505 SB1 - Micro-genres: Lithuanian Hip Hop/Rap Research

Hip hop in Lithuania started in 1988, during the fall of the Soviet Union. At that time, more and more western culture and subculture began to reach Lithuanian, and for the youth the most important was the music. One of these subcultures was hiphop, and with it came the birth of the well known group 'G&G', later 'G&G Sindikatas'. At first the group had an amount of followers that could be counted within double digits, but as time went this number grew. This eventually led to what is known as the "first wave". There was a lot of youth that embraced hip hop, and with it adopted the street style and personality that came with it. On the streets came the first signs of graffiti, and break dancing.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

The Popular Front of Lithuania, called Sąjūdis ("Movement"), was founded in May 1988. On October 19, 1988, Gorbachev replaced Ringaudas Songaila, the "old guard" leader of the Communist Party of Lithuania, with the relatively liberal Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas. In October 1988 Brazauskas bowed to pressure from Sąjūdis and legalized the flying of the historic yellow-green-red flag of independent Lithuania, and in November 1988 passed a law making Lithuanian the country's official language.

In the March 1989 elections to the Congress of Peoples Deputies, 36 of the 42 deputies from Lithuania were candidates from the independent national movement Sąjūdis. This was the greatest victory for any national organization within the USSR and was a devastating revelation to the Lithuanian Communist Party of its growing unpopularity.

On December 7, 1989, the Communist Party of Lithuania under the leadership of Algirdas Brazauskas, split from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and abandoned its claim to have a constitutional "leading role" in politics. A smaller loyalist faction of the Communist Party, headed by hardliner Mykolas Burokevičius, was established and remained affiliated with the CPSU. However, Lithuania’s governing Communist Party was formally independent from Moscow's control – a first for Soviet Republics and a political earthquake that prompted Gorbachev to arrange a visit to Lithuania the following month in a futile attempt to bring the local party back under control. The following year, the Communist Party lost power altogether in multiparty parliamentary elections which had caused Vytautas Landsbergis to become the first non-Communist president of Lithuania since its forced incorporation into the USSR.

Gorbachev’s visit to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on January 11–13, 1990, provoked a pro-independence rally attended by an estimated 250,000 people.
On March 11, the newly elected parliament of the Lithuanian SSR elected Vytautas Landsbergis, the leader of Sąjūdis, as its chairman and proclaimed the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania, making Lithuania the first Soviet Republic to break away from the USSR. Moscow reacted with an economic blockade keeping the troops in Lithuania ostensibly "to secure the rights of ethnic Russians".


Hip Hop Artists in Lithuania

G&G Sindikatas
The group was born as 'G&G' in 1995, and later in 1998 joined with the group 'Sindikatas' to form 'G&G Sindikatas'. In 1999, they release their first album ''Tavo sielos vagiz (Soul thief)', and in 2001 they release their second album 'Gatves Lyga (Street League)', which took only a week to become 'gold' and later 'platinum'. Since then they have released many more albums, some of which had also gone gold, and have won many various hip hop awards. Their fan base continues to grow to this day, and they still perform and make music.

Lilas ir Innomine
The duet is fairly recent within the Lithuanian Hip Hop industry, formed in 2009. Like many hip hop/rap music artists, they write songs about their own experiences. 'Lilas' can be said to be a true patriot of the Lithuanian language, as writing songs in his mother tongue is a true pleasure and fulfilment for him. The duet has released three albums, 'POP' in 2012, 'Isgama (Degenerate)' in 2014 and 'Tu naktis (You are the night)' in 2015.

Tie geresni
Their music career started on March 24th, 2011. The group consists of 4 members, nicknames: Lt, Boost, Karpiz and ReWritable. All group members are somewhat similar but at the same time completely different, which creates and intriguing overall picture. Different rhyming, rapping and communication styles, hip hop culture and principal personalization, makes them fresh and popular within the Lithuanian hip hop scene.

