Holding onto Your Roots: Tatar-Language Rap in Post-Soviet Kazan

Abstract

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. In this article, we analyze the independent Tatar rap scene in two relevant contexts: the globalization of this musical culture and the post-Soviet nation-building efforts in the Republic of Tatarstan (Russian Federation). Having analyzed 29 in-depth biographical interviews with young rap scene participants and diary entries obtained in the course of a month-long participant observation, we conclude that the Tatar rap scene is a special case in Tatar urban youth culture, shaped by the younger generation of the Tatar-speaking intelligentsia (humanities graduates and creative professionals), and in opposition to both the cultural policy of Russification of the imperial center (i.e., Moscow) and the folklorized version of Soviet Tatar culture.