my ex-wife’s heart that Monday afternoon, and nothing was able to restore the numbness in my toes.

25 year-old West was by the window posing like a black gangsta for photos. Earlier, in the marshrutka, West never missed a chance to cross himself upon every church we passed.

“So West,” I said. “How did you get into rap if you don’t even speak English?”

“No Georgian rappers speak English,” he said. “It’s not important. We feel the music and sing about what we’re feeling.” Later, West performed his new song, “Rapper From Tbilisi,” but only after the adolescent dance troupe had finished their modern ballet number.

Out in the auditorium, children were waving their hands and singing the refrain to Kabu’s song – “…heroini cocktaili…” Boys were standing around next to the curtain at the back of the stage. One of them threw a firecracker at Kabu. He didn’t flinch, just kept shuckin’ and jiving.

“I like to send a positive message in my music,” claimed 30 year-old rapper Bedina. Bedina, who finished a five year sentence for weapons possession in 2001, considers himself to be an underground rapper – not as “pop” as the others. He performed a song from his latest album, “Letters From Prison.” The crowd went wild.

“Why do you like rap?” I asked a 12 year-old in a Cincinnati Reds baseball cap. He looked at me as if I had asked the stupidest question of the week. “Because,” he replied.

Georgia’s self-declared oldest rapper, the 35 year-old Shavi Printsi, is one of Georgia’s most popular too. His video, “Ra Ginda Gogo?” (What Do You Want Girl?) is currently a number one hit. In Gori, he performed with his girlfriend, dancer Mari Topuria, while a group of multi-colored boys break danced at the back of the stage. Shavi and Mari both teach hip hop dancing at a studio in Mtatsminda.

The organizers of the event provided nothing more than transportation. Nobody was paid to perform. While all the guys had the proper hip hop attire, I noticed a conspicuous absence of “bling.” With the exception of Kabu, everybody took public transportation to Gori.

“How do you guys make money?” I asked Bedina. Georgian radio does not pay royalties.

“Sometimes we make a little money at concerts and a little from record sales. That’s all.”

“This is our profession,” Shavi Printsi said. “We don’t do it for the money, we do it because it’s our life.”

After the show, we wended our way outside, where it was a hair warmer than inside. Then we climbed into a marshrutka and headed home, stopping at a market to buy two liters of local chacha. They may have replaced their chokhas for baggy pants and NBA tank tops, but they are still Georgians after all.