Alekna
In 2012 was when the rapper Alekna reached popularity heights, due to social media and videos he posted on YouTube. A freestyle rap named 'Balkone (Balcony)' and rap song 'Man Patinka (I Like)', within which he rapped about his love for his home city of 'Kaunas', gathered millions of views. In 2014, he collaborated with rapper 'Mad Money' on the song ''Mi Casa Tu Casa", but since has been silent on the music scene.

'Tarp Zemes ir Dangaus' (Between Heaven and Earth) Film about Lithuanian Hip Hop/Rap

Quotes from Lithuanian rappers roughly translated from the film:

[On what is an MC]

"If you're a rapper you write text, but an MC is how you communicate that text, how you communicate with the crowd. MC stands for 'Master of the Crowd' or 'Master of the Ceremony'."

"An MC is a person with a microphone, it does not necessarily have to be a rapper."

"First of all it is a message, if you have nothing to say don't say anything. At first it can be a game, whilst you're still learning. But if you think you're a 'real MC', then you must have something to say."

"An MC should communicate with the world through its music."

"An MC is someone who has something to say, and knows how to do it."

"All that 'bling bling' rap, I don't think it's true rap. After all that, I believe people get the wrong impression about rap, about the hip hop culture."
"True rap is on the streets, its around us, its in the air, and not what the media shows us."
"All that hip hop with the 'bling', I don't believe to our culture it's acceptable or dear"
"Here [Lithuania] you can't rap about the 'bling' or how expensive your lifestyle is, because rap is not as popular or openly approved, so you have to rap about what is real."
"Anyone can rap, literally anyone, there are no limits."
"Just let them play their music on the radio, and let the public decide whether its shit or not, it's as simple as that."
" What happens with time is that the question of 'What is rap?' disappears, what's left is just you, and the way you express yourself."
"Rap to me is how I touch the world, and how I express my thoughts."
"Even though I am part of the world, I was and always will be, the label of 'rapper' or any other doesn't mean anything to me anymore, we should not emphasise labels, we should emphasise actions"
"Those who say 'hip hop is dead', don't know how to look for it."
"Rap is about emotion, feelings, experiences."
"Behind every rap text, there is person. I listen to his text, he listens to mine, and its a form of communication. Rap becomes like an antenna to express your thoughts with. It is not just music to me. It is more than that, it is the people, the culture, the community."
"Rap and hip hop always was and always will be, you just need to know how to find it."
"To understand 'underground rap', first of all I think you need to listen to a lot of it, so you can get used to it. Just like classical music, if you don't understand it, you won't listen to it."
"People are afraid to be open, they place themselves within some sort of boundaries, and what comes out of that is just a grey mass. They rap about what someone else has already rapped about, and are afraid to be different."
"Honesty, to me, is the most important trait of artistry. You shouldn't be afraid to open up, maybe even too much".
"People talk a lot, and what comes from it? Nothing. You need to show the love for your country through your actions, you need to do good things."
"Everyone needs to come up with something of their own."
"I feel the most purity and heartlessness in rap music, personally. Not pop or any other, cause even if the song is lets say about love, the emotion is still not the same as in rap."
"Everything moves circular, I've lived through 4 waves of hip hop music in Lithuania, and in each of them I saw hundreds of youth that pounded their chests and said that hip hop is their life. From those, only 2 or 3 remain, and that is good. That's a good number. All the rest where just part of the wave, which is equally as important, as through them did the hip hop culture spread."
"If you can't sing, rap. If you can't rap, listen. If you can't listen, read. If you can't read, speak. If you can't speak, write. If you can't write, think. If you can't think, swallow. If you can't swallow, criticise. If you can't criticise, ignore. If you can't ignore, inspire. If you can't inspire, relax. If you can't relax, sing. If you can't sing, rap. And if you can't do that either, than what is left?"




Sources:
http://kaunozinios.lt/titulinis/top-10-geriausiu-lietuvos-repo-grupiu-ir-atlikeju_95028.html (translated)
http://hip-hop.lt/kas-yra-hiphop/ (translated)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW6jO06aJpE (translated)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union#Lithuania_2